TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11283, 26 May 1902, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

In Sir Wemyss ReidV "'* The Novelist just published biography cfr of the of his friend, WiHi_nf Western Isles.' Black, the novelist, one '"^ finds several rather anm_. '-.] ing anecdotes about one of the most n_> -.) vous and modest men who ever lived. So * J highly strung were his nerves that for A months after he had written "Macleod of- i Dare,*' he would not ride in a hansom oaib, on account, it is to be presumed, of ' the cab accident in which the hero i. in* volved. On one occasion Mary Anderson the famous actress, a great friend of the family, induced Black to go on as a guest in. the splendid ba_room scene of "Romeo aad Juliet," in which she_ was then "-tarring." Bluck having consented, on the night of th* " play he took up rather a prominent po_i- L tion on the stage with his back againafe a pillar. But as soon as the curtain went up stage fright seized him for its own and for the whole of the scene, despite the efforts of the charming Juliet to make bin talk and move about in the gay throng, ha remained speechless and incapable of move- *"' ment. "Presently the revellers departed, leaving tie stage free for the meeting of 4 : Romeo and Juiet. To Miss Anderson's hor- ' i ror, Black stuck to his post, or rather, to his pillar, thus stopping the progress of the piece in the eyes of a crowded house. The ' fair Juliet walked across to him, and saii imperatively, 'Go off.' There was no x«3 spouse. He had no more the use of __j legs than of his tongue. Fortunately, „« • situation was grasped by Tybalt, and he and a fellow actor, returning to the staged succeeded by sheer force iv dragging tbV paralysed super from it." Once on _ ' steamer trip to Staff _ Black submitted to ,be- cross-questioned 'by a clergyman as to the names of the various island, and headlands, rather than eaplain that he was not the purser, as his interrogator believed and.when the latter remarked that he -had read all about these places in Mr WilHsin Black's novels, and that the "purser" ought rea_y to buy and read them, all Black did f was to promise mildly that he would. Yet -,■ on one occasion, driven to despair by 'tbe importunities of the shopkeeper-post- water of a. remote village on the West Coast of Sect land, who urged him to follow the general example, and buy Black's novels, the exa_.- j perated author confessed his identity, to be _;, met at first with. incredulity, and then wiQi :d _** the encouraging remark:—"Well, if you? ~ are William Black, I must say you're-'*- "' d> : clever fellow." StEl; more " % to a nervouii man was the incident at adNsw "' - York dinner in his honour when the.«&_*' man proposed ids health as t__t#fCli_. ' ai_t_o_ sf "Lorna Doone." * '- "*>

