KISSING THE ROD.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 22, 26 January 1929, Page 8

KISSING THE ROD.

I have excused my late rising by my early waking. The early hours after eunrise until tbe day .gets busy are most fruitful to the student, who finds that the knotty problem of the night before baa unexpectedly straightened itself out and the brain has regained its vigour after hours of sleep. But alas! this summer the early morning hours are being made distressful and both mind and soul are lacerated by the blaring of A gramophone that is turned on regularly before half-past six. It is all very well to talk of being the captain of one's soul, but I would defy a saint to remain saintly when the soft murmur of waves on the beach, tbe drone of cicadas and flies in the tea-tree is obliterated by an insistent rhythmical noise that beats mercilessly upon tbe ear drums.

I try to picture the man who has sufficient energy at that hour to change the records and. put in fresh needles. I am sure it is a map because of the fondness, for band pieces. A woman would show a predilection for softer, sweeter music. Then, too, there was one awful fortnight when that gramophone was played all day and far into each night. That was during the Christmas and New Year vacation. Now there is a blissful interval of peace during the day when a man must go forth to the city to toil. So lam certain that the offender is » man. When in the early morning the milk of human kindness is changing to gall— which is probably a physiologically impossible happening—l picture him as one with a grudge against his fellow man and as resolving that if be must get up early he will see that everyone else in the bay is likewise compelled to wake. later in the day, when hours of peace nave soothed my nerves, J am inclined to think that he is one who for long years longed in vain for the solace of music and that this Christmas he at last realised his desire. As he wound up the machine for the first time all the repressed longings of bin youth and early manhood found an outlet, A soul wag set free to find itself. This year will no doubt be a blessed and fruitful one for him. However, I am more concerned with the deteriorating effect that this early morning music is having upon the rest of us. 1$ it only imagination that when the motor cars go out later there is more grinding of brakes than usual? Can it be that other men's nerves are being frayed to the breaking point that may result in an accident entailing loss of life? It is a question I would ask our musician to consider very carefully. Thoughts of reprisals have at times flitted through my mind. I have even said that one of these mornings I shall put- on our own gramophone at five o'clock and arrange with all the outraged neighbours to do likewise. Would he take it a$ a hint that we disapprove of bis behaviour, or, horrible thought, would he retaliate by beginning his own performance at 4 a.m.? Ho, better thoughts shall prevail. There is <i chance that the spring may break or that the man may tire of the beach. For my own part I shall endeavour to make my habits conform to those of tbe gramophone. As it starts its labours a little before half-past six I shall in future rlae at six o'clock and be far away ere its owner is out of bed. The world is wide and the beaches stretch for miles. By lying in bed I have been missing the freshest hours of the day. The water sparkles as the early morning breeze ripples across its surface and the sun glints on wet rocks and green masses of fern mantling tbe cliffs. The soft orchestration of the waves as they roll in over sand banks or break on the roeka are (the undertones of the great symphony of the universe which is uuiy partly audible to our earth*dulle4 ears, Yes., to-morrow morning I shall be abroad !>;*;««: o'clock, if not earlier, ~~E-W.W, i