1940-12-19 — Page 37

THE CHINA MAIL SPECIAL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT, DECEMBER 19, 1940.

21

Some Queer Xmas Eves

"D'you realise, David." I said, per caps, coloured streamers and flinging my pick disgustedly to a lavish array of foods and wines. I was wearing a false nose-a the ground that it's Christmas wise thing to do on the Continent Eve?"

where noses are apt to be pulled

David, my partner

on the dia--and dancing with an ash-blonde "mond diggings

in South Africa, girl from Prague who defeated all in my efforts to speak to her 842171- wiped the sweat from his

French and German. burnt face. "And what if it is," he replied laconically. "Do you expect me to become a sentimen→ tal pagan and sing carols beneath a sprig of mistletoe?" And he re- sumed his digging in that hard, sun-baked earth for the diamonds that never materialised.

It was the reply I might have expected from him. David was a true wanderer. At the same time, I was beginning to realise how -much the wanderers on this earth hate Christmas. It is because, at heart, they are all sentimentalists. Christmas does make them think of home.

"We'll have to long way go a from here to find mistletoe." I said to David, "but

at least

get

£1

we can Christmas

dinner of sorts at

By

Seated at an adjoining table was a young Irishman who wrote Satiric verse. with an English girl. They had become engaged during the course of their sojourn at St. Moritz.

were.

on

There they both Christmas Eve, looking dismally, unhappy. The news of their be- trothal had been a twenty-four hours' affair. Now, even the wait- ers knew it, and treated them

excessive with

deference. The occasionally blew Irishman paper whistle with a sort of de- ant enjoyment. Neither of them danced.

W.J. Makin

a

It was when the orchestra

playing a gerously

began

dan-

senti-

mental waltz that

the English girl looked up to find

old Georgeu's shack, There cled Austrian bowing before her.

rumours about

are night."

dance to-

David pushed back his double- felt hat and stared at me.

"Why this sudden desire for gaiety?" he asked.

"Just because it's Christmas Eve," I repented tritely.

"And how do you suggest we shall pay for these sentimental luxuries--a Christmas dinner and a danes in an old Greek's shanty?"

tin

Ingered the pouch of my belt. "What! The only diamond we've found in this shell-hole," he ex- claimed.

"Why not?" David sorted. Then he grin- ned.

"Yes, why not?" he mused. "It's such a miserable specimen that I doubt whether we'll even get a fiver for it. Still, old Georgeu might buy it or give us a drink and a dance in exchange."

"And a Christmas dinner," I insisted.

Twenty-four hours previously. David and I had joined in a rush for diamond clairas over this stretch of South African veld that now looked like a battlefteld. Battered motor-cars, Cape carts and ox-wagons added to the gen- eral effect of an army in retreat. A few mounted policemen rode the debris, a hand occasionally straying to pistol holster when any of the diggers became violent. At the same time a naked Zulu

one

stalked about the diggings vigor- He carried ously ringing a bell.

poster in an ink-crawled hand. The invitation was sensa- tional: --Come and dance at George'-

Women, Music and Champagne. Georgeu, after much twisting of his black moustaches, gave us exactly five pounds for the rough little pebble that we called a dia- mond, David and I began reck- lessly to spend that five pounds.

a

Three sausages apiece, a lump of mashed potatoes, and, as special afterthought, a tin of green penc-such was our Christmas

dinner.

David called loudly for cham- pagne. With a smirk that would have done credit to the head wait- er of the Cafe de Paris, in Monte Carlo, Georgau, the Greek, pro- duced the first bottle with the al- acrity of a conjurer. He charged us two pounds for the bottle.

I cur

a young mono-

fraulein! he said Gnadiges suavely. "I would be charmed if you will pull a cracker with me." before And, graciously, he held her one of those paper crackeTS that decorate most Christmas tables.

A noon-like expression of de- the light shone in the face of English girl. "How delightful of you," she said. And stretching out her hand she seized one end of the cracker.

A sharp tug. an absurd "pop" and the ruins of the cracker were in their hands.

"There is a motto inside," she cried childishly. "You must read it."

The Austrian bowed, and fum- bled in the paper wreckage. He discovered the slip of pacer. smoothed it, and read slowly aloud in English. I can still hear him

mouthing the trite words:

"Roses are red, violets are blue," Sugar is sweet, and so are you!'

But by this time the young Irishman was on his feet. His

eyes blazed. He had the specially decorated menu folded in his. hand. With a melodramatic ges- ture he struck the Austrian across the face with it, causing the mono- cle to fall.

The Austrian stooped to reco- ver his monocle. When he fixed it firmly against his eye he was pale. He faced the frishman.

"I think we shall have some. thing to discuss after the dance," he said with qulet deliberation. Then superbly, he turned to the English girl. "Our waitz, I think he murmured.

terrified

It was a thoroughly English girl who was eventually led back to the little table. The Austrian bowed her to a seat and then proffered his cigarette-case to the Irishman,

ได

0

"Perhaps, mein herr," he said, "you would like smoke cigaret e in the next room, hein?” They stalked out of the dining- room together,

The next morning they set out cary to climb a snow-peak to- gether-complete with ice-axes.

It must have been nearly mid- night when I saw the two young men again, standing in the door- and way. They were laughing joking with each other. The best of friends. And the object of their amusement? A wealthy American was presenting the girl with

of caviare sandwiches, plateful while she gazed aderingly into his eyes,

a

Queer Christmas Eve. well remember the dance that fo'- lowed. When the dancing began, diggers kicked off their heavy veldt-schoen and began lumber ing about the floor in their shoes.

And the women? Georreu. · the I remember, too, a Christmas Greek. had Jent his word, They Eve among the Zulus. Under a sky were there, Strapping Boer girls stretched like blue silk I watched wearing white noise beneath the Zulu impis, the fighting men which bunched their flaxen hair. with shields and assegias, stamp There were also the strange, wo- their way forward in battle form- men who haunt every diamond 'ation, Across a huge plain they camp girls, heavily in-sticked, came, enormous black crescent who had been in the chorus of moons roaring their war songs, some Johannesburg revue or else been barmaids in Rhodesia or the East Coast,

A different, and much more lu- xurious atmosphere, two years Later, St Moritz in the snow sea- son. A d'n'ntaram Alled with a healthy, snow-topped crowd, pa¬

Again and again they stamped their bare black feet in the dust so that the ground trembled. The Zulu maidens, in all their naked beauty, shrilled in chorus urged the fighters to even greater deeds,

the

and

Slowly and remorselessly, black crescent moons came on- wards, The chanting was solemn and deliberato. Then, with one huge roar, the black food charg- ed, one crescent moon after an- other.

And, by a miracle of discipline, stopped dead, withini'n gard of hn menup of whites watching.

Christmas Eves.

Tavern DE LUXE Candles

X'MAS

CHEAP SALE

COFFEE - PERCOLATORS

FROM $17 to $23

TABLE AND WALL LAMPS

FROM

COMPLETE WITH SHADES

$7 to $16

DON'T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY OF GIVING YOUR FRIENDS A REAL XMAS PRESENT

GILMAN & CO., LTD.

132 Nathan Rd., Kowloon.