FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 456, 11 September 1928, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

NOW, ALL TOGETHER 7 “There is a rage this season for the ensemble. . .”—English fashion journal. Quite right. ‘‘The more we are ensemble the happier we’ll be.” HARD ON WANGANUI The next band contest is to be held at W r anganui early next year. More residents of the river city than ever before are planning to spend the summer out of town. # # ♦ HARD TO PLEASE A Thames tobacconist, who was yesterday examined in bankruptcy, attributed his failure to a fire on the premises. This is the first tobacconist we have beard of who has not been pleased to see bis stock going up in smoke. OUTRAGED DIGNITY The dignity of the New Zealand Rugby League has been outraged, and not without just reason. A Mr. Murray an Australian masseur, who travelled with the English team, has offered some scathing criticism of the League game in this country to the Australian Press. His position to judge may be doubted. He tells of deliberate fighting on the field, and of poor management, and declares that there are only four good League players in New Zealand. Otherwise there is nothing wrong with the game! The touring masseur has, however, praised New Zealand’s hospitality—off the field—-and we must be grateful for small mercies.

DON’T LOSE THEM At a Health Week campaign held in Australia recently the chief feature was an exhortation to children: “Take care of your teeth.” This sort of thing can be overdone, as anyone who has had his stolen from his. coat pocket while swimming can tell you. Then there Is the sad case of the old lady who locked hers In a trunk and lost the key. THE NEWLY RICH Stories of newly-rich men with more money than manners are plentiful. One of the best was told the other day by Lord Dewar, famous for his excellent yarns. It concerned one of the tribe who was showing a friend over his wonderful n6w house, and expatiating on its treasures. “This Louis Seize Mirror,” he remarked, “was once the property of Queen Marie Antoinette, and it cost me 10,000 guineas." “Beautiful!” exclaimed his friend rapturously; “but I say,” he went on, examining it closely, “what a pity it’s scratched.” “Yes, it is rather,” replied the other carelessly, and turning to his wife, added, “My dear, perhaps you’d better not let the children have any more diamonds to play with.”

ECCENTRIC An eccentric old man has just been discovered by story-hunting reporters in a remote part of the United States with apes as his only friends. The old man had been breeding the animals for 15 years, and seemed to be living in complete happiness. Pressmen were not greatly surprised to hear that the old man firmly believed in evolution. “I prefer the company of my apes to that of people in the cities,” he explained, when asked why he had sought solitude. » As the old man became a hermit 15 years ago, he could not have known the full force of spluttering jazz bands, mod era high life, and hooting battalions of automobiles. No doubt he sensed their approach.

BEHIND THE TIMES It is pleasant and satisfactory proof of the way in which some sorts of scientific mind often lag far behind the conclusions of general Intelligence to find Sir William Arbuthnot proclaiming in print that “such popular prejudice as still persists against canned foods in general must disappear when the scientific facts are mad’e known.” “Popular prejudice” against canned foods disappeared long ago; populace Includes canned foods in its dietary as a matter of course, and has done so for the best part of a generation. To tell the poor populace that “modern methods of canning have succeeded In preserving the vitamins unimpaired” is perhaps interesting, but certainly unproductive of any practical results. The populace decided long ago that it liked the taste of canned foods, and, having found by the rough-and-ready test of practical experience that few people died as a result of eating them, it took the tinned stuff to its bosom (or the slightly lower regions).