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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH,
SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 1948.
FULL-PAGE FEATURE EVERY SATURDAY
BOYS AND GIRLS' MAGAZINE
•
SPORTS - STORIES - PUZZLES • CRAFTS - GAMES - JOKES
Another True Circus Yarn by an Old Performer
Rajah was every inch a star.
LEPHANTS do have a
good memory, a keen in- telligence, and 1 swear they have a sense of humour. And I'll tell you how all this connects up with Slim Hanks' artistry as a contortionist.
Everyone around the village of Hoopston Enid Slim was the Ilm- berest boy they had ever seen and that he could make money with the tricks he
always doing wat parties and plenics. That is, if
Barnard was ringmaster, working the lions in the steel arena, and he also put Rajah through his act. So far he had got along with the intel- ligent beast, even though he hadn'l got along with the human per formers. Barnard took particular for delight making things tough "irst of May actors." as beginners in circustand are called.
Rajah's act was one of the feature attractions- of tho show. When Barnard walked the majestic creature into the ring, the elephant was every went performer. Ho inch a star through various plunts, then sae on big tub in the centre of the ring, facing a heavy table. He would ring a bell that stood on the table. and an attendant would appear, as a walter, and take his order.
Rajah would bow as the attendant return- of ed with, an orange, a big loaf bread and a bottle of coloured water. then Rajah would eat the orange, the bread and, lastly, wash every thing down with the coloured waler.
Then Rajah would show his vast appreciation of it all by Hiting one huge foot and rubbing his belly cestatically. That would bring D roar of laughter, and 1 always fell that Rafah enjoyed the humour of It as much as the audience. Then Rajah would jump up, stand on his great head, wave both hind legs in the air and, quickly reversing.
RAJAH AND THE
ORIGINS OF SOME OF THE
SYMBOLS IN EVERYDAY USE
THE RED AND WHITE POLE THAT MARKS A BARBER'S SHOP TODAY WAS ONCE THE GYMBOL USED
BY CURARONS-
THE RED
} INDICATED BLOOD.
*SOME CLAIM THAT PO
AND OS" ONCE MEANT THE NUMBER OF MINTS AND QUARTS A MAN WAS INDEBTED. FOR.
THE DOLLAR SIGN # IS GAID TO BE A COMBINATION OK UNCLE DAM'S INITIALS
CONTORTIONIST Simple Parlour Tricks
BY JOE K. BEASLEY
serves, cookies, cake and jams, was wave a flag in his trunk. This roll-
at
he
ng much out of place as a straw hated 'em in the aisles, In a blizzard.
Slim was quickly
the
2
got a haircut, brushed himself up a bit and cut out some of his devil-
ment. He could, at times, be just WHEN King Barnard, the eques
plain "ornery."
USC
I was billed as "The Boy Wonder Aerialist" and tight wire walker, and I knew the circus could Slim's tricks, so when I came back with to Hoopston, my home town, Barlow Brothers' big show, I helpedt to put the pressure on Slim to coine along and help put our town on the map, is follks freely consented
them- when the Barlow Brothers selves let Slim give them what might be termed an "audition," and they asked him to join them and see some of the outside world.
W trinn director and
"performer hosa." gol a peep at the hump- backed trunk he yelled:
"Snakes," which is the circus name for any contortionist, "you'll have to take that relic to the surplus a
I won't have it on the trunk wagon." And so the trunk went to a car which was divided in half, one part used by Rajah, the prize perform Ing elephant, the other for
extra elreus equipment.
The door to the surplus storage clud was locked, so Silm and his carried the trunk into Rajah's part The trunk was placed of the car. In one corner, with all It contained That night Slim and his dad drove with the exception of the green and up to the dressing lent. Between yellow tights Slim was to wear them they unloaded a big, - camel-
when he did his stuff. These he back trunk, and a ripple of merri- carried back to the tent, bringing ment went through the tent. Slim gales of laughter from Bornard who
known. of hadn't
course, that there saw something funny
Sim's trunk would be no
Barnard had room on the
gaudy apparel. wagon for such crate. A
overbearing per- former's Irunk must be flat, so it will pack with others. It cannot be over two feet long. Slim's, packed
with Mother Hatiks' choicest
I.
pre-
in
un
manner and I knew instantly that Slim disked him. But none of the rest of us por- formers liked him either, for that
matter.
Shadows Visit Blinky Molet
-They Were Asked to An Unusual Breakfast-
By MAX TRELL
was already dark when Knarf and Hanid, the shadow-children turned-around with the
TISTICS,
rapped on the door of Blinky Mole's underground apartment.
He asked them to drop in for breakfast, and when they asked him "about about what Ume, he said:
supper
to
time."
