A WONDERFUL OLD MAN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3013, 26 February 1917, Page 8

A WONDERFUL OLD MAN

"I WOULD LIKE TO BE A SCAMP FOR A CHANGE." Sir George Birdwood, doyen of deTig tliful letter-writers, philosopher and optimist, entered cheerily upon his 85th year recently (says the "Daita: Mail").

"I am spending the evening of my life full of hopo and assurances of a happy issue—a victorious issue—of the Allies in Armageddon," ho said to a 'Daily Mail' representative recently "I am an optimist still. Of course I see the difficulties; in the summer I had fond hopes that Christmas Day would see the end. If that cannot be now, we have afc last the consolation of knowing that the last few, days have flashed a bright ray-of hopo athwart the nation. Aid I know that Mr. Lloyd George, with his new and! enormous responsibilities, is the very man for the position he has now found himself in. With such a magnetic and masterful figure at the head! of affairs now I have every confidence*in the reconstruction, provided it has the full support of the nation." . " Turning for a brief moment to .his own affairs, Sir George arose from the sofa, upon which he was reclining,wrapped his furred dressing-gown around Ms sparse, small figure, executed a'courtly bow, and said 1 , with a smile: . '

"Behold me now—a saint! To-day I ' hare reachedl the figure of age mightily cherished by the wise Hindu. It is called by him 'cha-urasi/ which means 'the eighty-four-er'—being the sacrett number by multiplying the signs of the Zodiac by the number o£ the planets. Wnen a man is chaurasi —such"as I—he is totally exempt from all punishments, celestial or mundane, He may Tjecome as big a scamp as he> pleases; and I feel, as the true chaurasi of Ealing, that I should very much- like to be a . scamp, for a change. My; spirit is willing—but my legs are weak! I .am chaurasi—but I'm eighty-four! So I suppose I shall have to go on in the old way, but with new and strange things to meditate, pver." . '-'lie war has overwhelmed 1 me and! mine. Twenty-nine of my family are in it, and four bearing my name have- already paid the great sacrifice. One, truly, has so far borne a, charmed life. He is my nephewGeneral Birdwood, the bright star of the Angara: Thus, vou can understand • my close intimacy with the great tumuli) which has engulfed us all. It has strengthened me, _ I believe, for another year's watching and waiting always hoping and always optimistic. X shall see the end 1 , I .am convinced. Come and see me again on my birthday nest year, and we'll crack ai bottle for remembrance!"