NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 67, 19 March 1910, Page 13

NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

, Pngffism, and the tastes, dispositions jnd . diversions of the enormously paid professional gentlemen who condescend lo fight each other once in a decade, more 3T less, are, presumably, " caviare to the general ■ of those interested in such, matters as are usually discussed in. this particular column. Nevertheless, the prejence in these latitudes of Mr. Jack John--5031, little over a year ago, and the indignation of that large coloured pugilist because in Sydney,, neither Society or the Churches made much of him, as woi»'d have occurred in America, -will be fresh inmost memories. Mr. Johnson was, we remember, specially wounded because the brethren of his own particular faith had Ijeld aloof from him. It would seem that yr, Johnson is a person of extreme sensitiveness. "When not engaged in bashing an opponent to a jelly, his "capacity" for Innocent enjoyment is, like Gilbert's policeman, "just as great as any other man's." And Mr. Johnson's favourite pastime —no, not the stage—(that will come after the next contest), but lecturing. He has just delivered an address at the Coloured Men's branch of the YJM.C-A- in New York (to the New Zealander there is a sotrpcon of humour .in that colour division) on manliness. Mr. Johnson observed (and one draws tender attention to his lovely flow of language): "To approach intelligently or to apprehend the psychology of pugilism it is essential that the student grasp • the distinction between its venal side and that side that makes for the upbuilding :of manliness, -with all that, in the common acceptation of the term, it implies. ■By natural cleavage the subject separates automatically into those twain aspects, classifications, norms, terminologies, or departments. I take it that what I say is obvious without further exegesis or j Elucidation. Good. Depth of lung, | then, although of assistance, is not quintessential nor should its place be magnified in the scheme, plan or scope of pugilism. Sobriety, application, sobriety. Write those down in your inotebook." Before going to de : Ever his lecture, Johnson suffered a moment of embarrassment at Jefferson Market Court, where he was held in 1000 dollars bail on a charge brought by Norman Pinder that • Johnson had beaten him and thrown him down the stairs of "Baron" Wilkes' saloon in West Thirty-fifth street. Pinder, while Johnson was quaffing champagne, had said that he could remember when the champion used to absorb com■mon .beer with glad gurgles of delight. News of this incident, but not the cause, was," it -will be remembered, cabled.. As will be seen, Johnson's sensitive disposition was lacerated. It was not, as some here opined, a "pot-up job" by the Jeff"v. ries crowd to get the big fellow "put 1 away"' for a period.

.. Bellona has called off the dogs of wax. With a magnanimity that is impressive I and perhaps discreet, Mrs. Pankhurst anV nounces that "militant" tactics at public - ; gatherings have 'been suspended until :Afarther orders; and, although the details of the "truce must be sought, we suppose, in the smaller handbills, ye may assume tts^t ~M tBSF«ITf»- v ft :cjpse v time for the kicking of wardresses and muscular progressiveness generally. Mr. Asquith, it seems; is going to t>e asked for the suffrage once more in. polite terms, and ' "sol by the throwing of stones through /'?. ins dining-room window. Since he has jnst pronounced female suffrage to be ;4 good neither for the sex nor the nation, £ the prospects of his being melted by a *?, transient display of crviEsed conduct on the part of the vote-seekers would not appear to be very substantial. But per- ;?- baps the rants -of martyrdom, -axe in some X need of an, interval for rest and xecruit- " i Dent. ■ '

