WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 182, 29 April 1922, Page 6

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

If the big Powers would only remain compact behind s*eir peace pact there would be no fear of future impact. ... .. ..., . v ., The very first wife in the ■ world raised Cain. ■■ —■ ’ . One way to get on your feet is to sell your ' motor-car —which maybe is true in two ways. A Melbourne report'states that Federal finance is very elastic. This should enable Air. Hughes to stretch a point and spring a rise when pay day comes round. , . It is interesting to note in a message from Chicago that Kenislaw M. Landis, ’Federal Judge of the district of Illinois, has resigned the Bench to , become American Baseball Commissioner,' It is not correct that Sir Rob- ■ ert Stout is resigning the Chief Justiceship to become stipendiary steward to the Avondale Racing Club : there is no truth in the statement that Air. Justice Hosking is a candidate for the secretaryship of the New Zealand Rugby tJnion; and it is quite erroneous to believe that Judge Frazer is thinking ,of abandoning his position ae Judge of the Arbitration Court to accept 5 the office of official referee of the New Zealand Boxing Association. George Bernard Shaw; in his latest and certainly most whimsical play, “Back to Atetovselah,” pitches the first act in the Garden of Eden.- with Adam and Eve playing round .with a new world and finding things out every minute, with the assistance of the Serpent (which plays quite an important role). The second act scene is just over the way in Mesopotamia. Mr. Shaw has gone a long way back for his characters, but a “movie” producer has conceived the idtea of nicturing the creation of tha world, from tho time it was merely a nebulae of stardust; up till the time of Adam and Eve, whom he pre-supposes were blackskinned people. Clothing .the body through successive ages is said to have whitened the skin. Fve began the process when she deprived- a certain tree in the Garden of Eden of some of its leaves. Air. Shaw is now threatening to write a new Bible, believing the present one to be faulty in construction, and deficient in' corroborative detail where narrative is concerned. He believes Judas to have, been a much-maligned man. and Delilah was no .worse than a modern politician’s wife.' ’ "" ;

Fashion Note: “Steel' girdles, '. steel buttons, arid steel nail heads have been used most lavishly in” toning u>n dark suits and one-niebe feminine sex has acquired one by one most' of man’s most interesting habits, hilt in the matter of dress it was believed she had advanced far. beyond man’s fondest hopes. Nails as s. means of keeping the, lower portion of a suit up to pitch -is purely a- man’s invention. Sureiv woman’s craze for originality can 3o better than this.?.

“Seveniv-five per cent, of the world’s gold'is at present held’ in tEe United States, and thev don’t know what to do with it,” said ore.of the Labour . advocates at yesterday’s sitting of the Arbitration Court. His Honour agreed. “America is gold sick,” he. said. In point of tact, her indisposition is much more serious than that. . The very latest estimate of her financial temperature shows that she actually h?lds one-third of tlje world’s entire supply of gold and bullion, which' is' 'estimated at something like threp thousand"tifillibn riounas'. “Docs wealth bring happiness ?” a gonial'philosopher used to say to me, when I remark what I could do with an income of five thousand a year. And I would reply that I was willing to make a persona] investigation if some seeker after the truth would put up the. money. Yet America, with all its gold, is faced with a regular epidemic of strikes, some of them verging on revolution—one of them during its acute stage developed into « real battle with the Federal troops. Waves of crime ripple over the States, but as Dr. Bumpus points o.ut this cannot fairlv be attributed to tha excess supply of gold, for in Russia, which is snowed under, as it were, with an excess supply ,of paper money and no gold at all/there, is even more and worse crimes than in‘the United States,

President Harding throws ■ out th* suggestion that the nations of the world need more of the spirit of magnanimity with which Grant welcomed victory at the close 'of the American Civil War. • Grantls leadership in the decisive stages.of the war weto characterised by a relentless pursuit of his objective, regardless of cost—the complete wearing down of Lee’s resistance by a campaign of attrition. This policy involved a frightful sacrifice of human life, and was in strange contrast to tho personal humanity of the man. When the end came the terms of surrender were completely devoid of harshness or vindictiveness —they w>ere simply that “tho confederates should give up all material and sign a parole, not to take up arms again. There were to be no manifestations of triumph or exultation on the part of the victors. The lot of the vanquished was to be made as easy as possible.” After a short time the armies melted into the mass of the people without disturbance or disorder.

Grant showed many admirable and lovable traits. There was a charming side to his trustful simplicity which was at times almost like that of a sailor set ashore. He abounded in kindliness and generosity. His later years, after his Presidency, were shadowed by the ruin of. his fortunes as the result of a disastrous business venture, and by the nrogress of a malady that imposed upon his heroic nature a period of ceaseloss agony—cancer of the throat. In the face of this affliction he made a -successful effort to recuperate his financial position, by writing, at the invitation of the “Con-, tury Magazine,’’ a charming series" of memoirs which became instantly and universally poputar. Tho closing chapters of this final act of heroism were penned four days before his death.

, REVEILLE. I,? Now in the east a chimney has begun ■To smoke and an astonished linnet starts Another spacious day of song and sun— . j‘ Rises from some cool covert and departs. The air is bright and keen as tempered steel: Slow-moving ships of summer cloud go down, Blue bays unvexed by any ruder keel, While bells have taken wing above the town. 0 it is good to- waken in the first Freshness of morning, when the world is bread Te feed the hungry spirit; good to thirst For springs bf new adventure, and be led Into Aulpeopled places where the bluff Fondness of wind is . comradeship enough! —Leslie Nelsen Jennings.