THE HOME OF THE GORDONS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 267, 27 October 1916, Page 7

THE HOME OF THE GORDONS.

, A GRANITE WEDGE OF WAR. :<By Harold Ashton in the London “Daily Mail.”) Aberdeen. Aug. 28.

Aberdeen, the silver-grey Granite City, is the headquarters and the home of the gallant Gordons. Next to Edinburgh, it is the most beautiful, and certainly the most striking citv of the North. To-day, in the cold, bright sunlight, its stately towers and its great, massive buildings looked brand-new in the gleam. A thousand years hence, maybe, tl.cv will look the same; this wonderful city, this fastness of architecture hewn out of the ex erlasting rock is imperishable. And so is the spirit ot its people--a curious conglomeration of intellect. ajstheticism, and steady, solid money-making. In Aberdeen they Io not waste precious time in wrangling over polemics. They wora hard and they think hard. And. when 1 he time comes—and the time is now here —they fight hji'd. “Our citv.” said one Proiessor to me “is. of’course, permeated by the Gordon spirit, and that spirit was never stronger than it is to-u<iv. Evervbodv is at onef here about the war, and everybody is certain how it is going. \\ e have hail croakeis ami pessimists in mu* midst, ana have had incendiaries and terrorists v.ho burnt the ‘Daily Mail, but the croakers, the pessimists, and bit Guv-fawkeses have all vanished now. And we have th.', honour to present to you. sir. a solid wedge ot the war—the Granite wedge . , THE COCK O’ THE NORTH. The Professor bowed and. smiling, wiped his big spectacles. “We know we are going to win. Our great and gallant company ot fighting men—the gay Gordons all inarched to a man out of this citj with one fixed, set purpose —to win the war. Thousands and thousands have swung down the streets to the stirring strains of ‘The Cock o the North,’ and thousands are still going, keener, more avid than ever. Hundreds are coming back, halt, lame, tattered and torn, to our city s motherly solicitude, to breathe once more tlie heartening native air, and to go back vet again into the turmcil. Hundreds will never come back. But their spirit is still with “It is not the foolish, fighting spirit. In the strong country of the Gordons the war was never popular’ with us. But we knew it was r.ecessarv, and that we were fighting, not" for our own freedom, but for the freedom of civilisation. We are a thinking people: this we thought and tbiswe knew-, and for this we are shedding our best blood and making every' sacrifice willingly. There has never been the slightest hesitation with us, and we have carried on with this one idea uppermost—‘whatever it costs, it must be done” ” “MARTIAL COLLEGE.” To Aberdeen the cost is great in blood and gold, but with one thought and with one mind the city is working to the one end, splendidly, unflinchiglv, and with great courage. With wearying feet this day 1 beat the w’ounding streets of this adamant city to find its heart, it is a habitat of learning, a harbour of the gentler arts. Out of the roar and the clangour of its main streets 1 sought the peaceful sanctuary of King’s College, the soothing backwater of arts and divinity. Arts and divinity have buckled on the sword. Even Principal George Adam Smith has become a Principal qf War. He is as keen a, Gordon as any of them. Marischal College, devoted to nedicinc and science, is proud of its new nomenclature. — “Martial College.” Most of the lecturers and the ,third-year students have gone, and there are few left beyond the girl students. Even the “Lambs,” as the first-year students are called, are clearing for battle, nd the bigger lads of seventeen have glibly lied to the recruiting officer, declaring their adolescence in the hope that they will be roped in. Out of the streets 400 tramwaymen have marched awa’ and 400 girls are running the ears, and running them mighty well. The sanctuary of the golf greens has been invaded. Its smooth greens and its historic bunkers now shake to the tread, of armed men. The postmen are girls ; the “feminine gentility” of the city are working merrily and happily in the munitiop factories, women who had never done a day’s real work before now gladly labouring all day one week and all night the next, and so o ad infinitum ; most of the forty schools in the city have been turned over to the military authorities, and in the seven great military hospitals the beautiful work of ‘mending” is going on marvellously in this healing, tonic air.