TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11009, 5 July 1901, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The political event of the Winston week, aocording to Mr H. Churchill's W. Lucy in his laitest letter Memory. from London, was the speech

delivered by Mr Winston Churchill on Mr Brodrick's scheme of Army reform. Mr Churchill did not approve of it, and. would have "jumped the claim" of the Leader of the Opposition by proposing an amendment condemning it, had not Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman interposed. The youthful member was not, however, to be denied.; he had prepared his speech, and in .time delivered it to a House which, if not quite prepared to accept ithe young man at hia own valuation, looks upon him as the promising son of an erratically brilliant father, and is, therefore, lenient in its judgment of him. The speech, as a matter of fact, was an excellent one, and has, says Mr Lucy, ''established the position of the young member for Oldham as a debater who would have to be reckoned with whatever Government is in office. - Probably," he adds, "a Government composed of his own political friends would have most to apprehend," a . criticism which assures us of the son's resemblance to his father. The chronicler dwells upon Winston Churchill's .memory, which he rightly terms a phenomenal one. | "His speech occupied nearly an hour in delivery a.nd filled three columns of close | print, yet though the speaker had .. handful of notes he never referred to them for a single Sentence. He had committed it to memory, and yet, by bringing in here and there reference to remarks made by previous speakers,; he gave it the appearance of an extemportyieous delivery. '*Jf," he said, "I read a column of print four times over I commit it so perfectly to memory that I could forthwith recite it -without an omission or error." There are various sorts of memory, quite apart from the radical difference between a good and a bad one. Winston Cburchill- memory is apparently a verbal one. Mr Gladstone's, which is infallibly quoted in this connection, was not, though in its own way it -was wonderful. He gave the House the impression of remembering almost every -word he had uttered in the Chamber, for "no one could misquote one of his speeches, however remote ii. point of date v however its relation with -historic orations, without being pnited up and convicted of inaccuracy." Mr Lucy one day remarked to him on this extewrdinary display of m©morv It turned oat that though Mr Gladstone could correct any mi-quotation of Bis remarks, on any subject, he could not* have quoted them hinfoself. A* he explained he really remembered nothing of the passage -__i«iuoted—'"the only thing that guided him in his detection of "misquotation or a misconstruction was that his yiew» on certain questions being dearly defined he knew that he could not in any circumstajices have expressed the opinion attributed to lim. The context was sure to qualify or contradict the version] read into it by the sneaker whom' he had pulled up." * That

sort of memory is all- right for the man who sticks to Mb views, but it would be a poor thing for some politicians to rely upon.

Of Abyssinia, once vagueThe Charms ly known as tbe place of Abyssinia, where Bruce saw men cut beef-steaks - from tbe live animal and eat them raw and quivering, the newest authoritai'ive account is given in a volnme on •'Modern Abyssinia," by Angustus B. Wylde, late Britirfi Consul for toe Red Sea Littoral. Mr Wylde shows that he finds Abyssinia a delightful place to- live in. The affair of the steaks, it seems, has been exagigerated, at least no native now would be a-ayt-Jiing but scandalised at the idea of eating meat which, had no* been killed in the orthodox manner, that is with • a religions ejaculation repeated while the animals throat is cut. "A Christian turns the animal's head towards Jerusalem, and say*, 'In the name of .the Virgin Mary;' a I •Moslem turns the head towards Mecca, and says, _ismilll«h,- or 'In the name of the Lord.' " It is admitted that the custom of eating the meat as "brundb," or raw and fresh-killed, still prevails. At feasta tbe living animals are dispatched, religiously, in the court-y__rd, that the- first course may. be served while still warm. 'T am so accustomed to see raw meat eaten," sayS Mr Wylde, "that I do not mind it, but I well remember' that- the first time I saw the bluish-red (tamp of smoking meat (it was a very cold d_y) brought mc, I felt far fmm well." It is not etiquette, to refuse this dainty, but the traveller was permitted without offence to bring a servant who, squatting down behind his chair, disposed of such wild beasts' food and other dishes disagreeable to civilised taste. For the rest, Abyssinian table supplies, in their mixture of savagery aaad higa art, seemed rather typical of the country in general, where Christianity and a church system that dates' from Apostolic times go hand in hand with quaint superstitions, whaie mersons who never saw a white man are perfectly familiar with European goods and the newest atyEe of bowler hat or wide-awake, where vaccinatian is a thoroughly understood and observed precaution, yet in ninety-nins out of a hundred houses the simplest drainage and sanitary arrangements absolutely do not exist in any form or shape, irwas not the in-door life that Mr Wylde. so enjoyed, but iraJbhier the scenery, the. flowers, and the sopiety of the harmless and' bo-ipitabla Abyssinian pe-tsawt, whom he ranks far above either the soldier or the priest, while enthusiastio praise-is given to --.Dyssinian childiren-. Friendship did not always begin with a complimient. "On first meeting mc, they have fled soreaming to their cottages, crying out, 'Mother, come and see this horrible red thing!' " But confidence was soon gained, and Mr Wylde is convinced th.it ''no race of children are so sharp and intelligent."