A
very merry Christmas
from the world's
largest. producer of officially certified chronometers
"THE ROLEX CROWN
SYMBOL OF TRUST"
ROLEX
A landmark in the history of Time measurement
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, - 1957,
BE WARNED...
HAVE # friend who has just
decided to rent an old vicarage. There are many rooms to the vicarage and, stripped of furniture and covered with dust, each looks big enough to encompass a small rodeo or a moderate-sized touring circus.
"Carpets and curtains we must have," saya my friend, "and on the closest estimate this will cost £210 48. Gd., allowing for curtain runners เร carpet tacks."
Out of his accumulated savings this will leave him 16s. 6d. for tumlare,
"But," he explains, "we will pick up few things from the auction sales."
Poor, deluded fool, c.
Wigs... for mice
¡NCE, walking into an nuction
+
I
OC win a small, round, completely
bald man who was on the way out. His eyes blazing with gratified cupidity, he was clutch- ing seven curly-haired wigs to his bosom.
1 lunese am well so I drew hi
gently to one side."
"I wouldn't worry about belag bald." I said, "but If 1 did want to cover a headful of all with would somebody else's hair
not buy wigs at a public aue- tion. The chances ure that they will not f
"Don't be silly, they are not for me," he explained. "They are for my while mice. They will make wonderful linings for their nests."
That is how it happens at auction sales, for no ore can resist a bargain. Go to a sale determined to buy a handy table for the kitchen upd, as likely as 110t, you will go home with the sump of a 1032 Ausila 7 under the fond illusion that you can bird make it into a decorative bath for the garden. Why? Be cause it was going cheap.
Up, up, up
Wilmot ceeded
Marlar
Within minutes. they will be bidding madiu.
Blue Spot
...you can't resist Fi
the auction urge
by
WILFRED FIENBURGH
-M.P.
"Chairs?" she said brightly and Innescatly,
sec
A scientific Knife cleaner and illarpener patented by Mr Littleworth, of Birming ham in 1807.
Ist
An
"Choles, Madam," he said, "clthough I am almos! sorry lo
them go. This the ninth time they have bren on offer, and yours is the first bid we have had"
"Bid?" She queried, inno
"I didn't bid. I' cent again. was just scratching my nose."
sense of values disappears. Beds get knocked down for 51. and ebony three-piece bedroom He smiled the weary sintie of suites, inlat with brass, go for a man who has heard it all the price of two packets of before in Ave; different langu- cigarettes.
GECE.
everyone
Motto embroidered framed in glle saying: "East West Home's Desi."
Iron lace
ND his living room will be with A completely furnished
A
garden chairs and tables made from what appears to be iron
Ince.
·
be
WHEN I first went into Pur-
What is more, he will that I
Al this singe everyone with "Was R necessary, Madam,"
the he said, "In scratching your happy. To complaints from his must have a deck beiliting my red acquisitive blood in new dignity. So I went to en auction in Beckenham, intending veins goes quietly borserk. Sud- nose, to wave your handbag friends, who cannot alt in com-
denly
is determined and your umbrella and clima fort when they visit, to threats to buy one for a song. My song, to go home with a bargain on the back of the man in front from his wife, or murmurs from
of you?"
his chlidren, he will have one however, did not reach into the and some people 'do, upper income brackets, so wher
Best of all in the countryside answer. 40 the first desk went for
where I live, however, ace the
"It was." he will say, "a guineas, and the second for 60,
auction sales of country houses, bargain. I couldn't let it go at with two lithographs of Queari Victoria at her Coronation thrown in, I was in despair.
Bargains
I do not bid. 1 go. Just to the price," THE quiet men who stand at
and listen to the neighbourly com- the back of the room Then up came Lot 72. i was bid from marked catalogues ments of the local folic. a mahogany sidebourd thrown with a flicker of a finger or the together, from the look of it, by lift of an eyelash get bargain!
give it house "Wouldn't
they
looking patronisingly at the squire's | **treasures.
a couple of maniacal fretsaw and sell them at twice the price room, enthusiasts under the personal in junk shops. direction of the architect who
designed the Kremlin.
05.
do grey-haired, gentle-
But it had, I decided on reflec women with protruding feath tion, its points. If I took off the who rescil at six times the price mirror at the back, on which in antique shops. two painted awons floated on a
Then I laugh quietly because. ding madly for a velour cover- within minutes they will be bid- ed, moth-eaten easy chair, or a IC- in clock whose works were moved by the fourth duise buy a bedroom chair. She 1007,
The rest of us don't. Like sea of bulrushes, I could make a scmeone I know who wanted to desk out of it.
