1936-01-31 — Page 11

„THE CHINA MAIL, FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1936

ITALY'S LANDSCAPE TO-DAY

We pay our wall bills with paper to day: only a rear ago 20 fire pieces, as large as the wheels of dolls' perambulators, wore holes in one's pockets; but not now. They have all dis- appeared, and in their places and in the places of 10 lire coins there are small and ugly notes on which the date-1935-is printed so small that it takes Yet the sharp eyes to see it. mysteries of credit still func- tion: Italy is still one of the ex- pensive countries of Europe for the English traveller.

Across the platform the long

* delayed train has arrived to

thei empty its conscripts on station; and the brown dwarfs are playing the "Giovanezza,” That song from which all hope) has long been drained and into whose ironic words and tune. the despairs of age have now slowly crept.

Our own train is leaving: across the tall roofs of Rome the crescent of the new moon, no more yellow than by day is the Tiber or are the buildings which flank it, shines on what seems a dead city. In the tall and splendid blocks of apart ment houses which ring the ancient city there are lights only on the staircase shaft; the rest is blackness.

Other Images

And yet, as we passed down this lovely country, rich and yielding under the suns and rains that have seen her rise and her decline and fall, there are other images in the land- scape, more permanent and more enduring than the steps more cilled face of the Duce, and more in evidence as one travels: further south

Early this morning we saw. an old man, naked to the waist, bending over his plot of ground a: hoe in his hand. This age less figure, who has spent a life- time putting into the earth and taking from it again at harvest time, is the real symbol of Italian splendour and patience Neither the whims of tyrants nor the ebb and flow of im- perial conquest disturb the life of the Garibaldino-for such hel loaked: there are more impor tant things than glory; there is. liberty and there are the fruits of the world to care for.

old

And at Civita Vecchia; in the dusk, there was an woman clothed in a black habit Sur- and leaning on a stick. rounding her were children and the animals of her farm. She was the real Eome: the mother of the western world, from whose body has issued so much that is good and so much that is just in western life.

The swords, the little fruit trucks in stations labelled "For the Military Only," the silence and the sadness; these are in- permanent, but the old womDİ in the farmyard will be stand- the ing there still long after features of Il Duce have appeared from the walls which they now adorn.

dis-

MOTOR-HORNS TO

BE BARRED

Husband And Wife On Opposite Sides

Hobart Mrs Ozihie, wife of the Tasmanian Premier, is oppos ing her husband's campaign to stop the use of motor horns.

She is a motorist herself. Having failed to convince him at home the decided to start a can- paign too. At the women's branch of the Australian Labour Party she moved a resolution of protest against the Premier's

The Governmentsins Zukoodice za regalation restri

the use of motor horns in day. to cases of emergency and lutely forbidding their

SAY-ARE WE GOIN' TO THE OPERA,OR NOT?

BY GOLLY-IM DUE HOME NOW MAGGIE INSISTS ON ME GOINGTO THE OPERA. TONIGHT.

BYGOLLY-IT'S BAD ENOUGH TO HAVE

·TO GO TO THE OPERA BUT TO HAVE TO SIT AND TALK TO THAT

FATHEAD-

NOW-DONT YOU GET MEEXCITED- I'M RUSHING AS

FAST AS I CAN-

AN ME SITTIN' DOWNSTAIRS FOR NEARLY TWO HOURS-NOW DON'T THINK FOR A MINUTE THAT I'M GOIN' TOMORROW-I'VE

WASTED ENOUGH TIME-

Rosie's BEAU

EY

GED MCMANUS

CONG

NOVES-

DEARS

GOSH'I'LL HAVE TO WALK ALETHE WAY

TO ROSE'S HOUSE

HAVENTACENT FOR CAR-FARE-1 HOPE SHE DOESN'T WANT TO GO OUT TO THE MOVES- I'LL HAVE TO TALK HER OUT OF IT-

Bringing Up Father

IF WE ARE LATE FOR THE OPERA"" IT'S ALL YOUR OWN FALLT

WELL-I'VE BEEN

READY FOR BUT TO

HERE TH

WAITIN TO SO TOTHE RA

IS NEARLY "BAD AS SEEIN

PD HAVE BEEN ROME EARLIERFI DIDNTË HAVETOS

GIT

FOR

SHUURLCH HAD BETTER. CALLUPMR AND MRS- HEWELL UIKKEM-WHO LARE TAKING US-AS YOU KNOW WELL HAVE TO TAKE THEM OUT TO SUPPER AFTERWARDS- HELLO-MRS. LIKKEM? I'M SORRY-BUT WELL BEAUTTLE LATE- WHAT?

THAT'S RIGHT-

YOU BEAST-

GO AHEAD

AND STRIKE

I MUST COOL-OFF

BEFOREGON- DONT WANT TO. LOOK OVERHEATED GE=IM

ALL-IN-

VAT

BY GOLLY-THNK IVE SPENT HALF MY LIFE WAITING FER MAGSE-WELL GIT THERE ABOUT THE TIME THE CURTAIN IS COMIN

-DOWN-

THE OPERA BUSNET. YONIGHT: IT'S TOMORROW "NIGHT-HOW DID HEVER MAKE

SUCH A

MISTAKE?

BBERING

"ANY TIME WE ARETOSO VARČAND MRS. EUKKEM-

NOW-IF I EVEZ ~DID ANY THING. LIKE THAT D.

HEAR EV

OF IT

PEOPLE TASK YOÜ- WHAT WOULD YOU DOƐIF YOU

·WERE ME?

* 1956, King: Features Symbcase, Jac, Great Benzin rights reserved. || ·5

YOURE FREE!!

WHAT'LL

IDO

NOW?

PRINTING