FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 603, 4 March 1929, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

"THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

' SELF-PRESERVATION | “Though there are three strong parties in the House,” said the Prime Minister at Gisborne on Saturday, "all have common sense, and none of them wants another General Election in a hurry.” A comfortable place is Parliament — Good billiards, and a splendid library. Further, there is a fine establishment Presided over by one Bellamy. Here, whether hale and hearty or inAll ice can wish is to survive our term. Note, who from this sequestered sanctuary, Would stake his fortune on the fickle mob I Better to languish in obscurity And give Sir Joe a chance to do his job. Birds in the bush, though clad in plumage grand, Are not a patch on sparrows in the hand. Should hasty temper or ill-chosen spite Threaten to burst our amicable pact, Our party diplomats will put it right By exercising courtesy and tact. What t This connivance is beyond the fence f Be natural, sir. It’s only common — T. TOHEROA. TAKIXG BILK Charged at the court on Saturday ! with stealing a dress, a man named I Silk, who was sentenced to a month's imprisonment, pleaded that he was drunk at the time. Possibly the dress, too, was shot silk. i-V EXT HD SI AST A fire in Sydney caused £60,000 worth of damage to property owned by Mr. H. J. Solomon, who is visiting New Zealand. It is to be hoped that this misfortune will not cause Mr. Solomon, who arrived in Auckland last Tuesday, and is fishing at Tokaanu, to modify his opinion that New Zealand is the : ideal place for a holiday. COXO DUS IPX These serials! In a gaol at Pittsburgh, U.S., one Paul Jawarski, con- . detuned to die, read a serial story. The ! ■ next and last instalment was scheduled I ito appear after his execution. At his request an advance copy of the instalment was sent him by the publishers. Jawarski finished the story before his execution, and said: “It’s the end for me, too.” ON THE TURF Though deplorable from the sporting j viewpoint, the demonstration at the | Melbourne cricket ground on Saturday-1 has its amusing light. There was the j readiness of the Englishmen to sit on | the grass. Evidently they are fond of j the Australian Turf. Tired of cricket, i they might have agreed to carry on the match in another form; for instance. ; by a game of “soldiers” with stalks of Dandelion. Or they might have j searched for four-leaved clovers, or made daisy-chains, or even whiled away ! the time with “Tinker Tailor.” These ; pastimes, of course, might not be j practicable, if the grass were mown j smooth; we can only hope, in the j interests of the idle cricketers, that j the Melbourne cricket ground is somethink like the lower slopes of Albert Park.

! PRODIGIES 1 Though little may be said about his death except in the overseas tennis journals, the late M. Lenglen, sire of the mercurial Suzanne, really established a ? Y° C A in tennis. As an exponent ot the Catch-’em’young” theory, with his daughter as his subject, he was supreme. Dividing the court up into squares, and marking with white paper the square that was to be the target of the shot, he trained the girl to a pitch of accuracy never nreviousiy known in a woman player, and rarely, if ever, in a man. Suzanne's physique and agility perhaps even her temperament—helped in the task; but it was Papa Lenglen who deserved mose of the credit. Bobby Jones, the golfer, started when he was seven. He is another example of the successful doctrine. But sometimes this theorv of specialisation, from youth does "not appeal to the subject. If a boy from the age of seven on were to be trained in potting goals and making feint passes, a greater than Cooke or Benny Osier might arise among footballers. An Auckland All Black of former years reared a family with this in mind. On a crucial birthday he took his hopeful to a toy-shop, and proffered him a football, with a scarlet train as a thin alternative. To his horror, the infant fastened on to the train, while dreams of a super-footballer faded from the perceptions of the stricken parent.