WHEN THE ELEPHANTS GO BY.

Evening Star, Issue 17793, 15 October 1921, Page 2

WHEN THE ELEPHANTS GO BY.

O.vci; upon a time—there is no exordium like that—a boy went to a fair. It was in a land where fairs were, This was a great fair. There was a market for butter and chccsc and all the produce of the land. There wore hawkers from everywhere soiling their wares. There wore cheap Johns offering gold rings for a shilling a piece and pills that made wooden legs prow oil stumps. And there were side shows galore; bearded ladies and fat women, and jugglers and acrobats, Aunt Shellies and oocoanut shies, and many wonderful things besides. But the glory and wonder and marvel of the fair was the troop of elephants which had comn all tho way out of the East, with their goldembroidcrod cloths of purple and crimson, ami thoir great gilded howdahs on their hacks, ami their mahouts perched upon their heads. Oh, the sombre bulk of them, and the silent tread, tho great hanging ears and tho swinging trunks and tho gleaming ivory tusks! .Never was such a sight in this fair before. Tho boy who went to tho fair must surely see the elephants. Other things ho might see, too, hut the elephants ho fhnst not miss.

Well, ho went to the fair, this boy of the olden time, and he looked all about 'him, but the elephants were nowhere to he seen. There were the crowds in the market place, picturesque to look on, amusing to listen to. There, were the stands and the booths, all wry attractive. But no elephant-. 'The morning wore towards noon. Tho cheap Johns cried their bogus bargains, tho showmen clamored at the doors of their tents. Many ladies in glittering tinsel danced in the sunshine

on the little platforms. The hoy was interested in everything he saw. Aukdycas fascinated him: •Terpsichore dazzled him. He could not forbear to visit the hirsute Indy; lie must,laugh at poor .Mrs Fnlstaft’. It seemed so easy to knock Aunt Sally over, and so lo go home richer than he <nine, he must try his skill. Noon passed. Now and then he remembered the elephants and glanced round; ho could not see any sign of them. At last they came down tho street with majestic, solemn,

swinging step. Tiio smi gleamed on the; crimson and gold of their trappings, on the oil-anointed todies of their mahouts. It was the sight of the day, the glory of the fair. But the boy did not see them. He was gazing, open-mouthed, at ilie extraordinary fellow wiio was swallowing iron nails, and scraps of broken glass. He was trying to grab a sovereign out of a bowl of electrified water. He was listening to a siren who was wheedling his last copper out of him with forecasts of the future and visions of pleasures to come. He was busy in the sideshows, and ' he did not see the elephants go by. -* * * Those tilings are a parable. How often aro men and women in this world-fair - busy in the sideshows when the elephants go fir I iSce them, for instance, in tho library or the book shop. They arc looking for something to read, 'there aro tho great hooks on tho fhelves tofr.ro them—the. books with wisdom in thorn, full-of truth and beauty and goodness, rich with true humor and tho pathos that is at the heart of things. But they see them not. tliey aro bu?v among the ephemeral things—the farcical, the sensational, the sentimental. Tho novel of tho day nltracte them, and they miss tho novel ( hat is for all time. They go away with a bundle of monthly magazines in their hands —tho glamor of the covers has laid hold ui them. Tho masterpieces of literature they leave on tho shelves behind them- they never saw they were there. We aro all sinners at times—or rather fools—engrossed in tho sideshows. It is the same with music. Voting ladies spend years at the study of tho pianoforte, and in the cud the summit of their achievement is ‘ Beautiful Illinois ’ and ‘ The Georgia Two-step.’ They cultivate -their voices assiduously, and then sing silly little ditties about dawns and roses. They think that such 1 lungs as theso are tho glories of the fair. It is curious how in religious music the passion for tho sideshow prevails. A group of pious people—good, earnest souls—meet together to “ rnako a joyful no iso unto tho Lord.” They chooso for their singing some cheap collection of banal melodies—words and music equally unworthy; and they Jot tho psalms of David and tho hymns of Cowper and Kcblo and Baxter and Bonai - go by, # w -<■ * Wo aro all of us fools in Como things. In this climate tho sun shines in tho morning: nino times out of ten the day is overcast. Yet wo lie abed three hours after tho sun has risen, and tak-o our leisure out of doors in tho cloudy afternoon. Wo shut ourselves up in picture theatres to gaze at photographic representations of scenery in other lands, and say how beautiful it is. Yet wo seldom soend an hour gazing on our own beautiful scenery or drinking in the colors that play on tho wafers of our own harbor. We forget about the best things, and spend ourselves on natters of little moment. The woild'a a fair. All sorts of Ijhings aro going on, and all sorts of things aro on chow. Our interest not spldom focuses on the trivial, unimportant things. After all, what does it signify who won tho cricket matches in lingland ? Yet more space was given f;y them in the cables than oven to the awful situation in Ireland. Statesmen were grappling with the most urgent problems of government, while bowlers were aiming their balls at a wicket. We were watching tho bowlers. Twenty thousand people watched tho Springbok football matches, while the League of Nations was meeting in Europe. How many people watched tho League of Nations match? Not enough, to secure us a decent report of its proceedings. The elephants are going by; but wo aro crowding into the sideshows. This question of the place of-, spmt in our national life wants looking into. We are no enemies of sport. Wo recognise its value and all the many-sided benefits that spring from it'. But there aro more important things. And it does teem to u;. to be pitiful that it engrosses so much of tho time and thought of so large a section ol iuc community, there are" problems of politics and problems of economics worth giving attention to. Wo commend them to our readers—our younger readers especially—as more interesting and more important than the. problems of the tart or the pitch or the ring. < * * * * Wisdom is the faculty of appreciating values. A wise judgment is a judgment which recognises tho relative worth c-i things. Wisdom exorcised in life .discerns what is of supremo moment and what is of secondary significance. Very lew of us arc wi.-e. Wo give first place to pleasure, cr to comfort, or to success; to getting ouv own way, to winning a place in the | : werifl, to making a lot- of money. TJioso arc sideshows after all, and like most sideshows their promise is more than : their performance. Tho satisfaction to to ' got out of thorn is less than we thought. Often there is no satisfaction at all. Vtoj j have been told so again and again. \vc I i

have been warned by those who have tried them and found thorn wanting. But wo are hard to persuade. Life offers us opportunities of far greater value, but wo put them in tho second place or,wo let them pass altogether unregarded. To do one’s duty is more than to enjoy oneself. To bo of some real use in the world is greater than to bo a millionaire. To learn to love is infinitely more than to gratify one’s own inclinations. To have so sounded the depths of life that we have got into some touch with Him who is at the back of it all is better than to have climbed tho dizziest freights of ppwer and fame. Peace of mind, tho love of our follows, faith in God, and hope for the future—these are the great things in life; nothing else really counts. Once upon a time a boy wont to a fair. But ha was co busy in the,sideshows he didn’t see tho elephants go by.