FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 742, 15 August 1929, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.” ANOTHER NEW INDUSTRY The business of salving cigarette ends from the streets of Paris has become a recognised industry. When Villon led his vagabonds in Paris And winter breezes blew, Chill penury was then inclined to harrass That impecunious crew. Perforce the needy rabble had to stick up Some traveller for his cash; But now they prowl the boulevards and pick up What I reject as trash. Those crumpled fragments, whose aroma fragrant With gutter perfumes blends, Serve a divinity which for the vagrant Shapes our discarded ends. McSHOVEL. ... THE DAXGER SIGN Unusual concern for the welfare of motorists is being exhibited by the opponents of tlie scheme to establish a brewery at Otahuhu. The comment of one churchman, that such an establishment “would constitute a serious danger to people using the Great South Road,” suggests that if the worst happens Mr. Champtaloup, of the A.A.A., should be called In. Mr. Champtaloup would undoubtedly enjoy putting up the warning: “Beware! Dangerous Brewery Round Next Bend.” ... A TOOTH TOR A TOOTH? Just as the road to Hell is said to be paved with good intentions, the approaches to school dental clinics might almost be paved with ivory, bone, or whatever it is that is extracted from the jaws of school children. The Hon. A. J. Stallworthy revealed at Levin yesterday that last year the school dental clinics performed 76,555 extractions. In a lump sum that sounds a terrible lot, but we dare say that the figures are more formidable than the fact. It is a pity these discarded teeth, like elephant tusks, and used cars, have not some re-sale value. They would help to balance the Budget. POULTRY PANIC It appears from a recent discussion by Auckland poultry farmers that there is nothing a hen dislikes so much as an airplane, not simply for the fact that it is an airplane per se, but because the ingenious breeders who have turned. Wyandottes and Orpingtons into laying machines have failed to provide them with sufficient grey matter to discriminate between a harmless Moth and condors, vultures, hawks or such like predatory birds. It is difficult to see how the hens may be persuaded that they are needlessly alarmed, and that their “false moults” and other outward signs of dismay are all in vain. There was a time when this same problem as it applied to motorcars exercised the minds of owners of cows. Everyone save the very young knows how cows used to prop their tails up like a flag pole and go frisking all over the paddocks at the sight or sound of a motor-car. But the cows know better now. Perhaps in the fullness of time the hens, too, will learn that airmen have more cause to fear fowlyards than fowlyards have to fear airmen. And so another of life’s great problems will settle itself. LARGE SHEETS AKD SMALL It is a constant wail with newspaper sub-editors and compositors that the “formes” in which the type is arranged for printing are not elastic. But at the same time this gentle reminder to “Indignant Subscriber,” whose letter has been held over, serves to temper the edge of his wrath. Formes are not elastic, but they vary much in size. Some newspapers are large and banner-like. New Zealand was once the moral and spiritual home of the unwieldy news-sheet Nowadays thoughtful publishers like to he kind to their subscribers,, so give them something handier, and overseas the tendency has even been carried to the opposite extreme, the newspaper ot “tabloid” size. Recently in New York a well-known tabloid decided to enlarge its sheet to practically the largest possible size. Thus it went from one extreme to the other. In explanation the editor cited several reasons, and added by way of jest that a workman had once written to him: “Your newspaper is beautiful and interesting, and I like it very much, but it is too small to wrap my lunch in.” The veil of mystery surrounding certain newspaper circulations was thus torn from the editor’s eyes. But on the appearance of the enlarged tabloid this did not prevent the tabloidesque New York “World” from front-paging: l TABLOID ALTERS FORM A LUNCH WRAPPER NOW