TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11461, 20 December 1902, Page 7

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

All art-lovers will regret t-h< An R.A.s unfortunate circumstance Adversity, under which allilr Fredericl Goodall'e pictures were latch sold in London. Mr Goodall ia a well known Royal Academician, who was at on time a favourite of society and the eubjed of special honour by Queen Victoria, who on at least «ne occasion, when lie wai engaged oa a, picture of Eton, made him i gaett «t Windeor Castle. In bis "day hh vorlu have soldi for large sums, from 15CK to 3000 guinea* each, is the price mentionec M being paid for a number of them. Hi waa a prolific painter, and for something Hte fifty years ho has shown four or fivs canvases at every Academy show. But n «. London correspondent remarks, the fceMoa for his work passed awqy, like manj ether faehione, and , in his eighty-first jeai *b baa become «o reduced in circumstance! Hhei. the bailiff took poeeesion-of hie house, Md flome 600 of his pictures, representing ♦wry period ©i hie career, have been sold tc •"Wβ? lie creditors. An additional toad «j patboe is given to the situation fay the «**that hia misfortune* had so effected ha *M«o, tiwt when the time came for him JS* UP *"* lloose w *" too ill to b€ «>wd, and had to be taken Like many aUm «■ Of fame, h* had retained ft number rj™ among them suoh, well- *■"» JW*I « "The Kight-into Egypt," !£***.«*». „"**> Soak, Ooamer," "The Kight into Egypt" r #*»*>* <Migh.fced critics and public **• Trtien « een on the trolls O f the - Much of hi. Ltt popuk, »nd beet watk deaJt vith Em: *» ••bjeote. Mr QoodaU w M a deroted

*""* <* the Orient, and spent so much WJhy **th and appreciation of the ***«*» pwple*. "For three month." i **«* Bedouins by a drago- : ■» Among them he found not only the .; wjj*t« far hi. of Jno&m ' ; Acuity in persuading Bedoaiß, to pee fe* • Mm. "Certain Snow* patent ourtaent-ootably in tie • ££* a MUtefad girl whose vac the renwdjr, fa ; . Off* «eflf terns trfth' |db. Wβ." : WWfe ie mw the geeet o f the Amba i» *»uw tiwm the embodiment of hospitality *«t J* *|i Trained that when once hV ie« the protection of tbe ,te»t ß hie iu>ete wm pPoUbly hwe no hesitation in folt JwMg him up to rob him. "Accordinrir r~ ""rawtion vouduafed to them aa to M» aoTMnwtg and wute. »„ extremely T»gne. It a hardly likely that at his f . HappUy tl» Acadeny make* some pro.r ««« *" the aaaistaaw of its needy i there are many «[ vho irouW not inUingly in to admiraM<> , 6 For, however hanhly hm, Ua work ia, a aoHd yaine wh i o h wjll turme the taste that has driven it jnto ob*rarity. """ The occupation of a police A Poetic nun ie not one th*t suc«ests Policeman, iteelf as adapted for [■■ **» cultivation of the muse, t aor indeed does it appear that poetry is a common weakness of the men in blue. London, with all ite policemen, poseeeaea ««ly one, end so far as one hean he has no rival in the British Me*. Constable Gtorge Mitchell, 150 0., who helps to «Hp order in the prosaio streete that have tak«n the place of the pleasant fields of * merrie Islington," is the policeman-poet ot tae United Kingdom, and he hm jtxst weehed the goal of publication. Hβ has »**«»<* to aasoze a public which, may have noted this fact with some uneasiness ttathii flirtings with the muse have never Interfered with ids strict attention to duty "It »ay sound bad to say that some of tt» piecM were done while I was on my bwt," h» confessed, "but of courae I never Write • line when on duty. The ideas come to me, it is true, when I am out at #ght, aad ;ou can't prevent ideas entering your head, but I never compose anything entti my woric is finished. When I get fcome to the borracke. in the early noun •f the morning, I sit down, and then the Noughts crowd upon me, aad I write 4 ywse after verse without any difficulty beA>» I go to bed." Fluency is a charac,J«i*tic of much of the constable's verse. Rhyir** fairly drip from his pen, and if •Wost.o! them are rather obvious and eugJfc"t>» et recourse to a rhyming dictionary, :Wtp aliair cay that they are not the fire: #u*fterings «f a genius. Even a, laureate gmy, *nd wVI eometiroes, write rnbbish, <«m 1 so far as his reviewers have shown. rr«pne of the jhjglee perpetrated by No MO 0. are worse than some of Mr Alfred Austin's. The poet ranges far and wide fyt subjects for his verae. TLe reader 4rope lightly from the inevitable Corona«t»on ode to some lines on St. Paul's, and thence to an address to a child. This i« followed by a poem on " Sincerity," in which the -poet feelingly refers to a habit from which he may have suffered: — " I love (bun not who feigns to be Your boon companion, faithful friend. Aad asks you u> him kindly lend That which again you ue'«r ahau see." \

