THE gangster was brought before the judge. He was accused of stealing a thousand-dollar tur coat from a large furrier's store.
How do you plead?" asked the judge, eyeing the gangster, "guilty or not guilty?"
Well, your honour," said the gangster, "it was like this, My girl friend needed a new coat, so I went out and got her one. After all, the poor kid hasn't hada new coat in five years,"
The judge scowled "H'm," he growled. "And did you lady friend approve of your stealing the coat "Yep," nodded the gangster. "She didn't care how I got it, just so long as she had a new coat." The judge banged the gavel angrily.
'A fine state of affairs," he observed sternly. Perhaps your lady friend doesn't object to he manner in which this coat was obtained—the law most certainly objects to your method:
The gangster shrugged hopelessly, It just goes to show you," he murmured.
please everybody."
Entertainment SomeBovy has written complaining that peo-e get too much entertainment and are becom-ug spoilt and finicky.
When I was a boy," he grumbles, "I thought very lucky to see a magic lantern show once a week. Young people today can sce the best that Hollywood can produce for a few pence, and when they're short of money they can listen to the radio. They live in an age of miracles, but all they want are more miracles."
Entertaining the great dumb public to keep the empty-headed fools out of mischief has always been a problem At one time they used to watch lions making a meal off Christians, and no doubt complained when the Christians refused to run round the Today millions are spent every year, fortunes are won and lost, and men and women work th selves into nervous breakdowns trying at t their flagging interest.
Stars rise and fall in the film cities, authors sit up all night writing plays and books, actors and actresses rehearse for weeks without pay io comedians get insomnia thinking up ga—all to relieve the boredom of people satiated with entertainment, And those who grumble the most are those who pay the least, the loudest voices usually elenging to those who pay nothing at all.
inoma managers have to consider the task of the "ninepennies," theatre managers thè tastes of the pit and gallery, and authors the tastes of those who borrow books from libraries but never buy them.
The people who condemn a play after the first act and never applaud are those in the free seats. The people who have their radio switched on all the morning, afternoon, and evening, while never ceasing to complain about it, are usually those who have never bought a licence.
The most ferocious critic of journalism had never bought a newspaper in his life.
He was a railway guard who collected them out of empty compart
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.