“THE SPOTLIGHT.”

Putaruru Press, Volume II, Issue 47, 11 September 1924, Page 3

“THE SPOTLIGHT.”

FINANCE AND FUNNY FACES. A funny face is a good financial proposition. I quote the following from the cables of the last few days: —“ Mr. Jack Root, representing the Mack Sennet Film Comedies, has been searching England for a man with a funny face. He has decided that ‘ Wee Georgie ’ Harris, who appeared in ‘ Rockets ’ in Australia in the latter part of last year, is the man he needs. Mr. Root says the new ‘ Charlie Chaplin ’ wall be a millionaire in a few years.”—One sometimes hears about ** the Law of Compensation,” but one does not often see such satisfactory evidence of its fulfilment as this. It recalls the old fable of “The Ugly Duckling.” A ray of hope will enter the mind of many a man on reading the above cable. After all there may be some place where he can be successful in a monetary way. P.A. PIFFLE. The above letters stand for “ Press (not ‘ Political ’) Association,” and they are set down after reading the cabled reports in last week’s papers of the arrival of the Prince of Wales in New York. Following a sartorial description of the Royal Visitor, which presents him to the highly edified (or “ Eddyfied ”) reader in something of the style of a tailor’s dummy, the cable goes on to state:—

“ Miss Lenore Cahill, of St. Louis, was the only girl, outside of his own party, with whom the Prince danced on the Berengaria. Miss Cahill gave her impressions of the heir to the British throne. She said: * I him. Who could help it? He dances very well. He holds you just so; not too timidly, but not too distantly either.” She added that the Prince was not only an excellent dancer, but had the art of maintaining an interesting conversation without sacrificing any of the rhythm of the dance. Miss Cahill was dressed entirely in bottle green, and her hair was not bodded.” Apart from the vacuous references to her princely partners terpsichorean qualities, it is the banality of the final sentence that is so astonishing. Why the fact that a girl from St. Louis was wearing bottle green should be held of sufficient importance to occupy the lines is hard to understand. And even more so is that of it being flashed all round the world that the lady’s hair was not bobbed. “ Spot ” doesn’t think that the average New Zealander woold lose very much sleep, even if the seven seas were to resound with the startling intelligence that the young person was bald! Is all the stuff, both concerning this world and ethers, that one reads in the paper nowadays, the effect of “ a silly season ” which has, in its turn, sprang out of the aftermath of the Great War. We were told when that superconflict was raging that its consummation “ would make the world safe for Democracy.” It seems, however, that it has made it diverting instead. “ THE BALMY AIR.”

The globe trotter was gazing out of the carriage window of one of our express trains while it was passing through some dairying land, and the cows were grazing in the paddocks. “ Thank God,” ejaculated the globetrotter, “ those cows have got their heads dow-n.” Everybody stared and wondered what the old wanderer meant, so he explained: “ You see I have just come from Australia, and there the cows have got their heads up in the air, for there is no grass, and they have to live on what they can sniff from God’s good air.”— “ Spot ” once knew a man who “ owing to the exigencies of his pecuniary position ” had to act just like those Australian cows, every time he passed a public house. THE GOOD OLD SPRING.

September’s here ! And one can reasonably conclude that spring is also. Various dates are given for the advent of spring—some placing it as early as the first of August, others again putting it forward to the equinox, i.e., towards the end of this month. Be it as it may, spring is in the air, in spite of any mere arbitrary date on the calendar. Let us take heart then and sing in spirit, at least, the words that that arch-optimist, Browning, puts into the mouth of Pippa:— “ The year ’s at the spring, And day ’s at the morn; Morning ’s at seven, The hill-side ’s dew-pearled; The lark ’s on the wing; The snail ’s on the thorn; God ’s in his heaven; All’s right "with the world!” “ Pippa passes ” and has passed. Let her song, however, dwell with us even when we are not too certain that God’s in his heaven, but are pretty sure that all is not right with the world. For probably Pippa, in the last two lines, sang of what the world will "*l)6 when the years have passed away. —“ SPOT.”