Cuaxcrxa the subject from the welter-weight championship of the Far East which is being decided hereabouts, shall we consider the question of proverbs for a moment? Most of these glib sayings are not only trite but as statements of fact have to be very closely watched. Thus for example, one that has been bothering us for quite a long time:— a Jong lane that has no turning,"
Can you think of anything more of a half lie than that? Is'nt it also true that:—
"I's a short lane that has no turning."?
We've seen lanes which weren't long enough to get even half a turning in, Then again:—
"Birds of a feather flock together."
Of course they do. If you were a flock of birds and only one feather between you, you'd never leave the bird wearing it, for fear it would be missing when it was your turn.
Then again take the remark th "It's a wise child that knows it's own father."
Isn't it equally true that "It's a wise father that..........44
(Proof-reader:—Better cut out that last bite The poor lad's feeling Mondayish)
Well anyhow we could go on with this sort of thing indefinitely, and if any of our readers can invent a few We'll award to the best endeavour one of the nice round holes the shells made in our building on Sunday morning. som Correspondence In Parenthesis "North-China Daily New:
Dear Sir,—I found the enclosed extract in an exercise on the ambiguity and misuse of the pronoun and 1 think it is priceless. I am sure It will amuse your readers, so if you have a small place to spare amongst your more important material, I should be much obliged if you would print it.
"The girl packed the roses in a box for me, I took a bus as far as Piccadilly, and carried it the rest of the way.' She listened carefully to his words and stooped to smell them. They fell to the floor. She dropped her eyes in contusion and picked them up again. Immediately she snatched the box, and pressing her mouth to his, thrust. the into. it Where was the lid? A knock it could not be seen. The man lost his head and could not find H. B.
Shanghai, Oct. 28.
Gorblime! And now it has found a place amongst our more important material—LP.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.