RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 272, 15 November 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

RANDOM SHOTS

Some write a neighbour's name to lasti; Some write — vain thought — for needful

cash. Some write to please the country clash,

And raise a din. For me, an aim I never fasn— I write for fun.

Hats off, gentlemen all, to Our &ace, to which, it is an honour and a glory to belong. Once again the j^and old Anglo-Saxon spirit of bravery and endurance has shown Sip bright and clear against the lark "background of disaster and death. The conduct of! the 'children, women and men of our race from the moment the Elingamite ran ashore, and all through the dreadful days and nights rwhieh followed, was such as to will a glow of pride through everyone of i ■us. It is good to be the countrymen of such men and women, and it is good to feel -there are such children to grow up and marry, and thus carry forward the same tradition of] calm, steadfast courage in the face of death and danger to the genera-j rt-ions that shall come after us. The narratives of the survivors are all iremarkable for the careful elimination of self, and for the warm tributes to the bravery otf »fibers. Where all behaved so well, where so much real heroism prevailed, it »s invidious to particularise, but to Capt. Reid there should certainly bej accorded some medal for bravery. There was as much bravery in his action in charge of his boa* as was ever shown on Da-rgai Heights or on itine plains of the Transvaal. One tother incident seems to me purely colonial—the lady who improvised fishing lines out of stay laces and ihooks from hairpins was, Til wager, a New Zealander bred and born. The bravery which enabled the women to cheer each other up, and to make as liglit as possible of their privations and suffering, came of the good old British blood of countless ■ancestors, but the not less admirable quick wit and prompt resourcefulness which inspired and carried out the idea of those improvised fishing lines was purely colonial. An English girl would not have tiion-ght of it. q^he incident furnishes a bright spot ■of humour in this sad affair, and [raises a smile, but the smile is a ■very proud one, too, and I for one say to the young lady "Brave! ■Bravo!" Should Saturday be fine,' as I earnestly trust it may be (penning this on Thursday night as I do, I am not g-oin"- to prophesy about to-day's fineness), thousands upon thousands of our fellow citizens, .with their wives and pickanninies and ; female belongings generally, will have streamed out to the Alexandra Park to enjoy the Agricultural Show, which is now universally recognised as the most generally popular function of the year. Eacing attracts many, regattas are all very well m their way, the observance of Anniversary Day has waxed and waned several times in the last couple of decades, but "People's Day" at the show never loses its hold, and is still, as it has always been and always •will be, the most widely looked for- j ;ward to and most commonly enjoyed j fisiure between January and Decem- j ber. The reasons' for tne immense affection with which we all regard a cattle show are probably complex, j but there is in every one of us a sort of innate instinct towards farming. iWe all of us have an idea we should like country life, and that, if circumstances had been different, we could ■have shown our country friends a thing or two in the matter of breeding and cultivation. The veriest j town bird amongst us cherishes the j innocent and pleasingly harmless ! misapprehension that he is not a bad j judge of stock, and it is a profound I enjoyment for him to tvalk round j the prize pens and prod the unfortunate winners, expatiating meanwhile to his admiring women folk on the various points of the animals concerned. A Whiff of the country is, moreover, brought into town by the show, and of course there is a great meeting of friends who do not see each other from one year's end to the other. The almost universal love of animals, and of delight in seeing fine specimens of the same, also plays an important part in the popularity of show day. While, finally, the goodnatured patronage of the town folk by the country, and the country folk by those of the town, both having an unalterable conviction that they are the superior people, and must therefore be kind and considerate to the other, has perhaps more to do with making the day delightful tnan everything else put together. Speaking of show week, it is, I know, expected of anyone making any pretensions towards humorous writing that at this season they should draw witty pictures of farmers with bulging carpet-bags of a , shape never seen in real life, of their \ ;wives and children in strangely gro- j tesque attire, .with widely gaping j mouths gazing at the shop windows, j The humour of blowing out the gas j is generally looked for, and reference i to rural innocence and gullibility ought to be made. "I prethee have j me excused." My friend, with my | hand upon my heart, I protest I am not a humorist, and I have perhaps an exaggerated reverence for antiquities, and hold that these relics of pre-Adamite wit should be allowed to rest in~peace. As a fact, it's all so i Utterly unnatural. The country boy i and girl of to-day, let alone the old people, are a match for the townsfolk, whichever way you take them, fliiey are just as knowing they are onaa average Just as well dressed,! and they are just as cute and suspicious of guile as the town-bred brothers. Moreover, it is just aS likely they may "take down" some city fly-flat as that they wm be fleeced by * city-bred vulture. The innocence of

