OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17645, 23 December 1922, Page 12

OBITER DICTA.

—♦ (By K.) '

From timb to .time an endeavour has been made in these notes to encourage a deep distrust of cocon, which tho Prohibitionists, as they openly announce, are as determined as ever to force upon ns. But my notes cannot be held' responsible for tho sudden appearance of arsenic in the product of one of those British firms which manufacture this debilitating fluid. It may well bo a fact that some enthusiastic reader got at the cocoa, feeling that for cocoa-drinkers arsenic was the only thing, argument being utterly thrown away upon them. One can approve his feeling concerning cocoa, but not his intemperate zeal, especially because it may lead to reprisals by the Cocoa Party—prussic acid in our whisky, and so Qn. Having thus set myfeoll' right with 'my law-abiding readers—roost of whom, no doubt, hold that the cocoafiend suffers enough as it is—l cannot help calling attention to tho fact that cocoa cannot stand on its own legs, but must be mixed with carbonate of potash before it can be digested. 'I his will confirm your misgivings concerning this lamentable liquid, and may give you some consolation-. Consolation is necessary, because it appeal's that the cocoa firm in the case deals in cocoa by the hundred ton. The worst news concerning the Empire that over was heard.

With some difficulty I have refrained from quoting Mr Chesterton on cocoa, but another' poet, Mr W. H. Davies, will and must be quoted. Mr Dnrios, a Georgian and ft stumblingblock to the "stand-atill-iets" who believe that the last of the honey-dew and/Paradisal milk was lapped up by Tennyson, complains in an introduoj tion to his new selection of twentiethI century lyrics, that many of our poets "seem to lead easy and placid lives," unstirred by the burning emotions and sympathies that make men great. of these poet 3 we tectotnlera, J Relieve, and lacjc, the sympathy and jeiievoajty of men that, drink. Christ, to perform a mirao.le worthy of our great-eat wonder, did not turn water into tea, coffee, ov cocoa, but into wine I There is no Scriptural authority for cocoa. Not that this tella against it, for there is no Scriptural authority for Proportional' Representation, But tto) •fact gives ojie gome confidence in repelling the people who represent cocoa as a religious beverage. It is not even a digestible one "until it is mixed with carbonated bones. A few liberals, it is reported in ,Thursday's art clamouring for Mr. Massey's resignation, and Mr Maasey, disobligingly remembers that a majority of the members of ffio House were elected to keep, him in office. One cannot but bo sorry' for the dieharija, whose case is made the harder by the news that the diehards (of another kind) in Britain are roasting bullocks in celebration of the extinction of Mr Lloyd George. If he is to be believed, Mr Lloyd George does not greatly oare. He had become philosophical even before the election, and had' turned from a fierce sword-waver' into ''a grave old gentleman talking more in sorrow than in anger."' The "Spectator" sketches the new pose yery prettily \ Ho bends his kindly, gentle face to talk about "the accumulation of property, frugality, thrift, health, gobrieity, industry, to atraini, and care," Finally, lie put la out tlio idyllic etop and" talks about 'tie "little place down in Surrey"—"not much of a I plaice," so small, indeed, that "when tli® re-

will iSntT n ° rwnlolu,, v Therefor* be M to Hi, ;; as follows: "Welf I WV: *(> '°ok «t "tw&s»*r & ' tho greensward ami* < mt> 5 lOlllUff VOU thm> i*.*« * • I ' A 7 s fwtor joy , M3i ««W.VIf % ■*&?! •>; thing of mv own , v ' Wl. '• v discussion th, fusion to "tiec Jr mM *4 Wtaudri. ua'aSfaV 1 * Sltm that air J X b. produced terpiece of the fi( m **> . "0 bedroom scene. J 8 y,, « JJ*™ <l"y no longer without t" ; British Sunday, the dMn« » "Argus" atood up so Baiifulh m OBM : ago, what time the Gov«, n L And'i" hlh ''"j Ana tic V( _. i Ann lek -° thf And the air ia dafi | ed tnis ; T«, P^ pl9 « re , *«d ! , the people are reallv\.„ tho seventh day. P9T"*~*B4 °h, give -us our English R, lri j.. . • ; > reverent air of *>«> k' ■ And the smell of the Sunday dim*. tho stuffy room; , ? - And the children, peevith i«j That Ve r d l oi the i ttrealM «4 llip '*» ] lhat chaateiiH the fust distiirW .lin , 1 postprandial nap. l °! htWi ! Apparently it- has no dofeodw/ - i discussion became ft tuff.nl.wap w» - 1 : those who like golf not like golf,, and it turned out the goJMiaters were a, majority, (ft = jection wa s raised against Swd S rL' : ! m another city recently by* disliked tho noise and clamour of ibt ■ game—the man, evidently, of IWh' Htory. "Hi.hUook'outP'heS ns ho pantod up from equate lag to. player just teoing off. mjj- i said tho player, "do you W Wj . i i thing about the game of golf P> ''f« | [ I do," said the wayfarer, "I ww | |in the stummick once."' : , 1 | 1 t if i' • ! The golfers want golf, and fa | golfers do not. If the wgqlfo ii ] a Prohibitionist, he not only does jot I want gojf, but ho wishM you from playing. Thiswek'i mtl] J brings me an account of tho 4eciMos f of the Eccleeifistical refuse permission to th« Boy#f ?ij. | Chester Golf GUty, "which least; | course from the CoramiMlonoNi tp ptoi on Sundays, "Bishops who'wow- ! thuaiastic golfers,' 1 the "Didl/'ilsll" reports, "were in f«vonr of'Uio moval of the ban on were outvoted." This is- iljpileiii"' Tho non-golfing Bisftppg mn (Hfifcif ; unbending. But those who under the spell ewed flitbijig fas\ theological prlndplen of tie . who play-%11 jit "ifir ths iltmttiyi : ;fej golf 1 Croijiiflt I; solvent of dojmfti list »»w l)ui j his second right up to the pitt »♦ to ' Bth holq at Shirley, siid cothiflg W the same again. Ho sees .tto from a new sursly niowl) ,MgW - Let the hards of the Oouneil into 4 gniiO| Audi.; instead of will endeavour to n>aks ill 609>pi)lj(i?<^