TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 10954, 2 May 1901, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Deep depression is .settling An Epidemic on Japan. No more does of Baldness. Yum Yuan squat in an uncomfortable attitude boare an archaic mirror of polished steel md plait the raven tresses. She does his in "The Mikado," but. she does it no anger in real life, for the raven tresses re no mora. Premature "baJdltude" has mitten the land of Japan, and from one nd to anoth-ar there is a crying need for hose marvellous decoctions which, if all ,-ent well, would render baldness imposible. At first the. epidemic appaars to liave een regard-*- as legitimate excuse for lii'till and the laiigbter-iovrng Japanese got lot cf amusement over the spectacle preintcd by friends who woke in tire mornlg to find their heads, which were well Hatched over night, as bald aa so many Cgs. It is probable that the spectators ere more amused by the sudden change lan the victims thereof. But it has begin*!. > attack the fair sex, if it is allocable > use the term in connection with Jadies 'hose hair is as black as coal or night r on. s hat, whichever tho reader looks pon as the blackest. Hairdressing in span is a very serious business. The iun" and the "bring" are there unknown, td ea__ lady's heed is almost as much work of art, a triumph of the tonsorial ■tht, as the heads of our great-great- j and mothers used to be. Apart from I iing the centre from which project nn j ..nity of curious ornaments, the really ell-dressed Japanese lady's head demands j lecial care and she rests it on a pillow i.at looks a good deal less like a pillow an an attenuated chippjng-block.' The tpanese gentleman's hair is a very difrent affair, m_t- resembling a rnther narggly blacking-brus-h. But the strange seas, which has spread ov«<r the country ~>m Formosa is no respactcr of persons, id the ebon-haired rousm-e. is as liable its ravages as the Marquis Ito. The Comment is doing all it can to check the *esse, and has issued the most stringent adulations as to how hairdressers shall rry on their business, while, all the doers who can spare the time are helping s bacteriologists to hunt for the microbe it is causing all the trouble. They m't be happy till they get it. In the nantime the public is hopefully buying the hair-washes that are guaranteed cure the disease, while the oldest inbitant is raking up memories of a similar idemic that swept over the country *hty years ago, and spoiled the hair:ting business for some time. There are jpickms that his advocacy of a certain Iy made of seaweed, then used with ailible effect, is not unconnected with ; belief that be is one oi the few who

'•Whynot Australian drama?" r Australian was in effect the query lately Drama. put to a Sydney theatre audi.no? by Mr Alfred Dampier, in saying good-bye at the close of the season. "Why?" most people will feel inclined to ask, remembering the sample, of Australian drama that have straggled round this way. "The Sunny South," "The Pakeha," with other productions from the pen of George Darrell, "Chums," * fathered by Mr Christie Murray when he was touring the colonies, besides a number of dramas that have lived still shorter and more unhappy lives, have not given us the Australian play that will live. The nearest approach to this is furnished by "Kobbery Under Arms," just as the book from which it was adapted is in many respects the best piece of work turned out by an Australian. So far its success -has not bsen equalled by any other Australian book on Australian life, and probably the same ma}* be said of ths play. There is, of course, Marcus Clarke's gruesome work' of genius. "For the Term of his Natural Life" which stands by itself as the greatest literary accomj plishmenb of which Australia can boast; j I the same, however, can hardly be said of ! its resulting drama. There have been successful Australian plays, as there have j been highly successful Australian books, written by men whose comparatively brief residence in the eolo_"es does not entitle J Australia to claim as her own. And j there lave besn others written by Anstra- | Iwiib which might have been the work of | Londoners for all tb_ distinctively Austraj lian flavour they possess. "Captain Swift" is one of this latter class; Mr Had - don Chambers mright never have stirred beyond the sound of Bow Bells, and still have written it. And yet the history of Australia has been sufficiently varied ; its life has been, and is stili in a lesser degree, full enough of romance to furnish the materials of dramas that should win the heartiest approval of Australian audiences. ; The Bush, whether ohe regards it as grotesque and weird, the "wild dreamland" of j Marcus Clarke, or, beneath its physical appearance, notes the wild rough life, the | hewing out- of a nation, that goes on in it incessantly, is the very home of Australian romance. With such wealth of material lying ready for use, as the most casual observer of Australian life must see, the conclusion is forced that the lack of the Australian drama is due to the absence of tli3 Australian dramatist, and he possibly is absent because of the necessities of the Australian manager. The latter, to live, must please his patrons, and the support they accord to the Australian play, such as it lis, is as yet email compared with what they lavish ,jjpon the drama hot from the stages of crowded London theatres. It is easier, for many reasons, to produce a London success in Australia, than to stage "ah initio" an Australian production, and it has so far proved infinitely more profitable. This is unfortunate for the colonial playwright, who Ims, however, the poor consolation of knowing that "the American play has yet to be written," and that in N.w York no less than in Melbourne and Sydney, the play that bears the hall mark of London's approval, whether it be that of the patrons of the Lyceum or the Adelphi, Her Majesty's or "the Brit, " starts ita career with a hi" handicap. °

' Mr J. Cathcart Wason, Mr Wason ex-M.H.R. for Sehvyn, on the Warpath, has not been prominent, in the reports and debates in the House of Commons since his election as member for Orkney ar.d Shetland. Needless to say, he is none the srorse member for that, and as our London ;orrespondent recently told us he has already got to work on Committees, where he best and hardest work of most I.gislaures is done. But the other day, Mr Va-on, moved beyond himself, did address :he Housa, and in the process ho con•iderably astonished some of the Irish S'atdonalist man-be... The House was in J-ommittee of Supply, and was discussing he veto for the pay of the men in the _t-my. Mr W. Redmond and Mr Farrell stacked the payment of the Yeomanry at he rate of 5s a day, and had gone on to .sperss the loyalty of the colonial forces, declaring that they only went to the front or the sake of the 5s a day pay, and would ever have volunteered if thYy had not ■e_i offered the acceptable "live bob." I __ese allegations brought up Mr Wason, who, rising, a. our correspondent says, "ia literally a towering rage, to his full Height of seven feet or thereabouts, proca.dcd to dress down the Nationalists." He did not scold them for thoir want of patriotism. The line he went upon was more effective. Ho chose to ridicule their professed disloyalty a. a m-are empty pretence. He told them that all their traitorous talk wo. mere silly vapouring, and blustering, and affectation ; that they really did not mean a word of it, and that he was certain, in spite of all the nonsense they talked f.< mere sjiow, if it came to the point they j really would all of them fight for England | to th. last, shed every drop of their Wood in her defence, and die in the last ditch for her sake. This novel form of attack •__m.3 to have annoyed the Nationalists intensely. They shouted disclaimers at the top of their voices, bufc Mr Wason, undisturbrd by their clamour—a stature of seven feet naturally gives -a man considerable advanaga in an affair of this kind—laughed at them, and, when they shouted opprobrious remarks, merely retorted, "You don't- speak for Ireland;" and declared that all true Irishmen were loyal to the core. It is hardly necessary to add that this did not pacify his opponents, and by the time. he hr.d finished chaffing them they could hardly b. kept in their seats. If this wa. Mr Wason's first speech, a. we believe it was, it was certainly effective. |