FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 989, 4 June 1930, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By "THE LOOK-OUT MAN." THE ‘'YANKEE” SHOUT In the Police Court recently a Scotsman confessed that he and a fellow-countryman indulged in a "Yankee” shout; that is, each paid for his own refreshment. I guess It was a Yankee shout, For I paid for my drink and he paid for his (You know what our sense of economy is>; So I meant and he meant, by common agreement, To make it a Yankee shout. Weel, weet. 'Twas a Yankee shout. We thought it quite fair that each paid for his own (With both of us quite as drrr-y as a bone), Our thrift to persuade us, the circumstance made us Decide on a Yankee shout. PAKITI. . e « 1855—1930 Journalists throughout the world gasped with astonishment yesterday when they read that the London “Daily Chronicle,” one of the leading newspapers In the metropolis, had ceased publication with the suddenness of an extinguished lantern. Before this London possessed 13 morning dailies of a strictly news type, so the "Daily Chronicle” staff has cause for belief in the superstition of unlucky numbers. The now extinot newspaper was established in 1855, the year in which the "Daily Telegraph” appeared. Dallies with a still longer record are the “Morning Post,” which dates from 1772, "The Times” (1786), the “Morning Advertiser” (1794), the “Evening Standard” (1827), and the “Daily News” (1846). The "Daily Chronicle” was a progressive, influential journal carrying a large volume of advertising and its absorption by the "Daily News” is obviously a political move.

... A FAMOUS SCOOP Among the qualities which distinguished the “Daily Chronicle” was that of courage. In 1909 its: staff of special writers included one Gibbs, now Sir Philip Gibbs. The reporter was assigned to meet and interview Dr. Frederic Cook, who claimed to have reached the North Pole. He did so, but disbelieved the explorer’s story and discredited it in the columns of the “Chronicle.” Subsequently Gibbs was vindicated and Cook officially exposed, but, at the time, vituperation was hurled at the reporter by the impostor’s friends and admirers. The late W. T. Stead, the veteran journalist, who was a victim of the Titanic disaster, was among Cook’s warmest and blindest supporters. Said Stead to Gibbs, with that crushing superiority which is age’s weapon against youth; “You have ruined yourself, which does not matter much; but you have ruined the ‘Daily Chronicle,’ and that matters a great deal.” Little did the veteran realise that Gibbs’s messages to the “Chronicle” constituted one of the greatest scoops in newspaper history. * * • ■ BULLS AND BOMBS Few will disapprove of the vigorous tactics resorted to by members of the S.P.C.A. in France, who attempted to put a stop to a bull-fight, thus enraging a bloodthirsty audience in the tcwn of Melun. One could not imagine the rather conservative New Zealand members of this most excellent organisation leaping into a bullinfested arena, linking arms to hem in the picadors, throwing smoke bombs and engaging in lusty combat with the police; but It is a far cry from Zealandia to Europe, and the French temperament is not a placid one. Though they tailed to achieve their object, the protesters deserve the cabled congratulations of S.P.C.A. colleagues in all parts of the world, for bull-fighting is an unpleasant pastime —much more cruel and unsportsmanlike than, say, fox-hunting, steerbaiting and kangaroo-boxing. ... OVER THE FALLS Professional daredevils have one infallible stand-by—Niagara Falls. As a setting for foolhardiness the tumbling waste of water dividing the United. States and Canada never fails to attract public attention. When people become tired of airplane acrobatics, submarine escapes from manacles, skyscraper dancing, and speed-boat leaping, the acrobats, escapees, daneers and leapers can journey joyfully to Niagara Falls, there to win either fame or (if a long boathook is handy), a decent burial. Blondin, famous wire-walker, began the business by balancing his way from bank to bank above the falls. Then someone tried going over the falls in a wooden barrel. The barrel broke. Quite undaunted, others attempted the feat. One man made a huge rubber ball, sealed himself in it, and bounced through the maelstrom. He emerged broken but alive. According to the cables one William Hill, encased in a steel barrel, has now braved the falls for the second time. Which proves conclusively ‘hat sheer, downright lunacy is incurabl*.