So Knarf and land were coming breakfast with Blinky Mola
hnvo when all other folks were sitting down to supper.
He came paddling to the door In his slippers and bathrobe, greeted them with a pleasant good-evening, and let them In,
Breakfast in the Kitchen
"I hope you don't mind eating in the kitchen," Blinky said. "I always liko breakfast in the kitchen. It's so cheerful."
and
The table was already set with a large platter of daisy roots, clover. roots, dandelion roots, buttercup roots, and young carrots, radishes and onions. Blinky, os Knart
roots Hanld knew, pleked all his and vegetables (and the vegetables were sort of roots, too) out of the feld and garden. Living under- ground, he pulled them down through his eclling, which was quito
convenient.
4.20
It was dark when Knart and itanid knocked on Blinky Malo'■ door.
accepted
For Spare Moments
by
MOS
WAR
and
He other performers. likable lad, in spite of his rustic streak. Even Rajah got used to its stipping into the surplus car unlocking his trunk after the even- an ing meal, when Slim enjoyed
Mother extra feed which
Hanks hand so thoughtfully stored away for But Barnard was an- only boy. noyed at these snacks.
Then comic
her
the evening Sllin found his trunk broken open and the contents of all the jars and boxes Fone. Only crumbs remained. It didn't take a lot of detective work on our part to learn that Barnard
had given the "razorbacks," circus tralamen, an order to clean up the "bull" car and clean it good.
·
up
held
of
WELL, the evening after Stim found his trunk broken open, Rajah's performance didn't go so smoothly. Rajah ate the orange all right, his mammoth jawa began grinding the loaf of bread. Then he aloft and started to so! The bottle to sip at the bottle of "wine." sailed toward Barnard's head. Some- thing was wrong!
Barnard ducked and ran out
followed by the the ring, closely elephant. Barnard dashed through the back door curtains. Rajah simply took the curtains with him.. flapping over his head and back. The striped streamers made him look like a big, overgrown butterfly, There was a sizable stream the edge of the lot and Barnard ran toward that, with Rajah close be- hind. The beast could easily have flailed Barnard with his trunk, but Rajah wasn't a killer. He was a comedian.
ul
Barnard tried to cross the stream footbridge, knowing on a narrow
that Rajab was too big for it. But Rajah headed the ringmaster away trom this, up to the bank and then deliberately, forceably pushed Barnard off into the deep water.
•
DARNARD was burbling and shouting for help, but everyone followed the chase else who had from the circus tent was laughing too hard to move. Everyone, that is, except Rajah, who couldn't laugh. Rajah was too busily engaged now in fushing out the mouth with trunkful after trunkfat of water.
I began to get a glimmer of what had happened
Of
By Wm. J. Murdoch
You probably
know that the symbol the lotter R with a line through the log-used in doctor's prescriptions is simply an abbreviation of the Latin "recipe," or "take." But where do we get some other symbols?
It
The barber's red-and-white striped, pole, for example, comes from the days when the barber was a surgeon who ad-| vertised his rather bloody pro- fession with a ribbon of red on white,
How about those three balls above the entrance to the pawnshop? History says these wore brought to the money-to-loan business by the Medicl family of Italy.
PUZZLE
CORNER
THIS variety group will brighten today's stroll down Puzzle, Lone:
~1-
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
4 5
B
ACROSS
1 Sped 4 Is able 7 Dusilo B Native
Afternoon melal D
per- formance 11 Skill 12 Shiny cloth (plural). Negative word 10 Residence (ab- brev.) 19 Attempt,
Originally the Medici breadwinners
Their were apothecaries.
coat of arms contained 11 pills. But about 500 years ago the Medlel family put aside the mortar and pestle and other devices of the trade and went into the money-lending business. When they made up their new coat of
the Mediel helped themselves to three of the 11 pills from the old inelguin and these three | Pigpen. finally became the pawnshop symbol so well known today.
•
arms
A-1-the
By WALTER KING
Lloyds' Supplied "A-1". Now for a little puzzle trick with
symbol for top_grade [OST parlour magic tricke
toothpicks, sticks. Matchsticks require fancy apparatus, whichever you prefer. You'll need or best quality comes from Lloyds assistant or two. Here are in half. Then lay the sticks on the by silp Insurance writers to describe preferred risk quite a bit of practice, and an eight to start with, with four broken of London. The notation was used The letter A meant the ship's hull some cusy tricks you can rig up table so that the long ones alternato ship which was>*
with the short ones; short,
long was in perfect condition and the tricks that work short, long, and so on. anywhere,
The idea is
Agure 1 signiflett that the rigging without even rolling up your to get all the long ones together and
ard other equipment was in good sleeves, and you can have plenty all the short ones together by mov of fun just amusing yourself ing any two neighbouring slicks at order. with no helpers or spectators a time.