Hodge is an exploded idea. There Is, in percentage to the population, just as much "cross" work amongst country bumpkins as amongst guttersnipes and larrikins. As Dickens says in one of his works, "There is no crime, no vice, no low cunning of the town which has not its counterpart in the country. There is no striking virtue, no beautiful attribute of unselfishness or stainless innocence and purity of the country which may not be discovered in the lowest purlieus of a great citj'." <i"i"i"i"J"l"i"i"i"i > The Sport of Kings (and incidentally blacklegs) not, infrequently sheds a fierce light on some very unlovely weaknesses of human nature. Put surely the most disagreeable and contemptible are those malig-nant manifestations of disappointed greed with which a crowd that has lost its money will sometimes greet an owner who has given it offence| The demonstration against Mr G. G. Stead the other day at Christehureh seems to nic a particularly disgraceful incident, and to reflect vicarious shame on the great Canterbury gathering. A lot of ignorant a-nd optimistic persons risked their money on a certain horse. They were told —told distinctly b} f the owner—that while the horse was working well, there was nothing to justify the wild support accorded to him on every side. Confident in its own opinion, the crowd took little notice of this warning, and in the vernacular "went down" exceedingly heavy. Next day over a different distance, at different weights, with several accidents to help him, the displaced popular equine idol wins— and the crowd who had thrown his chance aside in disgust yell themselves hoarse in execration of the owner. It is a wretched business. Surely, if there is one thing racing should teach, it is to take a beating with a brave face. As a matter of fact, big bettors generally do. It is the nian who has lost his five shillings who screams loudest. •^H»s.'H;"s"H:"l"f On Monday—if all goes well — Eugen Sandow will arrive from Sydney. When the famous strong man reached Melbourne and Sydney the astute manager absolutely managed to persuade the Mayors of those cities to give him a rnuncipal reception. No doubt a similar effort will be made here and in the South, and I most earnestly trust that Air KMd and the Mayors of Wellington, Christ-church and Dunedin will have learned w7isdom from the Wilson Barrett fiasco, and refuse to be drawn into any such [folly, or to thus prostitute the dignity of the office and lower the position of chief magistrate of the city. Because a mistake was made'in Melbourne and Sydney, and the Mayors of those cities failed to see the impropriety of making advertising mediums of themselves, there is no reason that New Zealand should follow suit. The case of Wilson Barrett was bad, but we need not make it worse by repeating the. blunder with Sandow. Not that I do not believe Mr Sandow to be, as is claimed for him, one of the wonders of the world. In the world of strength he certainly is, and he occupies a far higher position on the music hall and variety theatre stage than ever did Barrett as an actor. But, after ali, he is here merely as a showman, as a man to ma«ke what money He can out of us, so he no more merits a Mayor or municipal reception than any bagman or insurance tout who may be amongst his fellow-passengers. To extend a civic welcome to folk like Wilson Barrett, and Sandow, and to give them public opportunities of patting us on the back, or criticising us, is absurd, and I trust the - Mayors of New Zealand cities will not yield to the blandishments of ag-enrts in these matters, but send a polite but dignified refusal when such a request is made. Somehow, I do not fancy Mayor Kidd will be bitten twice. He has pa-olbably learned his lesson. Among innovations with the object of interesting public school children in their work the headmaster of Newton West School hit upon the idea of occasionally lending the youngsters of a class a magazine apiece to read over the week end. iOn the Monday their tasks included ! writing a short essay in scnool I hours on the article which appealed to them as the most interesting }in the magazine lent them. One I small boy of some 10 summers was at tracted by something he read about Mark Twain, and when he returned to school on Monday he relieved ; himself in an essay, which he labelI led "Life of Mark Twain." The {youthful biographer delivered bimI self as follows: "There are probably ! more stories attributed to Mark j TAvain than any other living author, i but he is not very powerful; so peoj pie would not care to take much notice of him. He.was about to go to the Pyramids in Egypt, when one of his guards said that he was ordered to prison on account of not paying taxes to the king's servants. . . .

At the Pyramids he threw himself into the Nile, because he did not want to return to prison. But this had no effect, for his brother had to put up with his condemnation. At a little village near the Pyramids he was executed by one of the King's Servants." There .are parts of this essay which are real good, and one can understand the headmaster sending it on to the famous humorist. In acknowledging receipt of the composition Mr Clemens wrote: "It is just delicious! I can't think where the little fellow got his inspiration or his facts, but I am glad you reficued his essay, and I thank you for letting me see it."