1935-05-25 — Page 7

No. 11

China Mail

HOME SUPPLEMENT

HONG KONG, SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1935

No.

Impressions

N°

rame, they say.

ever

dies: it has cycles, enjoys

a vacation." and then descends

on a new generation. That is

for not surprising.

games cater to two very strong de- sires: (a) something to occupy idle hands, and (b) a chance, to win something. Perhaps the latter has a lot to do with the fact that trade in games and puzzles has thriven when tran- sport and heavy industry have

not

to

In

We have gone game-minded on a scale so other period had any idea of, and games factories run overtime and are still unable keep up with the orders. Hong Kong, we women must con- siderably increase the output of playing cards and mah jonge sets. Which desire do our favourite games satisfy the occupying of idle hands or the chance to win something? Perhaps both.

Have none of the other world- wide favourites been the vogue here? Do we never ponder on other fragments which should be put together and stray bits to be The matched by skill and luck? crossword puzzle, at least, seems to have caught on here for a run... before it is put back again on the shelf for a while. Ping-pong and chess, too, each have their special followers, though games Bike chess are too intricate to become real fada But strangely enough we seem quite aloof when it comes to the jigsaw puzzle, though Haw puzzles are seriously credited with saving many minds by diverting them from woes. We are perhaps too The light-hearted a community.

good mark of the jigsaw puzzle can be set down elsewhere to offset those cases, observed by all, of to have gone people who seem quite crazy over a game. Perhaps we have some modest good mark

in the background" too.

a recens They

In America there is craze for paper masks. caught on the way a game like pat- and-take does. The masks were in a great variety, in the likenesses

fictional of celebrities real, comic. At parties Cleopatra came face to face with Krazy Kat and Abraham Lincoln. Thirty million masks were put on as many liv ing faces, with the mental result that each of those millions ceased for a moment to be his or her own weary self; the self was zot mere- ly effaced, but made into a recog...... nisable and adniated notability.

The mask is as old as history and so are most of the games. The latest novelty may, as likely as not, have been patented in the reign of Tat-ankh-Amen-

It is the grown-ups, of course, who have brought about the pre- Staid people sent game boom who want something else to think about gladly become as little child- zen. They pore" over variants of

over

a magic square, and squsa! the slings and arrows of outrage ous fortune as manifest on cards proffered them with such names as Walt Disney, Eddie Cantor and A. A. Milne. Some are conservative I and stick of old favourites, as think the Hong Kong ladies do; others go in the swim

Phyllis Juky:

..

FAMOUS WOMEN IN HISTORY II.

CATHERINE'

THE

GREAT

NE has to view Catherine

ONE

the Great from the dis- tance like all great persons and great monuments. History does not like bedroom slippers and dressing gowns. Perhaps. that is why Byron calls history

that lying knave."

Much romance is mixed with the history of Catherine! “In the court. of a Queen," said Horace Walpole (and bow many others have said it!) the men rale. In the court of the Kings, the women." But Horace Walpole never thought of Cathe ine, who remained always the E- press, even in the face of her pas sions and in the, whirlwind of her lovers: She was woman and man together. Chatting familiarly with her philosopher Diderot, by the fireside, and noticing how the philo- sopher hesitated to let his gaiecy go unbridled: "Go on," she said,

as between men.” That was the genius of Cathe a philosopher with rines to be Diderot or Voltaire, a King with Frederic or Joseph I, a mathe- matician with Euler, a bero with Souwaroff, man of the world with the artist de Segur, a diplomat with the Prince de Ligne, and a woman (Bryon puts it better) with Ponia- towski, with Orloff, with Potem- kin, with Zoritz, with Zawadoffsky, with Mornowoft, with Rimsky Kor- sakoff, with Lanskoi, with Jezzo- loff, with Zoubo, with Valerien Zcuboff, and with all those not named by history.

Mitrowich, for instance, after baving a rustic romance with Catherine in the manner of Daph- mis and Chloe, was condemned to death

the

of way drama Shakespearean.

2

Ivan

» Scenes from the film "The Scarlet Empress" Marlene Dietrich in the role of Catherine the Great

{Paramount)

living.

were

WES entombed The two

bo officers with him had orders to kill him if be tried to escape; above all, they were not to spare those who dar ed to help his attempt. The two, officers started with Ivan IV, but had not the courage to Hi Mit rowich. That handsome soldier handed over his sword in full con- fidence, convinced that he would re-

Soft Sailor...

with the new femin

lives. An exquinte. flattering. balibrutal, strow in blacks, brown, nawy or natural

with fu-color ribbon trim:

Aurelia's

ceive a much finer one from the hands of Catherine. But Catherine had no gratitude in love, her rus

and she tic romance was over, threw the leaves without shame. into the blood of Mitrowich. He was.condemned to death and died with the words of a philosopher on his lips: "I do not understand.”

"He does not understand?” said Catherine, Estening to the thud of her insatiable beast, he does not understand that I have a hundred passions to live, and he had only. one to give me.”

Catherine, no matter for whom ~ she had a weakness, always, guard- ed her sovereignity. She gave her

She self, but never her power. had too much genius for despotism, and she knew too well the despo- tisra of love, to hold cabinet_meet- ings in her chamber. Listen Bryon on the occasion when he presents Don Juan to the Empress: "Catherine was generous---- all Kuch women are. Love, the great heart, opener,

love arged .Catherine to make the fortune of

esch one of her lovers. - -

to

I would not like to attempt to name the eloquent sum of roubles scattered with foll hands by Cathe rine as dessert at the festival of love; enough to say that it was over four hundred millions. Cupid was Minister of Finance in the i terim; fortunately the interim did not last long.

Catherine remained beautiful for a long while; indeed, she was ali wa beautiful Although Ger mun, she had grace, if the conten- porary portraits can be believed. She dressed either as man or wo- man; had a proad profile and at the same time a charming smile. Of medium height, she had the art to appear tall as if her majesty would serve as a constant pedestal. Her beautiful eyebrows added charm to the are bine of her eyes Ber hair was neither blonde por brown and she wore it lightly (Continued Over-Page)