Remember you must be sure to at all.
pick up two at once and lay them down in a new position but in the same order as they were before. And comes the solution. If here know you're really smart you'll skip para- courageously now the
your pulse? Well, Now, how's why not take a look at it? Stick a match upright on the point of tack, stand the head of the tack at the point on your wrist where you can feel your pulse, rest your arm there you are. the table, and on Tick-lack, Uck-lack, the head of the match sways to and fro every time your pulse beats.
Like to win a big reward? Offer succeed yourself $1,000 if you can In blowing a 3-by-4-inch card which has a pin etuck In it off the top of cotton spool. After an ordinary sticking the pin through the centre of the card you must drop the pin point into the hole in the spool and. the through the spool from blow bottom. You simply can't win.
RIDDLES
TOUGH ONES
Here are
some riddles to con- centrate
correct an- upon. The
this page. swers are elsewhere on
1. What men are the most above board?
are on a roof 2. If tour pigeons and you shoot one, how many re- maln?
3. What is the difference be tween an old dollar note and a now ten-cent note?
4. Why is "O" the noisiest vowel? 5. What is the difference between a student going upstairs and looking up?
PUZZLE ANSWERS
1 Crossword puzzle answer:
·
O
IRIA IN CA IN
OR B |AID
MAT NBE
he
at
Barnard got more than a glimmer
scramble as.he managed to the bank.
up
he
By this time Bunky had finished scrambling all the eggs, and
to sit down asked everyone table and start eating. "We've got Boon," he re- to be at our work minded his friends. "At any rate, I have to get to my work("
"So do we, Blinky1" cried Mouse, Cricket, Firefly and Owl.
"We're through with our work," sak Knurf and Hanid.
the cows and
Stay Awake by Day Then Owl shook his head gravely. "Isn't it strange how all the chil- "Sit down," Blinky said. "I've got dren, and all the people, and most most some eggs to scramble,"
of the birds, and Knauf and Hanid noticed that he horses and bees and flies, all stay was scrambling a great pan-full of eggs, much more than any of them awake by day and sleep by night? I never can understand why they could cat. Then Blinky explained do it. But, thank goodness, there that he was expecting several
are still plenty of us left who sleep breakfast guesla,
by day, when the hot sun shines, and stay awake at night, when it's cool and quiet.".
more
"You'd be surprised how many folks cat breakfast at supper time," he said.
Other Breakfast Guests.
Before the shadow-children had time to ask who the other breakfast guests might be there camé a rap- ping and a scratching at the door. The guests were arrivingt
And then Owl went on to say who were all the folks who stayed awake at night: Mole, of course, and Mouse, and Cricket und Firety and him- self....and Cat and Rai and Snail and Beetle and Rabbit and Frog and Tond and
and sometimes Dog, always Whip-Four-Will, and
the Katydids.
Knarf and Hanid ran to the door and let them in. First came Mouse. Then came Cricket. Then como Firefly And then, walking very slowly and bowing his head low so as not to hit the celling, camo Owl.
They all gave a cheerful good heard all those names, they know
"And don't forget the moon and the stare," said Blinky with a smile, as he gave Knart and Hanld extra-sweet carrot to chow. And when Knart and
an
Hand
fall
all day long nhi all night someona in the world was awake no matter how bright or how dark, it was V.
long
wide
evening, and said what a fine night It looked to bo, what with a moon and the stars,'all. fresh and sparklipy.
Where's that limber Jim?". shouted. "He's at the bottom of this. Where is he?"
Of
and nobody knew course, Barnard didn't seo Slim again till he'd cooled off.
I told you before that Slim could be plain rustic, and I never, of course, would approve of what he did, if he did do it. But I suspect strongly that he was the one who empply had left that now nearly bottle of Bery snake-root beside the real loaf of bread that Rajah used in his act. The coloured water was the same shade as the snake-root.
RED
RYDER
ONCE DID COUR
AIRIT SATEENS
I
CIE
RES
NOT TRY
2 Troops depart Saturday..
CAPER
ALINE
PINTA
ENTER REARS
Evil. vile, Levi, live vell.
SHE SPURS
RHUBARB
ERATO
БЛО
B
| MANY PEOPLES- HERKAIT WEL
TAKE TIME TO ASKS BROSŤ V
ABOUT COWBOT
WITH RGD
HAIR?
