Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-07-13

above the Houses of Parliament,
they might we'll have thrown this
tight little isle into discord.
without Big Ben, hundreds OF
thousands OF Londoners wouldn't
know the time Of day unless they
listened to BIC, which is a tre-
mendous. price TO pay for knowing
what time it is. Big Ben came
through unscathed and its bells still
ring, its hands still move, and all
over the worlds biggest city the
people depend on it to tell them
when to go to tea, when to pull the
stumps at cricket when to meet
Maisie at the pub and when to turn
the lights out for the blackout.
You see there is no sucn thing
as getting watch repaired in Lon
don. Well, that might be an exagger-
alton, but you nave to knock on q
door and ask for Willie and tell
Willie you are friend of Charlie
and Charlie said that Willie had
friend who might be able to fix a
watch inside of six months. But
this is almost black market BUSH
ness and is not available to the
average citizen. I speak from ex-,
perience. II
Ligaments Repaired. u
Three months ago I broke my
wrist watch while playing soft ball
in Hyde Park. In the same game
broke some ligaments and ten
dons and they were no trouble to
get fixed compared to that watch.
The first jeweler took 1t to looked
at me as If I were a mailman and
patiently explained to me that all
the men and women who normally
did such work were doing precision
tooling for the Government. This
happened everywhere I went. The
quickest job promised me was five
months, so I have been using Big
Ben as my clock.
This has changed my life COM
/
attitude of a dog on point, waiting
for this big cuss to ring When
I don't hear it because of a passing
bus or an air raid alarm or some
one shouting in the street, l have
to hike through Green Park and
look at It,. It's mile walk, so
actually, aside from the health
benefits of walking through the
park and watching the soldiers
make love to girls on the benches.
I gain. no knowledge of the time
at ALL BY the time I get there and
back, have completely lost track
of what time it should be and have
to start all over again.
This exercise is beginning to make
me look little bit like Bernarr
Macfadden, who is not my favorite
type. So I decided to repair my own
watch. Unfortunately I didn't bring
any watch repairing tools with me
and I had to resort to Boy Scout
knife, can opener, pair of mani
cure scissors and pipe cleaner.
Main Springs Bite Deadly
Until you have repaired one, you
cannot imagine how vicious watch
can be. The bite of a handspring
is almost as deadly as that Of g.
cobra and the internal little wheels
which constitute the innards of
watch like nothing better than to
leap from their lair and scratch you
and scare you.
My watch is actually now beyond
repair even If the Messrs. Elgin,
Waltham, Ingersoll, Omega, Longine
and Bulova were to try to put it to-
gether. At the moment 1 am wear
ing smart sun dial on my left
wrist. It's bit awkward, but every
nine or 10 Gays when England has a
shaft of sunshine I can come within
four hours of telling the time of day.
I've got good mind to 60 back to
high school and graduate again so
some one will give me a new watch.
On second thought. won't. My
high school days were very dreary.
I think I had the worst principal
in America. AS I remember, I had
a four-year average of nearly pass
ing and he steadfastly refused to
let me be valedictorian.
Hush-Big Ben Is ringing and I
think it is either Z or o'clock.
Distributed by McNausht Syndicate. Incl