M Aro the long, Over-exercise weedy girls we see 1 oh for Girls, every side the result etj - over-exeroi_e?" This rude ~," question, as might be supposed, is addressed to the world at large by a woman, Mrs Aleo Tweedie, who is a great . d and whose exploits aire thus described by i <- herself:—"ln my youth I hunted the fox and stag, rode astride in Iceland, Morocco,, and Mexico; have skated, sledged, snowshoed, and tobogganed in Scandinavia; followed the guns in ScattEand, and cycled in France; so I do not -peak without some, experience, and I know that we women con - do too much." Therefore she Jails foul of the girl who plays hockey or football, tennis or cricket or golf, or who hunts and cycles, .d in what Mrs Tweedie says is excess, though' by what standard she judges is not mentioned. She asserts, however, wit_ vehe-;' .- _K_oa. and r some repetition of derogatory ~~")-f 'phrases, that the modern girl is inclined 4 to .take a great deal too much exercise. ~ ' After all, she argues, a girl's first duty, ia - to her home, both before and after marriage. "Every girl _ work lie_;'-ef_w hear Yd '—the- _ad_biness of the -tome depends on v " - her. If she can cover the -urmture--and -d ! this is quite an easy (matter—she is show- ' lug ber usefulness. If she can cook she can- teach-and save in the Kitchen; if she .'■ -j can make her own cresses and trim her,.' ~ J she de__rve_ praise, and can !_&_}, \~-? tt» ten-pound note go as far aa five time; . 'sthat amount in less capable hands. Aftet a.l, is it not _a_ch finer to make a home -' «pd its inmates comfortable than to win » ~- : H; cup for tennis!" Mrs Tweedie, apparently thinks " profloiency- in IbotSx- is inc_mpatib'«, she does s not '", see that it is not necesarily #_>,' \| question between these two things-- -,% "the cup Tnay be won by the girl who most .':£ completely answers to her ideals in other ; - V" respects. "Ove-H»ewii-fl Irivariably result- ;v,. in tall, angular girls, with stoop- */' ing s_ou-d«rs and ugly gait, for if a girl outgrows her strength she' seldom acquires ";£- a fine carriage, and after all a fine carriage is far more than a pretty face."" We confess that we have yet to see these terrible v examples of the evils of too much exercise. *"■ Possibly , our New Zealand girls—whether i by choice or .other motives it matters sot J —manage to combine exercise with that domestic work which' Mrs Tweed*, appearto think is not exercise. Bat on the other baml t_e very paper which printed the . lady's diatribes p_b_shed on the same page - I the portraits of the young ladies who are _'/ the lEnglisht champions in golf, tennis, and ,|j skating, and of two others prominent in ■ 'X swimming and hockey. T_ey are all, so ' <& far a. one may judge, possessed of more than r< average good looks, and are not "gawky," ", "round •shouldered," or "angular." It is a v pity when Jeremiahs spoil a good oase by too much lamentation. - ,'

With his head presumably Noisy splitting all the time, —- , - New York. Charles E. Hands contrives to contribute a distinctly . ,d humorous article to an English paper ,on "'- ---the noises of New York. "It is tb» noisiest city on earth," he declares emphatically, and his description of the din which rises even to the top of thirty-storey ' sky-scrapers, to which he apparently flees to write his articles, *ec,ms to b_xr out h— - assertion. From that height the grea* >■y buildings which appear colossal from the' street, are flattened to the eye, and the great thoroughfare 08 Broadway appears ■'•' a narrow trench. A mail cart moving over '» the granite pavement far below looks like d a clockwork toy, but the noise made by '■[ its heavy wheels as they bump and rattle _„ over tliß blocks, leaps upward undiminished. The electric cars on the principal thoroughfares appear to be gliding by as gently as. though they are afloat, but the jolt cf -th-r framework, as they bump over point's, comes with a succession" of. shock, to the ear, and the air is-full of the staocato clang, clang, clang, of their bells. "I am sure," says Mr Hunds, "that the .trolley-Car motor man clangs his horrid ear-splitting be!!. . more for delight than necessity. Wikei the motor man, moving slowly and silently amidst a press of traffic, takes you unawares and comes near to ' running' you down, he does not clang h_ bell at all; the'sporting interest in your chances of life and death provides him" for the moment with all the necessary stimulus. •'' l But witen he finds himself with a clear stretch of road and no danger of hurting A anybody, then he pulls the full .speed lever / hard over, grabs with wild joy and exul- / tation the pulley of his bell, and clangs it / with marvellous rapidity and vigour as long / --

«s there is nothing in the way. -Then he goes slowly and quietly among the traffic and accumulates energy for anotlier wild orgy of bell-ringing. You cannot escape the trolley car bell, for trolley cars in long processions are in every important thoroughfare —all ringing bells." The New Yorkers delight in noise, be declares, and their streets, their railways, their machinery, are all speicially constructed for making it. The organ-grinder is not there a public nuisance, for grind he ever so execrably, no one can hear liim amid other discord. The hawker fails to fill a street with hideous yells. "You see his mouth spread open and his chest heave, and his neck swell in a mighty vocal effort. But no aound seems to issue." It is overwhelmed fci the crash of the ordinary street noises.