FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 973, 16 May 1930, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

By

A TEARFUL CURE A correspondent has recommended that, as a cure for influenza and kindred complaints, raw onions should be sliced and laid on the chest and throat. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” The proverb is hoary but wise ; While frequently said is, ‘‘Early to bed,” With its Tweedledee, “Early to rise.” Hints lengthy and terse, in prose and in verse, There are dozens that we could suggest: But here’s one that’s new—a cure for the ’flu : Slice an onion to shreds on your chest I Yet, methinks it is plain that the catch in the game Bies in finding the will to endure For the patient will groan as he suffers alone: _ tt “The disease is no worse than its cure ! M.E. * * * BAN ON SMOKING

The creditors of bankrupt Christchurch residents are saddled with a rew sorrow. Smoking at the meetings presided over by the official assignee lias been forbidden, although, as a concession, those present may retire during a special adjournment if the call of My Lady Nicotine proves too strong. The decision is not a happy one. Tobacco is a solace, and at few times is a man more in need of solace than when he is facing the prospect of losing money. Creditors at a bankruptcy meeting are seldom a cheerful band, and anything that, can be done to promote a spirit of toleration and benevolence should commend itself to a tactful chairman. ‘■WHAT WE HAVE . . _

Incidentally this is not the flrst time that the office of the official assignee in Christchurch has been the scene of a more or less dramatic pronouncement. Several years ago a group of newspaper men assembled to report what promised to become a “meaty” case. The promise was fulfilled, and the scribes scribbled industriously until their unusual interest began to alarm the meeting. The creditors and assignee conferred together, after which the chairman demanded that the Press should retire. Moreover, he said, the botes taken up to that stage m the proceedings were to be destroyed. Incensed at the unwarranted nature of the demand the reporters, in their turn, conferred, after which the senior among them rose and said firmly: “Gentlemen, what we have we hold.” At the conclusion of this quite impressively-delivered utterance, the reporters filed out. That evening the bankruptcy case was a front-page story. JUXTAPOSITION Quaint and intriguing are the effects produced occasionally by the juxtaposition of catchy lines on newspaper b:ll-b6ards, despite the efforts made by their writers to avoid an apparent relationship of subjects. Last evening a Happy coincidence occurred. Many boards displayed the announcement, “Sir Joseph Ward Resigns,” beneath which was the item, “Twenty Years Too Soon.” What mattered it that the second line referred to an official opinion of Auckland’s proposed harbour bridge? Staunch Liberals eyed the bills with keen satisfaction, agreeing, wholeheartedly with the seeming opinion. THE REST CURE

In comparison with the tiresome spectacle of those much-advertised prize-fights where a fierce foul brings the whole thing to an end inside the first few minutes, there may be offered the much greater value for money of the wrestling contest in w-hich Zbyszko recently took part in Buffalo, TJ.S.A. The affair was a draw; each wrestler had one fall to his credit when the referee brought the business to an end because the theatre was compelled to close by law at 11 p.m. With memories of Haekenschmidt and some of his opponents in mind one can almost see that prostrate and prolonged encounter —the two massive forms sprawling on the mat, the long, long periods of intensive pawing and preparation, the sudden, tumultuous but unavailing eruption into heaving activity, and then the soothing descent into the status quo, with more pauses and more pawing. It seems a great shame that they were stopped at eleven. They ought to have been allowed to grovel on there, engrossed in their own problems of avoirdupois, until the last paying spectator had crept, yawning, home to bed —and even the last cleaner, having

collected the last programme and adjusted the last dust-cover, had advanced to the front row of the silent stalls -with the warning whisper “I'm going ’ome now. gentlemen—you might lock up when you’ve done and leave the key under the mat in th? box office.”