A Mistake A NEIGHBOUR of ours who uses her I house to enable airmen to have a short convalescent holiday when needed always arranges with her guests that when they happen to be flying neat where she lives they will dip or nod, or whatever they do, so that she may know it is one of her friends. The other day she heard an aeroplane flying very low, and immediately rushed out with her little Union Jack and waved frantically to the pilot. As the plane passed over her she saw, to her horror, the marks of the swastika. The next evening (according to her story) Haw-Haw mentinned the fact' that the German aeroplanes were greeted enthusiastically by the oppressed English people, The Use of Schmidt I HAVE often found the name of the 1 great anthropologist, Fr. Schmidt, whose seventieth birthday occurred last week, to be extremely _useful in confounding pundits who tell one that scientific research in prehistory, primitive tribes and folk-lore, etc.. proves religion to have been a man-made invention. As Mgr. Knox advises, I say "And have you read Dr. Schmidt on the subject?" It sounds so much more telling than Dr. Smith. And at least
I have one of his works on my shelves, and into its index I dip when, I need a little ammunition.
An Exciting Life THE Fathers of the Society of the I Divine World are naturally very proud of their distinguished Austrian confrere. and one of them has told me a lot about him.Here is some' of the information.
When the Nazis invaded Austria. Father Schmidt was forcibly detained in his room for a day. At the first opportunity he left for work connected with the Lateran Museum in Rome. He never returned to Austria. Through a number of very fortunate circumstances he was able to get the eetremely valuable Aniluopos Library out of Austria. It is now at his disposal in Switzerland.
The Anthropos , Institute, which Father Schmidt founded, organised a number of expeditions for research work among primitives. Notable expeditions were those of Fathers Koppers, S.V.D., and Gusinde, S.V.D., to the primitives of Tierra del Fuego; they became so friendly with these tribes that in the end they were initiated as members. They matte gramophone records of their tribal songs and ritual music. The findings of Fathers Koppers and Gusinde flatly contradicted all that Derwin wrote about these people in his Voyage of the Beagle. Darwin saw these people from a ship; Fathers Koppers and Gusinde lived with them for over six months.
When Father Schmidt visited St. Richard's College in 1932 to see his confreres there, he expressed only one wish. He wanted to visit the grave of Cardinal Newman; the Rector drove him to the Lickey Hills where the great Cardinal lies buried.
Gipsies' Credo A SICK member of the. staff, reeding " Borrow. sends me the gipsies' version of the Credo. It may interest 'ceders " I believe in my God, Father all powerful, who made heaven and earth; I believe in His one Son our Lord Christ, conceived by Holy Ghost, born of bowels of Holy Virgin Mary, beaten under the royal governor Pontius Pilate's hand; hung on a tree, slain, put into the grave; went he down the black road to bad place, the devil's prison; he awaked the third day. ascended up to good place, my God's house; sits now there Ork my God's right hand, Father-all-powerful. shall come soon to hold judgment over life and death. I believe in Holy Ghost, Great Holy Church, Holy festival of all good people together, all sins forgiveness, that an
dead arise, no more die again. Yea brothers."
Graham Greene's Brighton Rock BRIGHTON Rock — that masterly study of a boy gangster—which was my first introduction to the work of Graham Greene, is now to be dramatised, with Richard Attenborough as the " hero." It is due in London after a tour in the provinces. If you know Brighton at all, you will have no difficulty in identifying the church to which the boy goes to make his confession before his death. It is obviously St. John the Baptist's in Bristol Road. Mrs. Fitzherhert's church. I remember telling the late Canon Newton, who was the rector there for many years, that his church had appeared in the tale of a_ gangster, and he was vastly entertained and said he would like to read it.
The author is one of those uncompromising people who takes you by the scruff of the neck and makes you "live" his charade's. After reading this particular hook I felt I had my hair smeared with cheap pomade and had not had a bath for a month!
The Hay Wain pEw wartime experiments have sue1 ceeded so well as the practice of the National Gallery exhibiting in its vestibule a single great picture from the evacuated collection. One gets greater pleasure from the careful study of a single picture hung in the best of lights than from an attempt to digest an endless series in endless rooms. A constant trickle of visitors, each of whom stays quite a few minutes, testifies to the popularity of the idea and to its educative success. With the glass removed it is possible to examine the details of Constable's great picture, " The Hay Wein." One can understand why the bold and realistic treatment of a simple country scene attracted the French impressionists, but one can also see how greatly these improved on Constable. The colouring here seems simple and obvious, particularly in the clouds. The
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