: .'To make a noise Efce a panSier yon. > pot the tongue in. the 6tde-o£ *tihe moirfch „,;;. «nd say "Kseook." [Ghat piece of infannstkm is culled '\. from the "Boy Scouts' Diary," a booklet ..■' of all the things a trustworthy boy . ' scoot wants to know, just published. "Keeook," •uhe cry of "the pantluer, is a Bcoat patrol call, and among other calls, 'end haw to make them, set oat in *he ■ ' book, are "the fofiuwiofp— - JacfaaL—laaghmg cry: "Ws&rxrahr . S jsak. s, ■ - - ■: Baset- made by tapping hands. ■ > . lion.—Call "Enough." " ? Otter. — "Hoi-oi-oich/' ;;.,; KatHesnake.—Battle pebble- isn a email .-'•■ l tin ibox. ¥; Hippo.— ITign "ibnsassssli." •'"' Peacock.—Ory "Wee-otk." ■ Our lads in the Dominion isspre taken to the scouting game, toot not, perhaps, f : : srifch. the same yivid en&nsiasm of the kds of the Homeland. After reading , 7 the above information, rwihich is bnt a ■ -S: fraction of moeh more of tie same sort, ■V.'Sew Zealand pater famdlkis iw3l prob- " eNy not feel ungrateful 'that cricket and .' ' football do absorb a little of the energy .-. '-which might tie lavisiied on scouting. ■ :33ie praotdsiiig of the several calls given , i nbore would, no donbt, toe an esiularat- .>. ing pastime to yorrfih, hut the effect of -; the exercise on the oral organs «£ -.'the rest of the oi.mpiii-miity might, :;. we imagine, (become, -wearing. One oib- : r *■ serves from the same handbook that . ; for a .boy ecout -who uses »bad language i&e ' pmusbment is for each offence a ' -•vnrcg of cold water to be poured down i £/ the offender's sleeve by the other scouts. V One feels inclined to question "Et apres ?: ; - le deluge? , hut surely anyone -who had r memorised a feY of the calls would -. .-; never be aback, co to say, for an v'• expletive." For example: Tow, wee-oik, /L> -ffa3i.T(rfl3iJwait the ihoi-oi-oich do ,; you mean by tmissssh?*' a viarieiion '.. vof the same, should meet any ordinary ; i demand of an exasperated temper.

A correspondent of the "Evening Times" says a professor in his neighWrhood has invented a device by which the common or garden hen can no longeT shirk its responsibilities as a producer of eggs. The invention, which is called the "Lay or Starve," consists of a bosnest, into -which the hen is hrred by an appetising menu. Once inside, the hen finds herself a prisoner. She philosophically devours the food, and to wile a-way the time lays an egg, which descends through a hole in the nest, is Btampea -with the date of its birth, and finally touches a spring, which opens the door and the hen is iree. Next time that hen -wanders into the nest she knows Trtiat is wanted, and after enjoying the free food at once proceeds to dump a specimen of fowl fruit, so that she may at once get back to the farm-yard. Incidentally, the professor has discovered that there are depths of delinquency in the soul of the hen. Only the other day he observed a cute old bird making for the nest with a potato under her wing, and he is now busy improving the mechanism, so that it will refuse to accept anything but eggs. The correspondent ought to join an angling associa-

This present Parliament, with what insurance men call euch "slender expectations," will have to be very short to beat record. There is tie fourth Parliament of Charles L—the "short Parliament"—which met on April 13, 1649, and dissolved on May 5, following, to be reckoned with. AtWI even if this were beaten the past has still a shorter Commons to fall .back oipon. In 1399 a Parliament met, sat, and dissolved in a single day. Bat in that one day—.the 30th of September—it deposed Bichard

Certain feehiona.'ble •biographies of the present day deserve no other comment than the words "A lie" printed in bold letters across the .title page. 03ms, 'Vithout the gloves," did that brilliant man of letters, and critic, Mr. Edmund Gosse, handle the Ethics of Biography, speaking at "the London Institution recently:— failing in most modern "lives" was their great length, while the carelessness -with, which some of them were put together would hardly be credited. Material ■which ought to be winnowed and sifted until nothing (but the purest flour remained was often flung together in breathless haste in a rough heap without selection or arrangement. Quite recently the biography of a certain excellent modern Bishop was compiled iby a papular divine, who would perhaps himself he a Bishop one of these days. The author fell up to 'his neck into the pit of haste and carelessness. Trivial and important details alike were treated on the same scale. Complaining of the shapeless vostnes3 of the book, he was told that the author "could not make it shorter; he had not the time." (Laughter.) There was a sound and unsound Boswell, and the latter abounded in all the more vulgar of our newspapers. Of late too great preponderance had been given to the family without due consideration of the p.lTLitmg of tihe public The consequence was a. certain false and timid delicacy, which had been steadily growing until it became more and more difficult to learn the truth about an eminent .person, if that troth could not be considered in any sense dignified. He knew a biographical work altogether suppressed because it too frankly represented the subject of it as engaged in trade, althoughsuch was the irony ol lifeit had been entirely due to hie success as a tradesman that he was enabled to undertake the enterprise which his family desired to celebrate. The biogra.pher should be tactful, but not cowardly; he should cultivate delicacy, but not false delicacy. He •should have in mind a clear image of the man 'before lie begins to set the portrait on paper, and that image would have its shades as well as its lights. His first consideration should be troth. Tihe snobbishness, the weakness, or the blindness of relatives should not be indulged to such a degree as to make the portrait untrue.

