Out and Home.
Page 12
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A "CM." Alphabet. About Churchill's Horrible Language.
By "The Extractor."
Churchill's Output.
A letter has reached me from the Scottish Motor Traktion Co., Ltd., referring to a paragraph in " Out and Home" (page 7, 30th December). The item in question ran as follows :—" Durham-Churchill's, of Sheffield, are entirely on munitions and special work for the Government. It is eight months since the last vehicle went out." It appears this is incorrect, because Durham-Churchill's have been supplying vehicles to the above firm "regularly since the commencement of the war." The responsibility for the statement rests with Mr. W. H. Gray, the manager of Durham-Churchill's, who gave me the information in the precise words which appeared.
An Alphabetical Offer.
Inspirations, when they do happen, flash across one unexpectedly. They are never dug out of the brain by laborious effort. Whilst my train was stopping at a railway station near London, I noticed a recent poster issued by the Underground Railways in which the letters of the alphabet, commencing with A, were made the prefix of a series of rhymes of a very old type, reminiscent of one's play books "when all the world was young, lad, and all the trees were green." However, I could not from the distance see the nature of the rhymes, but the inspiration came and it took this form. Why should not our readers employ some of these Cimmerian evenings, while waiting for Zeppelins, in an attempt to produce an alphabetical rhyme of the names and words to be found in the business-vehicle industry ? It is often said that it takes a war to make people study the geography of foreign countries. Why not, therefore, put up some prizes for competition and make readers scan the advertising pages, and by, the word scan I do not mean its usual, but the proper definition, as found in the dictionaries, which is "to examine minutely."
It is said of Scotsmen very wrongly (like their supposed meanness) that they "joke with difficulty " ; it is certain that I rhyme with difficulty, as I have . found out, but I have tried to give a rough idea below of the alphabetical verses which I am desirous for readers to produce. The entire alphabet is to be employed, that is to say the effusion must consist of '26 lines, the words and proper names must be culled from our advertising pages of the past twelve months, and no main word or proper name must be used more than once. Now for the example :— A stands for ALBION steady and sure B is for BELSIZE, order one more C is for CLAYTON'S if "you want the best" I) for design, put DAIMLERS to test • E starts efficiency which ANZACS are claiming F stands for FODENS, at economy aiming Prizes of £2 2s. and ZI Is. Offered.
We will therefore offer a prize of £2 2s. for what is considered by the Editor to be the, best effort ; the sum of El Is. will be given as a second prize, and we reserve to ourselves the right to publish any other attempts if thought desirable. The selection will be made as promptly as possible, and the prize efforts i
will, t is hoped, be published in our issue of the 9th. March. More than one set may be sent in, if . desired, by the same competitor, and if the above explanation is not quite clearly understood, letters of inquiry addresSed to me will receive the earliest attention. Now get going !
"Extractor" in the Danish Pressi In our issue of 2nd December, 1915, I ventured to comment upon a cutting from the Danish " Motor " concerning, what appcaredon the face of it to be, the London Motor Police. As will be seen by the extract given herewith in the original Danish the " Motor" B40
of that country has gone for me bald-headed. The language they use, too! It reminds me of one of Phil May's pictures of mean streets where a woman after getting the worst of it in a street row is exclaiming to another, "Why me own 'usband wouldn't use such language to me." It is bad enough to be called "a vedkommende " journalist, but when he goes on to label my non? ele plume as Skribentvirksomhed kendetegnes I have finished. I give him best.
Olia Podrida.
War work gives its opportunities. I ran across a former assistant of mine on this journal, Mr. J. Morrison Brown, at Birmingham recently. When war broke out he joined LID as a private, and by now I see he is a captain and doing good work.
Mr. S. E, Hewett, who has been for several years with Dennis Brothers (1913), Ltd., of Guildford, has entered the service of Mr. W. Rinman to push particularly the " Caledon." I gather that Mr. Hewett has been a successful traveller and is well known amongst char-à-bancs owners in the West of England,
That bright little monthly, the "Austin Advocate," issued from the Austin works, always finds a reader here. My interest is fixed this month on the fact that I am made a member of the Austin Club. What with the R.A.C. and the Motor Club, a Christmas Goose Club and a Friendly Society or two my spare hours are mostly appropriated, but 1 greatly appreciate the Austin way judging by their club.
A former employee of the Goodyear Tyre and Rub
ber Co. sends the following I had an unusual experience in the trenches. I. was out one night trying to locate a sniper who was thought to be Operating in the rear of our lines. Coming to a path behind a ledge about 600 yds, from our front line of trenches, I passed my hand lightly over it to search for fresh tracksand found the well-defined imprint of.a Goodyear all-weather tread tire. Lying out in the mud on an inky black night, fingering the trail of a Goodyear seemed to me like meeting an old friend."
One of Mr. Shankland's former assistants in 'the solid tire. department of Shrewsbury and Challiner's has received the D.C.M.
" S/5517 Corpl, R. Hunt, 10th En., Rifle Brigade. For conspicuous good work near Cordonnerie on the night of Dec. 15-16, 1915, Corporal Hunt and Privates Bench and Higgins remained out over, two hours, and successfully cut through the enemy's wire, although a German sentry was in view all the time."