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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.
SPARTON
RADIO
"Rodied Hinkort Home”
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1932.
DAY BY DAY
HOWEVER RICH OR ELEVATED, A WANTING TO OUR IMPERFECT FOR NAMELERS SOMETHING 18 ALWAYS
TUNE-Horace.
The P. and 0.5.1. iidderpore, from Shanghai, is due here at noon
morrow,
+
to
A dance for Bervice men will be held in the weat lounge of the Euro- pean Y.M.C.A., Kowloon, at 0 pm. uto-night.
The Peninsula Hotel advertless that as the sixth floor in bolag ro- served for St. Androw's Ball on November 25, tho usual dinnor danco will not take place.
ARE WE LOSING
OUR LAUGHTER?
By "SENTINEL"
PHILOSOPHIC STUDENT of jabsquoxiously and full of blom- A
human nature assured me phious and unpkisidious congra-` the other day that Englishmen are tulation"
"It has come to this," complain-
suro either to the direct vote of the people or to the verdict of n second election-the Government of the day having the choice bo- tween the alternatives. Such a Chamber might be instituted by direct popular.olection, although the multiplicity of elections might not be good for democracy, and It would be difeult to reconcile n directly-elected House to a sub ordinate position. Thus the iden was advanced by Professor Hob. house that, as an alternative, the Chamber might be elected on proportional system by the House of Commons Itself, its members re- taining their seats for two Parlia- ments, To bridge over the change, half of the Chamber for the existing Parliament might, it was suggested, be elected by the existing House of Lords, and their representatives retiring at the end of Parliament would leave the next House of Commons, and Sparton Model 16AW.
every future House, with one-half A deluxe Multi-Wave Receiver of the Chamber to elect. The in SPARTON cabinet of striking merit of this scheme was that beauty. At a turn of the Band the Second Chamber would then Selector and Control Knob, this reflect in equal proportions the marvellous instrument is instant existing and the last House of ly adapted for either the long
the balance be- wave or the world spanning short Commons, and wave .reception as desired. Atween parties should therefore be powerful 12 tube Superhetero-fairly hold. Such an Upper House dyne with Automatic Volume would have ample power of secur-9, 1938. His Excellency has very gusts of laughter which purge the line, a laugh in an intellectual Control, Tone and Static Control, Phono Pick-up Jack, Band Selector Switch, and all the finest SPARTON features. Height 44 inches. Width 26 inches. Depth 12 inches. Weight 70 pounds.
Demonstrations & Sales.
Tel. 27806. Morning Post Building. Distributors:-
THE HONGKONG HOTEL GARAGE.
The
Thongkong Telegraph
ing reasonable amendments to measures which came before it, and would most likely be careful to exercise moderation in press- ing its viewa.
When we come down to bed- rock, however, these matters of
IDEAL RADIO SERVICES form are of secondary importance. As Professor Hobson himself has we need in these expressed it, matters less of the fanatics of sectarianism and more of the unifying mind. Our reformera must learn to rely less on the ad- vertising value of immediate success, and more on the deeper but less striking changes of practice or of feeling, to think less of catching votes and more of convincing opinion. We need a fuller co-operation among thone of genuine democratle feeling, by whatever name they are labelled. and more agreement as to the | order of reform. Given this, there is every reason to hope and be- lieve that English constitutional changes can be devised along lines adapted to the real needs of the times, whatever they may be.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1932.
HOUSE OF LORDS
REFORM
losing the faculty of humour. Wo no longer produce original jesta ed the philosopher I have been or appreciate them, he insisted, quoting, "that wo, must now de- and what Hobbes called the "sud-pend on America for a supply of den glory" of laughter is far less original humour." Certainly the frequent than it was twenty or American humorist has added to oven ten years ago. With the ex-the gaiety of this nation in the cuption of Mr. Wodehouse, who is further and nearer past. Mark. merely the Iterary equivalent of Twain, for example, belongs as some knowledge of English and The only time I ever met him, on. knock-about low comedian with much to us as to his compatriots.
American slang (his criticfam, not one of his infrequent visits to this mine) wo have not given the Eng. country, he confessed to feeling will join her son, Governor General morriment for a whole generation. Ing too much damp acenery."
Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Senior, Ush-speaking world a master of a little depressed, owing to "soc- But Theodore Roosevelt, in Manila on There have been no successors to he becamo livellor In the course January 2, 1983. In a cable received Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll of conversation, and quoted an by the Governor General ho is ad- and W. S. Gilbert, who were the amusing remark by his wife vised that his mother to salling from descendants of Mother Goose, and, (which I have clean forgotten) Seattle on December 10,
like her, could create elemental adding: “And I don't suppose she nonsense-the real nonsense which has made half-a-dozen "jokes in A wedding of interest to the Chi-resembles muafe in that it has no her whole life."" Being married beso community was solemnised at the
to a world's fester must make for Beriousness. Union Church, Kowloon, an Satur- meaning outside itself. day afternoon, when Mr. Paul Au and Miss Moo Yin Pang were married by It is true that tile volumes of the Rev. Dr. E. L. Allen. The bride humorous verse
C. G. Leland, the Inventor of often appear as United States, where ho has been for flers of Mr. Punch's School, who "Barty" where: groom recently returned from the Christmas approached. The vorsi- Hans Breitmann and his immortal
several yenra.
may perhaps be described as Sir De gompany fighted mit dable- Owen Sentinn's pupils, are always
legg His Excellency the Chancellor will virtuosi in their way. But, evan Ti de constable made 'em stop preside at the next congregation of with the help of clever illustra was another benefactor to all those the Hongkong University, which will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, January torn, do they elicit these loud for whom, to adapt Blake's famous kindly agreed to preside at the open mind of melancholy? As for the thing. I would not advocate a ing ceremony of the Fung Ping Shan comte rhymes for children, which Tariff on foreign-made humour Library at 4.30 p.m. on Wednesday, are prepared for the Christmas which would exclude the joyoua December 14, 1982,
trade in gift-books, they never jestings of such American exports, seem to catch on in the nursery-oven though it might improve the The speaker at the Rotary Club except as materials for building financial status of Stephen Loa- tiffin to-morrow will be Rotarian palaces or prisons for the family cock, manifestly Mark Twain's Walter Brown, M.A., BSc., who will cat.
successor, and other Canadian speak on "A Trip to Samoa." After
humorists.
• 糖 •
*
a full discusalon at the last meeting They never attain the popularity it was decided by majority vote to of Mother Goose's Barber, bay
Bosides, Canada has held her hold future meetings in Gloucester Building, beginning with Tuesday,ber, shave a pig," or her lament-own as a purveyor of original November 22. A motion was carried able legend of Dr. Foster's journey. humour ever since Judge Halibur by acclamation that 3 letter be And for children of all ages, from ton created "Sam Slick" with his addressed to Mesura. Lane, Crawford eight to eighty, the cunningly wooden nutmegs, now universally. Ltd, thanking them for the excellent wrought light verse of to-day is accepted as the typical Yankee service they had rendered to the Club never as mirth-provoking as Lear's inventor of "notiens" made to sell. since its forination.
Old Man of Thermopylae who And in the late W. II, Drummond, never did anything properly, or who caused the French habitant the proposal of Gilbert's Captain to tell us all about himself in his Reece to the Httle old mother of own quaint broken English, she his Bosun:
has given us something more than And does it want a wedding an "opposite number" to Leland-
ring?
one of those rare humorists, in truth, who seem to have grown up
fruition.
It was a tempting Ickio sing,
The health bulletin for Eastern ports for the week ended November 12. shows the following cases of infectious diseases and deaths there from-Plague, Beirut 2 cases, Ran- goon one case, Colombo 2 casos one death. Cholera, Bombay eno спес
(I never look at the accompany-naturally out of the kindly sofi, one death. Calcutta 28 cases 3 3 deaths. Small-pox, Alexandria, 6 cases 3 ing picture without emitting like a tree blossoming deaths, Baghdad 3 cases, Basrah 29 Audden hoot of laughter) or any There is a line in his description cases 13 deaths, Bombay 12 cases 3 of Lewis Carroll's essays in word of the sudden arrival of spring deaths, Calcutta 10 cases 5 deaths, creation, which is the very essence in the Laurentian land: Madras 38 cases 13 deaths, Nagapa of nonsense verge. iam one death, Rangoon ono case, Tuticorin 3 cases ore death, Saigon one case one death, and Canton 13
CABES.
*
•
*
And everyt'ing crazy all over de place, which is always running in The greatest of these three good-my mind, when the dark dank days humorista was Edward Lear, and of winter are about to depart. I was surprised to find him loft out of "Great Victorians,” though| Nor would I exclude by menus Although not a burning ques
Then he turned to England, famous plabrows as well as the no-brows fiscal Cerberus would find them well aware that the modern stee-jof ad valorem import duties (our tion at the moment, House of
as a country which has given do not care for his stuff. Though difficult indeed to compute) such Lords reform is destined to ro-
asylum to political exiles. The he did not hit upon the portman-recently-published provocations to ceive considerable attention in
Labour government was in power. teuu iden (that was Lewis Carroll'e nughter from the United States "Hard discovery) he is unrivalled as as The Specialist" and the relatively near future. AL-
But Mr. Clyne, refused to let word-juggler. He was the equal Lines." Ogden Nash, the author though figuring in party pro- A Man Without a Country.
