TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13741, 24 May 1910, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

In tho face of many The extraordinary things done Millenium. at Home, it is no wonder that outside, nations frequently jump to the conclusion that John Bull has been seized by the eccentricities of old age. For example, nothing could be more incongruous than .the programme arranged for this year's Royal Military and Naval Tournament. From the very nature of the demonstration one. would expect a display in tho highest and newest branches of the art of war. But while, no doubt, military science has been allowed some scope, tho principal portion of the programme is to bear the delectable title of "The Millenium," illustrating the dawning of tho time when nations will beat their swords into plough-hares and their spears into pruning hooks. Four hundred lusty warriors aro to sing odes extolling the virtues of peace. Tho final ode, entitled the "Peace Hymn," is to cul-minate-in th© troop- laying down their arms in the; centre cf the arena, the audience betimes joining in the -vocal exercise. The literary qualities of tho so-called odes may bo judged by a typical declaration:

*" Too long the nations reckless of life, Too long the tima pa-st, wasted in Btrife. Brave men are brave men wncro'er thoir land, To uplift and save men hand now join in hand, Honour tbe brave men, honcur the strong. Nations waiting to right the wrong, Hail the mil.enium! Hsil coming peace, Whose reign of blessing never moro shall cease."

One can imagine the frame of mind in which 400 picked fighting men irom.the Army and Navy would enter upon such a puerile example of tho most undiluted bathos. All of their energies and all of their thoughts have been sedulously directed to tho intensive cultivation of readiness for war, and at a moment's notice they aro called upon to betray their carefully nurtured instincts end to emburk upon* a display of what can scarcely fail to prove the broadest farce. Thero is something deliriously ironical, in the face pf hugely increased army and naval estimates, in solemnly directly soldiers and sailors to 6ing such doggerel, and.calling upon them to lay down their tools of trado with the assumption of a virtue they cannot possibly bo expected to cherish. Most people will readily agree with the explosive sentiments of a choleric critic who heaps scorn upon tho whole incongruous idea, and declares that it is as useless to try to imagino French or German troops doing justice to these "odes"' as it woukl bo to speculate on the probable volume of a chorus of licensed victuallers hymning the advantages of total abstinence, or to think ot a company of butchers and graziers giving three rousing cheers for vegetarianism. '

The author looking for a Human human document to ■,- proStories, vide the basis of a plot for

a novel, would find a plentiful supply of material in the archives of the United States pension Bureau at Washington. Many of the stories stored up there aro brimful of human interest, though set forth in legal language. A New York woman applied for a pension on the ground that she was tho widow of a soldier killed during tht- Civil War. but the Department discovered that a man bearing the name 'of this soldier and owning to his service was living in the Far West, drawing pension for disability contracted in the .ervioe. The widow's son was reluctantly induced to go to the Far West and interview the soldier, who was then in a Soldiers' Home. To tho son's sorrowful surprise the soldier confe-Rcd to being his father. Like many another man who felt the freedom from domestic tics that the war gave him, he became enamoured of the life and decided never to return home. Cases of soldiers leaving faithful wives at heme when they enlisted (says a writer in tho "Bookman"), deserting from the army, assuming another name, and leaving the impression they were killed and numbered among the unknown dead, aro not uncommon. Many stories of soldiers leading double lives are brought to the attention of the Bureau through two woman applying for a pension on account of the service and death of one soldier. It then falls to the Bureau to act tho part of disagreeable informant, as well as to decide the merits of the claims. A strange story is that of Mrs F. Newby, of Mill Shoals, Illinois. She was inj formed that her husband was killed at the battle of Shiloh, and she was pensioned. Thirty years later, a man claimed te be her husband, alleging he had lost his memory in prison after capture at Shiloh. Mrs Newby believed the pathetically told' story, and accepted him as her long lost husband. However, through tho secret service force of the Bureau tho man was convicted as an impostor, though Mrs i Nowby and a hundred witnesses swore he was Newby of Shiloh. Thirty ! strong witnesses testified he was ■ "Rickety Dan" Benton, of Tennessee, who had heard of Mrs Newby and her pension, and thought it good business to impersonate her missing husband. When "Rickety Dan" was released-after three years, Mrs Newby took him back, such was her faith in him. After living with her for several years, he deserted her, and wandered down to Alabama, where he died in an almshouse. Among thoso acquainted with the story it is still a question —Was Newby killed at the battle of Shiloh. or wero he andi "Rickety Dan" one and tho same person?

''Louderl Louder! I can The still hear the voices!" Modern Thus, so a story goes, Orchestra. Richard Strauss at a rehearsal of his famous opera "Elektra." Soma one said of Wagner's music, "When in doubt lead trumpets." Strauss seems to prefer weird instruments unknown to the older schools of composers. Ho calls'to his aid an astonishing variety of effects, but bis immense collection of instruments, musical and otherwise, is never allowed to get out of hand. A writer in "Everybody's" gives ns an interesting insight into his methods. One of his

most extraordinary orchestral effects occurs in "Salome*." where Herorl heholds with horror bis daughter with the head of John the Baptist, and cries, "Slie is monstrous!" The lights aro put out, and a black cloud covers tho moon. The orchestral treatment of this situation is thus described: —

"It is -an uncannily dissonant chord, sounded pianissimo, and with ghastly mystery, by the veiled and lugubrious tones of trombones, horns, 'cellos, a double-bass, and an organ,' combined with the menacing reverberations of a Chinese gong, under unearthly and long-drawn trills of the wood-wind. It is_not beautiful: it is not noble; yet it is the achievement of a master of instrumental delineation; and it would have been impossible of accomplish n.ent a century -go." Compared with the orchestra of Wagner, Strauss, or Debussy, Haydn's orchestra, regarded purely as a vehicle of expression, is, declares the writer, "as meagre and colourless as tho square piano of our excellent grandmothers, is beside the superbly sonorous 'grand' of today." The conductor of a typical orchestra of to-day has at his command an instrument of a hundred tongues, which can Miggest with marvellous vividness and beauty, 'the dim-flowing liqiiidness of a river's depths, a sunrise over mountain tops, the murmurous stillness of a forest, the prismatic sublimity of a rainbow."