I started the bidding with tentative 2s. 6d. and Anally bought it in a frenzy of excite- ment for 20 10s. The auctioneer looked and about it, but his clerk I gave gazed at me fondly as him a cheque. "Hope to see you again," he said, "often,"
It cost me more than a pound
a
wanted one with a curved back.
Within days. I know, they red plush seat and cabriole will be boasting to visitors that taw "It has been in the family for legs and suddenly, she lust the thing.
years. We have always meant Only it had a straight back, to send it to the auction sales- ahorachair sedt, splay lege, and but somehow, we do not liko to
part with it.” there were six of IT.
Still, she decided, if she re-
odd job mun
And all of this will happen to
to get it home In furniture covered the seats, replaced the my friend who proposes to rent to the vicarage. Blithely, he will van, and then we found that we legs, put an
what his many could not get it up the stars, work on the back and gave Ave bargain-hunt at the sales. But But I was not defeated... to her sister for Chrisimas, all I know with
rooms will be furnished. N would be well.
Scon he will posses
One marble-topped mode,
Out of it we got 450 bundles
of mahogany firewood.
When she had bid for it Fuccessfully zhe had qualms, And if you have not already She wanted, she decided, to stay So triod to light a fre with friends with her sister. ahogany firewood I do not ad before the sale ended, and the time for settlement came, she vise you to start now.
made for the door.
The trouble about auctions is that after being closeted in the sale Fuom for an hour, one's
The King of Whiskies
For your
MERRY CHRISTMAS
& HAPPY NEW YEAR DAYS THE CHAMPAGNE & METROPOLE RESTAURANTS NICHT CLUBS have pleasure in announcing a very special attraction as from 21st December, 1957 to 4th January 1958 in featuring the Popular
REGAN BROTHERS (TOMMY, JEFF & DEREK)
frash from their successful European Tour -- who will entertain you with laughter and songs ably supported by that GOLDEN VOICE singer PAT LYNNE METROPOLE REST:
2 shows nightly 10:00 p.m.
CHAMPAGNE REST:
10:15 p.m. 1:10 am. -- 1:25 am
11:30 p.m.
1 show nightly 11:00 p.m. - SPECIAL DINNER & DANCE :
on
X'mas Eva & New Year's Eve
OPEN UNTIL 3:00 A.M. Abundant beautiful gifts
BOOK YOUR TABLE EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT.
Métropole Restaurant King's Road, North Point,
Hongkon 2433.
This: 76472
Champagne Restaurant Kimberley Road, Kowloon, Tals: 60001 67000,
Sole APVEN DODWELL, &. 00, LIB
CARDEN
"Madame," sold the clerk, has forgotten her chairs."
com-
Two small metal statues of lithe young men holding the reins of prancing horeca.
One spotted pot dog with an Inane smile.
MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN
GUNS!
THEY
IT'S TOPP -AND HES NOT ALONE.
FOUND
TODD!
JOHNNY HAZARD
WE CAN'T USE THE
· COPTER OVER THAT
MOUNTAIN ROAD, KITTY! WE'L-SMASH
OUR MOTORS AGAINST THE MOUNTAINSIDE!
THEN WHAT'S
· THIS CRANE,,
GIMMICK JOHNNY
HOLD YOUR FIRE FORA
MINUTE!
POCKET CARTOON by OSBERT LANCASTER
"Now this year, children, think we shall probably get a better response if We Three Kings of Orient aren't in
TODD-YOURE GURROUNDED! YOU HAVEN'T A CHANCE. DROP YOUR GUNS, AND SURRENDER
*TO US!
THOSE THUGS ARE ARNED AND HAVE KISMET AS HOSTAGE? OUR- ONLY CHANCE TO GET THEM 19 TO GET KISMET AWAY FROM EMA THIS MAY DO ITĮ SKOLINER, DIDN'T
THEY SEND ME AN OPERATOR ?
Obteleable
RADIOS
at all leading radio daniars Sole Distributors and Service:
ISANG FOOK PIANO CO. Marina House, Hong Kong. AMATEUR RADIO LABORATORY 602, Nathen Road, Kowleon.,
SOLE AGENTS : MELCHERS & CO.
By Leo Falk and Phil Davis
YEAH? I'VE GOT GLORIA HERE! YOU} SURRENDER TO ME-OR ILL FINISH HER)
I'M IT, MAR. HAZARD... BEST CRANE MAN IN THE SALVAGE
CKEN!
CONTINUED
By Frank Robbins
THEN I'LL PRIVE, DALISH YOU'RE GOING TO DO THE
FANCIEST CRANIKS YOU VE “EVER PONELİ.
There's Mare
Magic in
FRY'S AANGURITES 4
They Delicious
are
AUSTIN!
THE CAR
for your
HOME LEAVE