TOPICS OF THE DAY,

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13907, 5 December 1910, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY,

"Amongst the tall books The which never have been Philosophy and never will be pub-'

of Pets. lisbed, is the History of

Pete —a folio without which no library is complete in Dreamland." On this text a writer in 'The Times AVomeri's Supplement" lately discussed what we should feel inclined to call "the philosophy of pets." It is, in the beginning, a question of motives." Why has man, with all his practical interests, and with all his human affections, combined this curious little side-track of feeling, which leads him to seek comradeship with birds or beaets, or even insects and reptiles, that cannot in any way minister to his needs? The essayist classifies the attractive power of pets into three divisions. There were first the pets kept as a symbol of sanctity or innocence. Amongst these we find the dove and the lamb. Next came the familiar spirit adopted as a symbol of malign power. Tho black cat, a deity in Pharaoh's time, a demon in the middle ages, appeals etill by virtue of its mysterious history. So does the raven,

and the long-lived parrot, about which uncanny legends cling. Thirdly, the domestic pet took the place of tfoe King's dwarf, supplying the touch of grotesque once' obtained by human servitude, and so\a place was found for comical small things. "It's a shame to laugh at him," said a. child whose grown-up belongings roared at the hippopotamus in the Zoo. "Well, you couldn't make a pet of him," remarked a friend." "Yes I could, if he was little enough," the child re-

plied—most truthfully, since the charm of the "Teddy bear"' is that it britgs down to nursery size an otherwise unmanageable animal, and no doubt a race of living hineoeotami some six

■inches long would soon become fashionable as pets. However, proportion seems rather slightly observed by some children. Wβ know, for example, a small girl, not three, whose warmest affections go' out to a cart-horse. The true philosophy of the mafter was expressed by tho young writer who declared, "My doormouse is a great comfort to mc, and I love it more than my do!ls, 'cause it loves mc more than my dolls." With this wise young judge every pet-lover will sympathise, as warmly as with the delightful whose dachshund was allowed to attend her wedding. "She thought her bsst dog had as much right to be present as his best man." Those in search of an epiThe gram might say that Two English history is largely Roses, fiction. At any rate, many of the picturesque stories wo learnt in our childhood are scouted by researchers with a' passion for accuracy. One of the new series of historical paintings in the British Houses of Parliament represents the scene in Old Temple Gardens, wlien, according to tradition, the Yorkists and the Lancastrians plucked roses for party badges. This picture is to have for its official description a long extract from tho scene in "Henry VI," in which the incident is depicted. Plantogenet: Sinoo yon arc tongue-tied and co loath to epetk. In dumb eignificants proclaim your thoughts; Let him that is a true-born gentleman And stands upon the honour of his birth, If he suppose that I have pleaded truth, From off this brier pluck a white rose with mc. Somerset: Let him that is no coward nor no flatterer, But dare maintain the party of the truth, Pluck a red roae from off this thorn with m*. And so on. An official imprimatur is thus given te the romantic old story. A correspondent of "Tho Times," however, is quite indignant at this porpetu* ation of what he calls "a childish, palpable, impossible myth." Even the phrase, "Wars of the Roses," he declares, is not historically accurate, for the red rose did not make its appearance as a party emblem until tho field of Bosworth, which brought the struggle te a close. But even supposing there had been a red rose, is it possible, he asks, to imagine mon about to engage in a deadly dynastic struggle meeting beforehand to argue the question and choose party badges? Imagine the promoters of the revolution in Portugal having a discussion beforehand with the King's Ministers to discuss the relative merits of the sides, and select flags. >"Yet such a picture would not be one whit more ludicrous than that that it is proposed to exhibit on tho walls of our central institution, a veritable parade of ignorance." He hopes tho country may yet be saved this humiliation, but tho Commissioner of Works seemed to be quite unmoved by his protest, and two days after h© wrote the pictures wero all in their places. So tho story of the plucking of the roses may have a better chance of surviving than that other discredited tale of Alfred and the cakes.