THE CHINA MAIL SPECIAL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT, DECEMBER 19, 1940.
Some Queer Xmas Eves
“D'ynu ventise, David,” I said, per caps, coloured streamers and
Ainging my pack disgustedly to the ground "that it'. Christmas Eve?"
David, my partner on the dia- mond digg
ari South Africa, wiped the sweat Trom be Sun- buint face "And what it it is.
Do you he phed frame olly expect me to invasive a rentimen-
tal pagan and scg carois beneath # sprig of miscletor*** And he re- sumed he diggie in that hard, sun-baked earth for the diamonds that never maternised
It was the ply 1 eght have expected ropa bazar Dnd was a true warders At the same tung, I wa temning [ realise TADAN much the aumentos not the carth hate Chi
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a lavish array of foods and wines. I was wearing a false nose --a wise thing to do on the Continent where noses are apt to be pulled --and dancing with an ash-blonde girl from Prague who defcated all my efforts to speak to her in French and German.
table
Seated at an adjoining was a young Irishman who wrote Safirle verse, with an English girl. They had become engaged during the course of their sojourn at St Moritz.
07
There they both were Chrimas Eve, looking dismally. I unhappy. The news of fir be- trothal bad been a twenty-four hours affair. Now, even the wait- ets knew it, and treated them
with excessive deference. The Irishman occasionally blew a naper whistle with a sort of de- Kant enjoyment. Neither of them danced.
W.J. Makin
Fri.
12 add med back has double felt hat and stared at me
Why Metroden
Run
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lak.
it
Just begi Eve, repeated tritely.
Christmas
"And how do you suggest wo shell pay for these sentimental luxuries a Christmas dinner and
old Greek's a dance
tin shanty?"
4 lingered the pouch of my belt, "What The only diamond we've found in this shell-hole,” he ex- claimed.
"Why not?"
David snorted. Then be grin-
ned.
It was when the orchestra began playing a dan- gerously senti- mental waltz that the English girl looked up to find
young mono- led Austrian bowing before her
Gnadiges fraulein! he said Suavely "I would be charmed if you will pull a cracker with me And, gipe pusly, he held before her one of those paper crackers that decorate most Christmas tables
A moon-like expression of de- light shone in the fac of the English girl, "How delightful of you," she said. And stretching out her hand she seized one end of the cracker.
A sharp tug. an absurd "pop" and the ruins of the cracker were in their hands.
"There is a motto inside." she cried childishly. "You must read it."
"Yes, why not?" he mused. "It's bled in the paper wreckage. such a miserable specimen that I doubt whether we'll even get a fiver for It. Still, old Georgeu
discovered
The Austrian bowed, and fum- He the slip of paper. smoothed it, and read slowly aloud might buy it or give us a drink mouthing the trite words:
in English. I can still hear him and a dance in exchange."
"And a Christmas dinner,” r insisted.
now
Twenty-four hours previously, David and had joined in a rushi for diamond claims over this stretch of South African veld that looked like a battlefield. Battered motor-cars, Cape carts and ox-wagons added to the gen- eral effect of an army in retreat. A few mounted policemen rode the debris, a hand occasionally straying to pistol holster when any of the diggers became violent. At the same time a naked Zulu stalked about the diggings vigor- ously ringing a bell. He carried an ink-crawled poster jn one hand. The invitation tional: --Come and dance at Georgeu's- Women, Music and Champagne Georgeu, after much twisting of his black moustaches, gave us exactly five pounds for the rough little pebble that we called a dia- mond. David and I began reck- lessly to spend that five pounds.
Three sausages apiece, a lump of mashed potatoes, and, as a special afterthought, a tin of green peas such was our Christmas dinner.
was sensa-
David called loudly for cham- pagne. With a smirk that would have dene eredit to the head wait- er of the Cafe de Paris, in Monte Carlo, Georgeu, the Greek, pro- duced the first bottle with the al- acrity of a conjurer. He charged us two pounds for the bottle.
"Roses are red, violets are blue," Sugar is sweet, and so are you!"
But by this time the young Irishman was
on his feet. His
in his
eyes blazed. He had the specially decorated menu folded hand. With a melodramatic ges- ture he struck the Austrian across the face with it, causing the mono- cle to fall.
The Austrian stooped in reen- ver his monocle. When he fixed it firmly against his eye he was pale, He faced the Irishman.
"I think we shall have some- thing to discuss-after the dance," he said with quiet deliberation, Then superbly, he turned to the English girl. "Our waltz, I think he murmured.
It was a thoroughly terrified English girl who was eventually led back to the little table. The Austrian bowed her to a seat and then proffered his cigarette-case to the Irishman,
"Perhaps, mein herr," he said, "you would like to smoke а cigarette in the next room, hein?”
They stalked out of the dining- room together.
The next morning they set out early to climb a snow-peak to- gether-complete with ice-axes.
It must have been nearly mid- night when I saw the two young men again, standing in the door- way. They were laughing and joking with each other. The best of friends. And the object of their amusement? A wealthy American was presenting the girl with plateful of caviare sandwiches, while she gazed adoringly into his eyes.
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Queer Christmas Eve. I can well remember the dance that fol- Ived. When the dancing began, dirgers kicked off their heavy veldt-schoen and began lumber- ing about the floor, in their shoes.
And the women? Georgeu, - the I remember, top, a Christmas Greek, had kept his word, They Eve among the Zulus. Under a sky A were there. Strapping · Boér girls stretched ilke blue silk I watched w caring white kampies beneath the:-Zùlu, impts the fighting men which bunched their flaxen hair with shields and asseglas, stamp There were also the strange wo- their way forward, in battle form- men who haunt every diamond ation, Across a huge plain : they camp-girls, heavily lip-sticked, came; - enormous black crescent who had been in the chorus of moons roaring their war songs: come Johannesburg revue or else..... Again and again they stamped been-barmaids in Rhodesia or the their bare black-feet in the dust. East Coast.
* so that the ground trembled, The - A différents and much more lu-.. Zulu maidens; im all their naked xurious atmosphere, two years beauty, shrilled in chorus and Pater, St. Moritz in the snow sea- urged the fighters to even greater son. A dining-room-filled with a deeds: healthy, snow-tonned: crowd, pa-
Slowly and remorselessly, the black crescent moons came on- wards. The chanting was. solemn and deliberate. Then, with "one huge_roar, the 'bluck flood charg- ed, one crescent moon after an- other.
And, by a miracle of discipline, if stopped dead, within a yard of the group of whites watching.
Quer Christmas Eves
Fent candles ---
jeb
than onďany clones
כן }.
Cuned China E
-77ksthan Kami
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X'MAS
CHEAP
21
SALE
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FROM
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TABLE AND WALL - LAMPS
FROM
COMPLETE WITH SHADES
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$7 to $16
DON'T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY OF
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132, Nathan Rd., Kowloon.