LIFE’S LITTLE WANTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 27 June 1928, Page 5

LIFE’S LITTLE WANTS.

'.V ■ - Jbispersing a Crowd. A Scotsman, .wishing: to join the police force in Birmingham, was asked l»y the inspector: “ AVJhat would you do to disperse a crowd? “ Weel,” replied | ihe Scot,. “I dinna ken what ye wad 1 dae in Birmingham, trot if‘l were in "Aberdeen, I’d pass Jound the hat.” Enlightened, -t:' “'How was it VouV father’s building burned down. ” ' ,V; ' ‘‘A light in Einstein’s' store started it.” •. • • v “Oil light, gas light,' or electric JLightf’p'. “Fafllcr said that it was an Israelite. ” • * In Self-Defence.. \ A recent of Greymouth went to ■procure license for shooting duck. ■While in the office he remarked to another man standing by him that it was rumoured that an open season for pigeons was going to be declared this year. In all perfect gravity came the reply: “Oh, no! There will be no open ■ season. The only time you can shoot. a self-defence. If a pigeon Attacks you, then it is quite justifiable <to shoot it.” * * * * Money Makes Money. New York’s' oldest savings account is -said to be -number 738 of the Bank of . 1819; £1 was added the following year, -an further deposit has ever been nrnade. The original bank book, held by the--descendant of the depositor, recently • -showed approximately £SOO in accumulated interest. * * • Exit CTword Trousers. Fashionable young men, says an English paper, have decreed that Oxford . -trousers must no longer be worn. The -decision, apparently, was recently reached, and enquiries at London clothiers -.showed that few, if any, are now being scld. “.Young men have decided that bags of 24in. width are neither smart mor comfortable,” said the manager of firm. “This is all to the good, for ■it means that our young men will be anore neatly dressed.” • * * * Thrills. A /girl who risks her life every night iof the week is said to be attracting of morbid -people to a London restaurant. She and her partner, who Are known as Balliol and Merton, have brought acrobatic dancing to such a pitch of danger that in many people’s -opinion the authorities ought to stop ■iihe performance. Briefly, what happens is that the girl poses on the ibal--cony of the restaurant and then launches herself downwards and outwards Ip. such a way that her feet shoot over ■his shoulders and lock themselves round the back partner’s head as he stands on floor some 25 feet below. This action 'alone saves her from breaking her neck on the floor. As it is, her ‘head goes within'five inches of the aground in this performance. . u», * * * The>Haixcomb.

The first appearance of something resembling a comb is said, to have been .-as far baek as the early stone period ,’of the world’s existence. ' This is what •we arc told 'by a ■German'professor who has given much thought and study to -the History of the useful but very common -toilet necessity. In those early -days the first comb appears to have been fashioned of tooth-like splinters ■of oak placed side by side and secured together by an aspbalt-likc mixture -which was known in the stone age. One wonders who first thought of making it —whether it was due to a cave man or :a cave woman after a fight with tangled ihair. Later the sharpened tips of -ama.il yew seem to have been'woven togetrfis l , points together and •outwards, combwise, a method which 'probably answered in those days when ’hairdressing was in its infancy. Later •still they were fashioned of wood, with [ two rows of teeth, like what are now Jknown as tooth-combs, only on a larg--er-scale, *hid nearly all wider- than ‘their length. About the sixth centurj.•and later the comb was used in the celebration of High Mass.' An ivory comb I -which was buried in the stone coffin of I :St. Cuthbert, the great North Country, I saint, at the end of the seventh ee.n----l -tury was probably an episcopal. comb. I These were usually of ivory, sometimes I -elaborately carved and even jewelled.- [ 3ji England many were confiscated and I -destroyed during the Reformation, their I -existence being only vouched for by I -church inventories., The method of I -employment seems to have been for the l .biahop celebrant to sit upon a footI stool, a towel about his neck, while the I -deacon and sub-deacon combed bis hair. I IProbably, as in the defining of vestures, I -some form, of araycr was used. The I modern not doing anything | very new wMmthey wield their dainty I pocket in public. In the days I .of GharleS XL, when huge wigs were ■worn, it became the custom for gcntleluien of fashion to comb their perukes ■iu company;