Life — December 1, 1927 — page 29: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

— te oPAe KS SRS te. which marks the nine hundredth anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror, a strip of Bayeux tapestry should have been discovered in Bayeux, New, Jersey, depicting the passage of that hero across the Channel. It seems so strange, in fact, that the police are investigating the matter. Above is a reproduction (and what a wonderful thing reproduction is, to be sure) of the tapestry, which, it is alleged by the defense, shows four of the Conqueror's ships in mid-Channel. There seems to be some doubt among authorities as to the direc- tion in which the ships are going—to or from Al- bion. We incline to the theory that they are on their way back to France. ‘There must have been at least four boat-loads of Normans who were dis- appointed in England and who turned right around and went home. Or, if we must be seasonal, we may hold to the theory that they are on their way back to Normandy for the Christmas holidays. Can you imagine the bustle and din there must have been in William's household along about December 20th of the first Christmas week following the landing? “Going ie SEEMS rather strange that, in the very year be home for Christmas?” must have been the question wn all lips framed in probaMy the worst Norman- ih English ever heard. “Nol,” they probably called 4 af it, The old oaken bucket that hung in Noél—to put | oY | it baldly. j 5H | . $f! | ANY study of a Bayeux tapestry is made diff gf | 4 * cult by the fact that the old weavers were such hy bum draughtsmen. They may have known how to work looms but they couldn't draw for a darn. Bayeux Christmas Presents Early By Robert Benchley (Illustrated with a Tapestry Designed by the Talented Author) There is no way of telling from the above whether or not William himself was aboard one of the ships, because all the men look alike, if you can even call it that. The man in the middle boat, the one bunk- ing up with a horse, might be William, but the chances are against it. He is evidently so sick that he doesn’t car ho he is. He is making a mental resolution that, rather than cross this Channel again, he will spend the rest of his life in Normandy, or wherever it is he is headed for. The little boat, which seems to be hang air, is really, they tell us, in the distance. pants are having a rather thin time of it and are On the whole, r z in mid- Its occu evidently considering being ill, too. the entire expedition would have done better ne’ to have left land. WORD about the figureheads on the two ships which have them. The one on the boat at the extreme right would indicate that it is going in the opposite direction from the rest of the fleet, or else that somebody made an awful blunder in assembl the ship. It is on the stern, as near as we can it out, although the.two boys amidships who are h her confuse things by facing in opposite i merely as. figure ming tog directions themselves. Juc heads neither one is worth much, although we like the one on the right better than the big one at left because the latter looks as if the designer had tried to be funny. We gather that there was some vague idea of having the great black things held by the pil look like rudders. Well, they don’t —and_ that s for the whole tapestry, too. comicbooks.com Oe ey <