JOHN-FOSTER FRASER.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 609, 11 September 1909, Page 11

JOHN-FOSTER FRASER.

v .: : A CHARACTER : SKETCH.' ,' T-; -poster IYa'ser,is ; .a'big''young "man, curiously old-fashioned ;ipoking. ,On tho stage, ho' re- 1 calls' the, portrait's.-of -Adam 'Lindsay Gordon." His'voico;is ajiuixture.. The base is pertainly Scotch, the'top layer is American, arid something in' botwecn, might-bo. Lalicashite., . Only after several'hearings', doe 6 one realise ■, that it is a renlly.'-. good' .voice,, indicating. id" advance whether he is about to be -impressive or comic or,sly. : Sly.:h(impur is.always a-6afe-card, and ho < plays it -'[often.ln 'his matinee talk on. "Women'of llanjj' Landsj" he tells how. one Asiatic raco'still : believes, \iri marriage'by. capture. "The young men' ' there': actually run' •after'' the yi>unp< wpnien; . ;In more civilised lands, I believe.'7—..A' : burst of light soprano' merriirient takes up . the j oke' several hundreds of nnirin'uring voices'explain it to; their, neighbours, "and;h'o never finishes, the sentente., His lecturo ; on.,personalities in [tho British' Parliament . (with ■ caricatures'-' arid, photograph's thrown' ori . interesting ' to those who know, but hardly[attracts a general audience, and he'[taiks o.f.not risking it.again in- 1 tho. other capitafevSiberia and America aro his. brightest';subjects; fthu : Balance :.of Poiver (mostly, aboutfi.the ;Calkans) is" his-strongest. Ho holds 'that', Britain can't really tell, what Germany .'isVnp to;-' and should,.;be ready, for anything/. He has [been, called";a' scaremonger, he'says., • France; talked''that' way before ;1870. In, Paris there are sculptured figures einblemV atic of. provinces./• Onei'of.them is-beavily draped ■ now; 'it is 1 the \ lost Alsace.. ' London's now • statue' iofc i,Queen • •,Victoria.' • is '! to'-ha've figures, emblematic of the'various parts of the Empire.; (The : hpUse. sees'.what is coming, 'arid gets! very ■ quiet.). "I 'hope none of ..us may live; to .see.ono[pf[.those:!figpres'V{a long -pause)--"draped, 'because England, would not listen to a soaremonger!" .The,phraser relies'largely p'n. soreeri pictures,' and. talks in-the dark, I 'tilth ■ 'a serious five minutes,in; the. light' at'each end. He> does ? npt;'perorate,.Vand< always, finishes by. .wishing,his addierice good-night; Off tjie p&ti' form'• he >;.gws"'everywhere, 1 .'and. gets; filled: • iip•mth .some facts .arid h?aps'of[information'. He .is -going.- he . refuses to put, pen cto t paper. until; he has' formed i 6ome broad gehcralyidea''of.;the as> a .base ■tO;start';frpriiiriSj;drieyi "Bull'efjri'." ; ' ,' '