In " A Wedding Psalm" we stem to get a romantic glimpse of a policeman in love: — " To-day we make the solemn vow, Twill be for worse or better, And I -will take unto myself The fair-faced Henrietta." Was ever bride more aptly named, for purposes of rhyme? But it is all a matter of imagination, there is no Henrietta, we ire informed, on Constable Mitchell's horieom. The poet is proud of his profession, and th« British publio -will read with pleasure bow nobly the country constable does bis duty. " In winter times when falling snowß CloUve the ground and trees in whit*, Beneath the gloomy sky there stands In haurs of darkest night, A man Vao represents the cause Of justice and of right." His fellow-officers, it seems, think none tba worse of the poet for his verses. "Mitchell? Oh, lie's a very decent little cliap," is their verdict—which, it nrast be confessed, is but faint praise after aIL The Coronation Durbar, to The Delhi be held at Delhi at Durbar, the csmmencement of the Xexr Year, is beginning to command widespread attention. Not tihf leaet interesting feature of the coming pageant i* the ingenuity with which the plans have tsen laid to prevent the cost of the prepatations entailing a heavy burden on the £na*cee of India. The Budget estimate of the toet of the durbar ie twenty-sdx and «■ ha' 4 lakha of luptes, equal to £176,000 sterling, and it is calculated that fully one-haJf of this sum -will be recovered. Like Lojd Kitchener in his Boud*n campaign, the Viceroy of India proposes <o run ihe durbar "on commercial principles," and has nade his preparations with this idea in mifci. Thus it is estimated that from 60 to 80 per cent, of uhe cwrt of th« .etructure* erected for the occasion will be (recovered ; by disposing of them afterwards as .build-1 ing material. Tents, carriages, and horses, purchased wholesale, so to speak, have been ( .secured ait prices which it w confidently j expected will be recouped -by eelttng t&ero j again in smaller quantities. The encamp-; ment and the city axe to be illuminaied, with electric light during tlhe three weeks which the ceremonies will occupy, but the ! cost of installation has been to a large: extent saved , by utilising a portion of the; lighting plant already ordered for the military barracks in livdia. The dtirbar held at Delhi in 1877, in (honour of the Me Queee, involved a net ooet of £50,000. The present gathering will be a much more magnificent pageant, bub the net ooet to India da not expected. to be more than flloo,ooo. "To a lar,ge extent," cays tihe London "Daily Mail," ■,; ihe transaction assumes ihe character of taraneforring money from one pocket to another. Care (has been taken that every penny of expenditure shall go into the pockete of Indian artisans, and their .employers. The impetus given to native industry hae been enormous." On the credit aide must also be placed the considerable increase of revenue wJhich is certain to accrue in the "working of the Government railways while the durbar is in progress, <tihe impetus given to the Government poet. and telegraph aervice, and the influx pf foreign money caused by the presenoe of a great Dumber of vuritors from all parte of the world.