опо
i
nest
TAKE YOUR
PULGE
POOL TRICK
****
wwwwwwww.end
you
"Mind your P's and Q's"-how heard that? my times have you You'll find a little argument about thaf. Some authorities say it's old directed al schoolroom advice, students to take care in shaping the lower loops of their scribbled Pa and Q's:
Others
from claim it comes English taverne. Regular patrons were served. pints or quarts of their favourite beverage on credit. Debts were posted on a blackboard so each Customer.could see how many P's and Q's he owed for.
O.K: Comes From Choctaw
O.K. That's not so easy-and it isn't an abbreviation of "oli korrect," come folks claim. The best
БВУ authorities
it comes from a Choctaw Indian word "oke,” "hoke"-meaning "yes, it is."
пя
SLICK STICK
TRUCK
SPOON
CHIMES
own
graph. But if sdiving your puzzles keeps your weight down, go ahead and peep,
r
■+
A widely liked symbol is the del- lar sign. ($)and here ngain you can. take your choice of stories as to how it was born. One says the ymbol came from the old Spanish "The S dollar, or "picce of eight
过
is a partial 0, according to this story, and the two uprights repre- sent the pillars of Hercules which coin. But were slamped on the another story says that is merely Sam's initials, a union of Unclo U.S.
It's all very "symbol" when you'
First move: 2nd stick (long) and know why. 3rd stlek (short) go to right end of stick Inc. Second move: 5th (short) and 6th stick (long) go to second and third places Third move: 8th stick (long) and 2nd stick now in ninth position (long) go to fifth and sixth
places. last move will be obvious. The two Iino short sticks at the left of the
the right end of the Une. go to Easy when you know how. Try it again tomorrow,
Now the
To concludo your performance how about a little musical act.
Get out a table spoon and tie it in the middle at the point of balance with a string about three feet long. Make loops at each loose end of the string and insert your forefingers. Then put your forefingers in your ears and swing the spoon against a table to start it ringing.
up
HOBBIES IGAMES
BOOKS FUNNY
We don't know whether funny borks como under the classification of a hobby or a pastime. But quite a number of renders say they make funny books their hobby,
Here's a typical letter. It comes from Barbara Cook, 10 years old:
"My hobby is collecting funny books. After the family and I have read them, I like to exchange them for some more that we haven't read. We always have some to trade.
The result will be not a harsh metallic sound as you would expect If you but sweet musical chimes. keep banging the end of the spoon
"My, mother doesn't like.comle you will be able to produce the deep gong of a chime clock rising books except when she is reading says that 'they above the background of tingling them, because she musical notes.
keep me from helping her with her great deal of work." You can hove amusement with the chime spoon ex- Well, we're not going to, tako. perimenting with different sizes of aldes in that argument. Comles spoons and different string lengths. "hav their place and so does work.
Guess Aguin
WE GO TO PLACE OF WORSHIPS WE SOON SEE EVERYBODY!
RE
WHERE 100 PALEFACE TEMPLE
THERE'
By Fred Harmary*
PINK TIGER,
SALOON
16 Frozen
DOWN
water 17
Male sheep 2 Girl's name 3 0 Jols down 4 Satlafted Exist Born 10 Anger 12 Couriery litla 13 High card 14 Neither 15
--2--
CODED MESSAGE
Can you deciper the message con- simpla cealed in the following diagram found in the rocket
spy?
..
R D E D P
A
a
A 0 R
6 T T
HIT: Go around clockwise, using every 13th letter, crossing it out us ured, and not using it again, Starting point is all you need now,
--3--
WORD SQUARE
Rearrange the letters in each row. 10' form 2
good word, then re- arrange the row of words to form a perfect word square:
ENI LIA
TERNE
PE CRA
SARRE
NPATHI
SCRAMBLER
Scramble "wicked" and
havo "mean" re-scramble and have " son of Jacob;" again and have "to exist;" again and have a "mask."
WORLD DIAMOND RHUBARB provides our demond centre. The second word is a pro- noun, the third
Dfth gouds," the "Muse of poetry," and the sixth an abbreviation for a theatrical sign:
U RHUBARB
A
R
B
RIDDLE ANSWERS
1-Chessmen. 2-None, they all
fly away, 3-Nuety cents. 4—All . the other vowels are in "audible"
la (Inaudible). ɓ-One stepping upstairs, the other, staring up steps.
Rupert's Island
Adventure-
Through having to wait for Wille. Ruper lags behind the Scouts and acon they are out of sight. should like to know what they are The going to do. says Rupert, bugle is no longer sounding, but the Awo pals follow at their own speed until they see the Scouts collecting branches to make a shelter. "Look, cries, Willis, you said you wanted to build something. Why not go and ask if we can help them 2.!" *I've got an even better idea," says Rupert Let's go into the wood and build one for ourselves 1*! ALL NIQUTI RESERVED,