FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 823, 18 November 1929, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.” THE SLEEPING BEAUTIES “It is surprising how unconventional the business world looks and sounds in night attire." —News item from the Commerce train. By day they go abroad in garments dignified and staid. Their pants disclose a pin stripe, their coats are edged with braid, And in their 'pawt-Ued sanctums they’re a most majestic sight, But wait until you see them in the watches of the night. A girdle fit fur goddesses surrounds them at the waist, Their sleeping suits exhibit every evidence of taste. Pyjama clad the bull becomes so gay and debonair, And frolics like a schoolboy with his ancient foe, the bear. The voice that rules the stock exchange with grim, staccato bark, Is never so forbidding when you hear it after dark. That even gods have feet of clay the pious bard deplores, But here’s the final infamy—Big Business even SNORES ! THE FIREMAN'S STORY “W.P.H.”: Dear D.0.M.: Perhaps even musicians have occasional spasms of clairvoyance, auto-suggestion, or whatever you would call it that leads people to show an inkling of coming events. I recently helped to salvage some furniture from a burning house in one of the suburbs. There were only two pieces of music on the piano. One of them was the descriptive fantasia, “Fire, Fire,” and the other was a march entitled. “Blaze Away.” COMPLEX The Auckland Headmasters’ Association is still grappling with the fear that talking pictures may influence the speech of school children. If the danger is any more pronounced with the talkies than it is with what someone recently called "the dumbios,” it would still seem that children’s speech is the least likely to be endangered. The average youngster doesn’t see nearly as much of the pictures as adults do. School children are fortunate it’ they are permitted the luxury of pictures once a week. That means that they are under the influence of the talkies for two hours a week, against the "0-odd hours in which the . school teaching profession has opportunity to direct their habits of speech along the proper paths. If the headmasters continue to express alarm they will be suspected of exhibiting an inferiority complex. FAME 0H FOKTUXE The reign of best sellers and popular box-office favourites is a fleeting thing, but. while it lasts there is a fortune in it for the authors of the bright idea. The author of “Journey’s End” has enjoyed a supreme honour, he has been called to the Royal box during a performance witnessed by the King and Queen. Beside that he is collecting royalties running into four figures every week. Yet in a few more months “Journey’s End” will be nothing but a memory. “All Quiet on the Western Front” is already going the way of “Jew Suss” and “The Bridge of San Luis Rey.” “Jew Suss,” we notice, is to he dramatised, and brought out here with Mr. Maurice Moscovitch in the lead. An Impressive performance may be expected from Mr. Moscovitch, but some picturesque memories induce speculation as to what will be omitted from “Jew Suss” to make It acceptable to fastidious audiences. LAST LETTER* The mail notices convey the depressing information that tomorrow's mail per R.M.M.S. Aorangi is the last Home mail that will arrive by Christmas. This means a burst of letter writing that might have been accomplished with much better effect had it been spread serenely over a period allowing ample time for formal composition and appropriate introspection. No doubt there were pens scratching busily in half the homes of Auckland last night, and may be they will lie going stronglj- again tonight. If they- are business letters, of course, they are written in the masterful way of dictation followed by typing. But with casual citizens the technique of letter writing is an uncertain process. Some write all thenletters, and then, having done so, address all their envelopes. After that the sorting- out process begins. Others address all ihe envelopes first, and seal them one by one as the letters for each are completed. But there is a quainter method still, observed, perhaps, by a limited number. This is to begin the evening’s entertainment by stamping the blank envelope. Then, if anything goes wrong when the address is being written, an adjournment to the tea kettle and the steaming-off of the stamp is required. This takes so long that when it is finished there is a good excuse for not writing the letters.