DAY BY DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15289, 16 July 1923, Page 4

DAY BY DAY.

Madness in the search on the part of the frivolous-mind-

My Masters 'tis a Mad World.

ed after a new sensation, a new amusement, or a

competition seems to be pretty fairly distributed. The people at Trieste who organised or took part in an "anti-sleep marathon" —there is nothing like fine phraseology—deserve to know sleeplessness when they thus trifle with "Nature's soft-nurse." They may yet have cause t'o hanker for mandragora and the drowsy syrups. Bands played lullabies while the competition was in progress. The issue was not altogether flattering to the bands. Round the earth is-flashed the news that two young men who kept awake for ninety-eight hours shared the glorious crown of victory. They take their places in the seats of the mighty with the heroes or heroines of endurance contests in dancing, pianoplaying, club-swinging, and various other gracious and important activities. Is It a sign of the times that the quantitative rather than the qualitatiw test seems to be making an increasing appeal? Dean Inge once rebuked an author who boasted of tho fact that he had written over sixty novels, and he hinted that tho fellow-instead of being praised should be imprisoned. Examples of ill-regulated industry are so common that they scarcely attract notice. There are the infectious persons who are bent upon imposing new tests of endurance in the form of cheerfulness. "The Non-Stoppers" are the subject of an amusing page in Punch. Here are depicted the Peckham mother who rocked her baby continuously for forty-eight hours without nourishment; the young lady of Brixton w-ho tried on 950 hats in one shopping day without making a purchase; and the young gentleman who smoked five thousand and one gaspers using only a single match. These fictitious characters cannot bo said to have surpassed the folly of those who at Trieste have made war upon "great Nature's second course." There is, however, the germ of a great idea in the news from America of a "washing-up" record. Miss Susie Hetlock, of Philadelphia, has just "washed up" for 31 hours without stopping 1