WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 277, 17 August 1921, Page 4

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM (By. T.D.H.) The liner Saxon with General Smut# aboard is reported to bo on fire. Apparently a case of where there's emuts there’s fire. According' to the "Columbia Record” the world has ceased to Quarrel over what is right and gone to fighting over what is left. \ — ” Uncle Sam is asking Congress for a sum equal to .£lOOO a day for the first two months for the expenses of the American delegation to the Disarmament Conference. And in bone-dry America too! Boys of adventurous disposition used to go to sea. Now they go to the movies. The way to bring down hospital costs is not to underpay nurses, but to pay attention to Truby King. Emergency exits from aeroplanes are a new departure, but the Safety and Economy Committee of the Royal Aernautical Society urges that they should be made compulsory to . enable the rapid discharge of passengers after a crash. —It should also give nervous passengers a feeling of confidence t«> know that should the machine catch fire at any time they can leave instantly by the fire-escape. In a certain Wellington hillside suburb the other day four men were laboriously removing a piano from a house built on a section that ran down to the street in almost perpendicular lines. The operation called for extreme nicety of footwork, steadiness, and judgment. However, grade, corners, and steps were gradually overcome, and a clear carry to the waiting express on the road was in,sight. Four perspiring and panting men lowered the piano to the ground for a breather. One noticed my interest. "Mister,” he said feelingly, "a man wot lives on these hills should play a. mouth-organ!” It has been alleged by the imaginative correspondent of an American newspaper that New Zealand roads, particulaily those in the North Island, are the despair of motorists on account of frequent and unexpected changes surface being caused bv earth-shocks. > * • every Wellington motorist knows, is qu!te misleading. The roads are shocking, not shocked.

Overheard in the Tearooms: ''She was too wee'. . ■ • The whole show was frightfully swank. . . • Myrtle looked just de vie’.” 'General chorus: , silk open work-organdie! - Crepe de chine!”— "Simply too taely! led garters!” —“Iho dinkiest ha . •> el Yet e there are people who wonder at men preferring other places of refreshment. Inscriptions are difficult things to write. In a North Country village in England a cross was erected as a monument to the men who had fallent inhe war. and the committee, at a loss for.a fitting inscription, wrote to the Specta tor ” asking for suggestions. 1«« were many responses, but most ofthem uninspired and uninspiring. A fine one to ray mind was the following: How went the day? they died and never knew; But,'well or ill, England, they died for you. And even finer still is this quatrain from Ralph Waldo Emerson: So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, „ v When Duty whispers low iou must!” The youth replies, ‘ I can. Mv ladv readers - will be interested to learn that in America raisins are tong ■sold as a beauty food. Raisins, '■« are told "are rich in iron content; and it is iron in the blood that tangs the bloom of youth to womens and ( children’s cheeks. English writers, following the recent departure from London of Melba, have been reviving stories of the grea women ringers of the past. Among the greatest ’of these was Maria Felicia Mallbran, whose singing career was short.but bn liant. It became a custom for her ca riagc io be dragged to her hotel by admirers rather than by horses in the sual wav. In Malibran’s days it was fashion of great .to inrproviso cadenzas— just as Bach and Handel i p nlaces in their compositions For improvised endenzas-and Mallbran was extraordinarily clever and facile in this department. Malibian s Lithe, also an operatic singer, was a triant evmi to his gifted daughter One ? ngh duriim a performance of Otello, eh® saw him as the Moor coming towards her with a real instead of the ‘property dae-'er in his hand. In her fnght she risked out: "Ratherl Father! For tte love, of God. do not kill me. Her father saw that ho had picked up the wrong weapon, and so a possible tragedy was averted. Abie writes: “Two of my countrymen were commercial travellers. One wanted to get to Blankville before the other, so he hired all the vehicles m Dashville, the one-horse town from which one goes t Blankville Lo and 'behold, when ho got lo Blankville there was Isaac in the one St ‘‘Hev!” yelled Mose.Jhe schemer, “How’did' you get here?” “Ah'” winked Isaac, with a X4OO order in his pocket, "I took it the hearse. All Hio other vagons vas engaged. H Mose blanched. "Good God!” he muttered, "I took off my hat io you on th road!”

Dr Bumpus. I am informed, hM greatlv altered his views of the new political party since Mrs. Parkhani s • nouncement that “Beans breakfast will probably be made a plank in , platform. Major Fitzurse states that tho doctor is a strong believer m this diet Throughout the thirty years of Ms' married life the late Mrs Bumpus infallibly gave him beans at breakfast, and made a point of providing a double supply after his convivial evenings at tho club. Although since Mrs. Bumpus s death the doctor has had pease instead, he fails to see why other householdshould escape a course of treatment; teat has made him impervious to the minor disasters of life. The Major adds that in view of tho Doctor’s altered op.nmn an influential movement is on foot to induce him to offer himself as n. esnebdate ter tho chairmanship of the local branch of the new party. It is felt that if the party can get behind it the tam* powerful influence that has carried to success the graving dock, the war memorial. and SO many other useful works its future will be equally secure. I asked the Major how the Doctor stood on tho rest of the party 6 platform. I have the best grounds, ho replied, for bating that Dr. Bumpus is prepared to swallow any set of political principles provided’ho can get tho beans. This breadth of mind alone assures his political future”

THE JURY’S ASPECT. Never been n trouble, son? Oti.lv once, you say. Took a five pound note for fun, Gave it back next day ? Usually a hardened crack Isn’t up to that; Letting stolon goods go book To the owner’s flat.— You’re discharged! Read it down, reader, and then read the Supremo Court news!