Under the heading, "The American Bid for Canadian Trade," "The Times" is publishing a series of articles from a correspondent who recently attended a convention of the Associated Advertising Clubs of America.

From the second of these articles, which appeared in "The Times" recently, we quote some striking advertising aphorisms uttered in an address given by Mr. Hugh Chalmers,, formerly general manager of the National Cash Register Company, at a salary of £15,000 a year, and now president of £h.p Detroit Chalmers Company, motor-car manufacturers. Mr. Chalmers said: "Advertising 'is teaching—teaching great* numbers of people to •believe in your goods. "A man-with big ideas -uses little words to express himself. Small words are more important in advertising than, in anything else. "A sale does not take place in a man's pocket, or in ibis pocket-book, or his cheque-took.. It first takes place in his .Tnind. "Big advertising suggests big sales. "The greatest force to-day in the interest of confidence —in the interest of

credit, if you will—is advertising. "All you can hope to do is to get a man to read the first five or six lines of your advertisement, and if the first five or sex lines are not interesting enough to cause him to read the ■balance the fault is, yours. "It ia ranch easier to make things than it is to sell them.

"A man is nothing ehoxi of a fool nowadays who 13 not absolutely honest."

That possession of much of the world's goods is frequently attended by the manifestation of the weirdest eccentricities on the part of the owners is amusingly illustrated by the following curious instance: In Vienna, thexe lives a wealthy man, a Pole of noble origin, occupying sumptuous apartments in the heart of the capital's fashionable quarter, who, when he wishes to summon his servants, does so by means of bugle calls. A favourite pastime of this eccentric is to drive an omnibus, attired like any ordinary drivel' of such a vehicle, wherever he may find aristocratic equipages to be most numerous. The Viennese assert that,

wMle he spends a fortune each year upon his raiment, yet he is never clad in any save the discarded garments of hia valet. .On one occasion the Pole astounded the guests at a ball by appearing in a costume of pure white, with the notable exceptions of shirt and tie, which were entirely black. To complete the oddities, it may be added that when fIiTTTng j which he invariably accomplishes alone at a table d'hote, he his reputation for crankiness by reversing the usual order of things and beginning his meal with a demitasse, working backward to the soup.

It will be interesting to see whether the recent meat boycott which has extended through many cities of the United States, and spread to Canada, will- give any permanent impetus to vegetarianism and other reformed systems of diet. One of the greatest obstacles to their adoption by more than a small minority of the people in any English-speaking country has hitherto been the absence of any strong reason for Tmjkrng the initial change. However highly the nutritive virtues of haricot beans and hazel nuts may be rated by medical analysts, a normally healthy family is slow to abandon beef and mutton for such dubious delicacies. But the popularity which vegetarianism seems unlikely to secure by its inherent attractiveness may to a certain extent be won for it if it is aoopted as a voluntary alternative to paying exaggerated prices to a meat trust. On the mere score of bodily health it is impossible to condemn all departures from our customary diet, even in the direction of some of the most appetising of vegetarian innovations. Most human beings are open to the accusation of being mildly gluttonous, if we once accept the dictum that we ought always to rise from table before we have eaten quite as much as we should like. If, when faced by the more uncompromisj ingly reformed types of diet, our appetites seemed to fail rather sooner than usual, it might perhaps be little the worse for us, from any point of view.