FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1013, 2 July 1930, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN

rouriCA r, crqss-ta i.k Mr. Stanley Baldwin in a recent speech: “Mr. Lloyd Georges candi- | dates smelt, but these (Rothermere's j and Beaverbrpok’s) will stink. We have been told the gloves are off. If they are we shall see who has dirty hands.” Mr. Lloyd George m reply: Mr. | Baldwin’s language was not merely j offensive, but was coarse and vulgar. ! Mr. Baldwip has always expressed a I preference for the society of pigs. “Oh Mr. Gallagher, alias Liberal, Here is something that will make you tear ; Sir: Ton smell of Fleet Street ink. Ami your henchmen —well, they stink. While your hands beneath their gloves may not be clean!” "Oh Mr. Tory, alias Slieen. Just you ram this in your i»ipe and s nout it there: Your offensive porcine view Is both coarso and vulgar, too . . ’ "You are angry, Mr. Gallagher “ABSOLUTELY, Mr. Sheen!” .1 FOG TEA FEET Any man who rises before dawn these mornings, sprints in the nude down a foggy road, and plunges boldly into a river (not with any thought of, notoriety or boasting tramcar talk, i mark you, but surreptitiously, and for j liis own physical pleasure) deserves a j spartan’s reward rather than a majus- | t rate’s admonition. However, “the j lore’s the lore,” as Sarah Jane puts i it, and one cannot criticise the roadi man at Whatawhata for calling upon [ a constable to arrest the naked Maori I who loomed out of the mist on a lonely i road. The constable. probablysaid: “Whata-whata’s this?” The Maori ! said he was going for a bathe and had regarded the fog blanket as sufficieu: I covering. Having the feelings of an | ordinary, shivering mortal, the con- ! stable more than likely thought ll’.e fellhw was mad and arrested him oa the spot. It was an ignominious ending to the'bravest deed of the month. Saturday ypnrr.s Aucklanders as a whole are particularly generous. This is proved by the success of the Commercial Travellers' cash-and-clothes drive which, on Saturday produced a most encouraging result in money and garments. But there are exceptions to every rule, and one or two canvassers were obliged to swallow the righteous indignation that rose within. them when they called at certain houses. Evidently the publicity given to the “drive” had the effect, in these cases, of forewarning rather than forearming the householders, and when the travellers knocked at their doors, they knocked in vain. Breakfast odours and smoking chimneys were proof of habitation, but the doors did not budge. “A pair of trousers, a bundle of oddments and one-and-sixnence.” reported one collector sadly as lie reached the top of a certain suburban j street. Fortunately his was not a. | common experience. TEETH AYD FSPEECffES An atmosphere more unhappy than j cordial appears to have gathered in Timaru as a result of the match between Britain and South Canterbury. Seemingly the game was a rough one. and not ' over-well controlled. But despite published criticism of the British manner of play and editorial reference in a local newspaper, it would appear that the boot was not always on the same foot. Witness the marks of teeth on the arm of one British forward. Furthermore, the attitude of the referee clearly did not please the visitors, for one of them, Sobey, administered a cutting snub by proposing the toast of the man-with-the-wliistle at the dinner on Saturday evening in an almost, truculently formal • way. It is possible that the British team may have become in-, censed upon encountering unexpected resistance, but the fact remains that its previous record in New Zealand does not support the suggestion. Until or unless more is heard on the subject, South Canterbury must be likened to the proud Irish father who hailed his son in the ranks of marching men and shouted: “There goes I Paddy, the only man in step!” ! THERE LIVES A POET ! This year Italy is preparing a picturesque programme in honour of the ! bi-millenary of Virgil, wbo was born in 70 B.C. Mantua, as is fitting, claims the loveliest means. At the gates of the town is to be opened a park containing every flower and plant named in Virgil’s works. On an earlier occasion the Mantuans. called on an English poet to help them with a tribute. This time they will perhaps forbear, since English poets are no longer Virgilian in aim or style. But it is well to recall that Tennyson responded with those lines to the “wielder of the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man” which have been deemed his own best title to'the rank of pupil. The Government i of Signor Mussolini, who knows what j is due to his country’s fame, will strike a commemorative medal.