JOTTINGS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 65, 12 November 1914, Page 6

JOTTINGS.

The irrepressible Tommy wins battles makes names for scribblers of music hall songs, and now he has enriched French literature with the aphoristic cries, “Are we down-heart-ed P No!” The Boulogne correspondent of The Times tells us that the French troops have now adopted this as their own. As they swung past on their way to war they shouted: ‘Est ce qne nous avons de coeur brise?’ And as one man the regiment volleyed, ‘Non!’

“I am tired and old; I need a rest and want peace.” Thus years ago the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria addressed his troops at the army manoeuvres at Keszthely. If his Majesty lives till December next he will have been 66 years on the throne. The Emperor has another distinction. He is the only living Sovereign of Europe who has led his army in actual battle. This was at Santa Lucia, where he headed a cavalry change that turned the fortunes of the day in favor of the Austrians,

“God Save the King” has been sung upon more than one occasion in the New Zealand House of Parliament, but we have never read of the National Anthem being sung in the House of Commons until lately. The Church Times, commenting upon the prorogation of Parliament, and the King’s Speech in the House of Commons, says “A remarkable scene of enthusiasm followed the reading of the King’s Speech in the House of Commons. With a fine disregard of decorous precedent, Mr Will Crooks, the Labour member for Woolwich, asked if the National Anthem might be sung. The Deputy-Speaker, apparently unable to find chapter and verse To justify this novel proceeding, said nothing, whereupon Mr Crooks, cantor-wise, gave out the intonation. According to some witnesses he pitched the tune far too high, but if his head offended by the use of the falsetto voice his heart was true, and in the right place, and the other members of the House adopting a more suitable pitch, madt the rafters ring with their lusty rendering of ‘God Save the King.’ ”