FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 593, 20 February 1929, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

A NUPTIAL IDYLL A bride and bridegroom who appeared at the Police Court yesterday on drunkenness charges spent their wedding night in separate cells at the Police Station. Cupid must have dropped, asleep Forgetful of this happy pair Whom Fate, in angry freakishness. Forbade the blissful night to share. Dwelling in their cells apart The bride and bridegroom lie, The only link to hold them An oft-repeated sigh. They may have sipped the nectar cup, And sunk a dram qr two, But that was celebratory And should not have brought rue. Marriage often so is blessed With flagons passing round . . . And guests, o’ercome with spirit fumes, Sleep where they hit the ground. But here, a bride and gr.oom alone Gave up the wedding 'bells, And had instead a festive binge That led them to the cells. SOLOMON MODERNISED To bet is human, to win divine. BOOTS AND BOODLE A passenger on the wrecked ship Kanowna lost £ls and his boots. He still had his shirt, so the job could not have been done by a really skilful Australian crook. GAS IN ENGLAND ' There has been a great demand for gas in Great Britain during the winter. There will be plenty of that commodity to spare before June, when the General Election takes place. HANDSOME AUSTRALIANS The English Society of Arts has been told by a lecturer that the first 100,000 Australian troops sent overseas during the war was the hand-

somest body of men ever seen in the world. The L.O.M. wonders what comment would be made about that by some of the “hard shot” Anzacs. THE PRICE OF VOTES With its usual love for statistics, America has found that each vote cast In last year’s presidential election cost 30 cents. There were 36,000,000 votes, and the combined campaign expenses of the Democrats and Republicans amounted to 11,618,000 dollars. In New Zealand there is not the same candour about party expenditure, so it is not possible to determine how much a vote costs in this country.

* * STATUE TO COOK

A campaign to raise funds for the purpose of erecting a statue to Captain Cook has been launched in Christchurch. A gift of £SOO has already been made, and it is hoped that additional financial arrangements will be made without difficulty. It is odd that Cook has not yet been honoured with a statue in this country already. There is a monument on the shores of Gisborne Harbour marking the spot where he first set foot in New Zealand, and there is another at Ship’s Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound, where his vessel was careened, but Cook himself has not been honoured. Impetus has been given to the Christchurch movement through the discovery that a great-grand-daughter of the explorer is living in the city.

HANGING A FINE ART There has been trouble concerning the fee that is claimed by a New Orleans hangman. He first of all agreed to accept 275 dollars for a double job, and when there was a dispute over that, he doubled the fee. It is likely that his extortionate demands will have to be met, otherwise the executions will not take place. Complaint that hangmen have not received the tributes they deserve is made in an enlightening treatise, “A Handbook on Hanging,” published in England last year. The author, Charles Duff, says that hanging should be considered as a fine art. “We may,” he says, “assume that it is a line art, and not a base mechanical trade. Is not a man an artist who can painlessly and without brutality dispatch another man? There is a certain delicacy about the operation which needs a ready eye, a swift-working brain, cool and calculating and a cleverness which is to be found only in the realms of the great arts. The architect constructs a building from a series of outlines, the musician constructs a symphony from a series of tones; but our hangmen by one pull of a lever accomplishes more than either.”