FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 412, 21 July 1928, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

SILHOUETTES OF THE SESSION No. 7: Mr. T. Burnett Fears a growing debt. ‘ 1 / enter my small plea For strict economy .” USELESS EFFORT If a tank as big as the Dilworth Building were erected in Auckland the drain of the city supply, we are told, would empty it twice in every three days. That being the case it seems hardly worth while to build it. SEASONAL DEPRESSION Prices for eggs in the City Market continue to decline, yesterday’s quotation being twopence lower than Thursday’s. Well, of course, the open season for election eggs is still several months off. BOON TO WIVES The instrument invented at Leeds for measuring the diameter of wool fibre should prove a boon to wives. No longer need there be any doubt as to the ownership of that tell-tale hair on John’s coat. MIND UNDER MATTER Balancing a heavy book on the head is still held to he the best of all deportment exercises and is utilised by Parisian costumieres in training mannequins. Now where is the man who said the Encyclopaedia Britannica was a useless work? PROFIT —MINUS Gd. An enterprising New Plymouth resident recently heard there was money in supplying the Christchurch market with pungas, so he arranged to cut and send down a supply to Canterbury. The price they brought was 5s each, and the cost turned out to be 5s 6d. After looking at the question from all angles the Taranaki man has come to the conclusion that he was indulging in an unprofitable enterprise and the business has been wound up. LEAP YEAR FERVOUR Of course, we are nearly forgetting that 1928 is Leap Year. Amorous, ardent maidens on the everlasting quest might not have, hut they scarcely represent the average. Just to remind everyone of this year of importance, the L.O.M. has dug a golf story from his scrap book. No, it is not about that nearly-but-not-quite putt. A man was speaking with a spinster on the links one day. A gruff voice in the offing barked: “Fore! ” “Duck,” the man shouted to the spinster. “Darling,” she breathed and flew toward him. FEWER TIPS People, including merry revellers, are • not so liberal in “tipping” as in pre-war days, a London writer asserts. .Is it the reaction of the Great War? But the fact remains that the average person is now not as careful with money. It goes, not Into the pockets of expectant porters and waiters, but to the spender’s enjoyment. “The price for doormen’s jobs in front of cafes and night clubs has slumped,” adds the London writer. “Among commissionaires it is said that a doorman’s post which had to be bought for over £I,OOO a few years ago. now can be secured for less than half that amount.”

TOO MUCH “Is love enough?” asks an English woman writer. When we read more of the English woman’s remarks we were inclined to the opinion that, truly, it was more than enough. Rising to the pinnacles of Romance, she says: “I wonder if love is enough for the adventurous boy and girl, who, with tiny means, embark upon the unknown seas of life together in the frail cockle-shell of a home on the instalment system, with their fortune in the Bank of Love.” Very nice, and all that sort of thing, but it really savours of an extremely rough voyage—or its effects.

COUNTERFEIT STRENGTH

In recent years the tradition of the strong silent man has become so generally accepted that we are apt to attribute these characteristics to all great men of the past. Although we have no means of knowing it is fairly certain, by ancient rumour, that Hannibal, Caesar and Charlemagne, for example, were not the silent imperturbable beings of our imagination. Away with this “strong silent” myth. Naturally it is only a weakling who shows the effect of every passing emotion, but many men who are admired as Stoics, probably were too stupid to be anything else. Inability to feel a deep emotion is more usually the result of a shallow mind than it is indicative of strength. Nelson, Napoleon, even Wellington himself, all had their softer moments —but are they any the less popular heroes for that?