Trotsky go to England. Recently of Byron and Browning in the of the last-named book, is one of
the his horlth became so bad that in making of triple rhymes, as in the the few vesifiers with grammes for some years, past, the The march of the years and the)
desperation he applied to the gov-|
following example:
common sense required for writing issue has remained largely dor- growth of the Bolshevist move-
There was an old Lady of Win-real nonsctise. I find his dell ernment of Czecho-Slovakia for mant, due in great measure tament from a radical theory to a
chelsen
berately false rhymes as amusing matters of greater urgency and recognisable form of government, permission to take the waters at
Who said, If you needle or pinjat times as Lear's. Thus in his
shall sec.
"Hymn to the Sun and Myself," moment demunding consideration. have not lessened foreign fears of Pistyan Spa in Slovakia, The Czech
Is trick of coupling a serious the young man who is celebrating In any event, the problemi has not
Lenin, ruled Russia after the Re-Trotsky had almost given up in de-word with an absurd Invention, as his arrival at the age of 27% and dominated
In "quite galoobious and genteel," congratulating himself on being politics since the volution.
opair, he suddenly found that affects me as would the sight of privileged to be alive and do some The recent action of powers of the Upper Chamber Czecho-Slovakia in refusing admit him as a temporary guest and of Lords with a green toy-balloon to five, is gind to think he has been was prepared to have an Archbishop entering the House of the work of the world from nine were considerably restricted and tance to Trotsky added yet another he salled last week for Marsellies. on a string. And who but ho"naturaller and naturaller" with
modified by the Parliament Act of
1911 to anything like the extent that it did before the passing of that enactment.
the once-dynamic man who, with;
to the list of countries that have
cabinet finally refused and when
Denmark
somewhere.
Bong.
Un
Ho sometimes produces spoof aphorisms such as:
A good way to forget to-day's
sorrows
Is by thinking hard about to-
morrow's and:
A girl whose lips are covered
with paint
Has an advantage with me over
one whose ain't
(which is true, unfortunately) and:
Among the anthropophagi People's friends are people's
Barcophagi.
It is all nonsense, with at times little flavouring of common- vonso, and if you do not love the BonBontsical, you will not even smile at it.
barred him and made him famous There must be a moral in his story would ever have thought of ending his girl and so has succeeded in a complimentary letter with the remaining a "careless baturaler," ns the modern counterpart of
"ombliferous" phrases: "Yours It recalls the pleasing popular "The Man Without a Even so, it has
in which they all cried, Country."
"Warrior" and "Freda," and is long been felt that the Parliament Since Stalin made himself the un-
perhaps a subtlo skit on our sloven- Act by no means represented the contested master of Russia, Trot-
ly habits of slurred speech, full extent to which reform was the dull Prinkipo Islands near
sky has been living in exile in the] called for, and the position has Istanbul. Stalin's agents, after, thus been left in a rather unsatis having taken Trotsky into exile) factory state. Not only have in a remote-village in Turkestan, Liberala and Labourites kept in still considered him dangerous so nind the need of further overhaul, they gave him further marching but the Conservatives also have orders in 1929 and Mustapha realised that the time must come Kemal alkkved him to live in Prin- when further changes will have to kipo. He at once sat about trying be made. Hence the recent reto get permission, to live olac cornmendations by n body of Con- where. First he appiled to Ger- servative Peers and Commoners many. The once-arrogant head of which aim at a cutting down of the Red Army applied, in most humble terms. Ho guaranteed he the numerical strength of the would live in complete isolation Second Chamber, a recognition of outside of Berlin, would in no the elective principle, and the case present himself at public possible admission of lady mem- meetings, and in his writings bors.
would conform strictly to the re- It is interesting now to recall gulations of German laws on the some idens which were advanced subject. The governmental o01- several years age by Professor L. cials said they did not think Trot- T. Hobhouse, in his work on sky was so sick that he needed "Liberalism," as
German doctora and to the wisost
German lines on which to proceed with watera. Trotsky then applied to Norway. There was a big debata reform of the House of Lords.
in the Diet. The head of the These envisaged as a real need police expressed grave fears that an impartial Second Chamber dis- Trotsky might be assassinated. tinctly subordinate to the House Norway rejected him. He turned of Commons, Incapablo.of touch-to France. The French govern- Ing finance and therefore of over-mont and the expulsion order, throwing a Ministry, but able to whereby he had been sent out of secure the submission of a mea-France, was still on the books.
"Patience, dear! Let's, wn it until the game begins."
It may be true, however, that wo are not losing our faculty of humour but developing a more subtle sense of what is worth. laughing at. Such is the conton- tion of some celebrated authorities on the theatre and the cinema whom I have been consulting over the telephone. They are all con vinced that the British public is too fastidious nowadays to bo amused as the "crudo comedy" of Marie Lloyd, or even of that much more ample personality, Bansie Bellwood, who could hold the big- gent audience In the hollow of her hand. The "Lion Comique" of the old days, I am also assured, would [be far too leonine for the variotien of to-day. I used to say. the same sort of thing thirty years ago to (Continued on Page 9:)