CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume C, Issue 11657, 13 August 1898, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

(TEA AND LITERATURE.

So much condemnation has been meted out to our modem custom of gener-

ous tea-drinking that it is reassuring to I earn how much literature owes to the teapot. Some- strong evidence on this point 'is to be found in the taste of twp writers of such eminence as Dr Johnson and the poet Cowper. The former was so devoted to his favourite beverage that ho ranks easily as the greatest teardrinker of his own or of any Other age. We havo.it on, his own confession that he wa« “ a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who for years had diluted his meals with- only the infusion of this fascinating herb, whose kettle , had hardly time to cool, who with tea amused the evening, i with solaced the iMdnigbb, and with tea welcomed the morning.” .This inordinate thirst for tea does not seem to have curtailed his life, siiice he added five years to the threescore and ten years, of man’s allotted span, and died in the MI possession •f his literary powers. A pleasant little story is told in his memoirs by Cumberland, the dramatist, which gives an excellent idea of the doctor’s tea-drinking powers. “ I remember,” Cumberland says, ;“~when Sit Joshua Reynolds at my house reminded Dr Johnson that he load drunk eleven cups of tea. ‘ Sir,’ he replied, ‘ I did not count your glasses of wine; why should you number ray cups of tea?’ And then, laughing in perfect good humour, he added, ‘I should have released the lady from any further trouble if it had not been for your remark, but you have reminded me that I want one of the dozen. I must request Mrs Cumberland to round my number.’ ” Df Johnson never considered his hostess, and, iso far

from apologising for his huge thirst, he Was at times insufferably rude and boorish. Cowper, whose gentle nature affords a striking antithesis to that of the great lexicographer Was to a certain extent a slave of the teapot. Like many a tired woman, he was “fit for nothing until he has had his tea,” as he tella a friend in one of Ms charming; letters. Doubtless he found the effect of tea particularly soothing to his delicate nerves. Poet-like, the social aspect of teadrinking appealed -to Mm much more strongly than it did to Dr Johnson, and the picture'he gives us in Ms poem of a peaceful evening,, will long remain a favourite one with English-speaking people.. We feel the cosy glow of the freshly-stirred fire, we see the “ bubbling and loud-hissing um ” throwing up its steamy column, and it needs but little imagination to hear the musical clatter as “ the cups that cheer, but not inebriate, wait op-each,” . ..

MUNICIPAL' THEATRES.

The people cf Wanganui have taken a very noteworthy and commendable step in deciding to build a

municipal opera house. Ifc is too much to expect the somewhat poor towns of New Zealand to endow such an institution, so that the public can haye good music at regular intervals, but there is absolutely no reason why the more important centres should not all go as far as this progressive northern borough. . It is. curious that at the present time the London County Council Should be debating a similar'proposal, of course on a very much larger scale. Seme time ago a petition was presented to the Council in favour of rate-aid for a municipal opera house. Am6ng the signatures were the names cf the Duke of Westminster, Earl Spencer, Mr John Morley, Mr-Aajuith,. Dr Conan Doyle, Mr Meredith, Sir Arthur' Sullivan and Sir Henry Irving. ” Such a petition should be in itself sufficient to warrant further steps on the part of the Council. It must be remembered, however, that an Act of Parliament would be necessary’hefore any portion of the rates could be diverted for the purpose, and it may be many months before London will be able to beast of an opera house worthy of the metropolis. The initial cost of the building and the necessary fittings might ' be anything up to a million, but even that sum cannot be regarded as extravagant, considering the resources of London. Napoleon’s Opera House in Paris is said to have cost four millions. On the Continent the great theatres are State endowed institutions, though every city has its special town-hall. The strongest opposition to the proposal came from that eminently conservative patron of high art, music and literature, the London “Spccta-

tor.” The project, we are told, is a deeplaid scheme to tax the poor to provide a luxury for the rich.. Presumably the “ Spectator'” also - objects to the State providing picture galleries and museums, and to he consistent, it can offer no objection to municipal grants for popular bull-fights, after the Spanish system. It is quite true that many of the poorer people make no use whatever of the museums of art and indusery, but none the less, these institutions have a high educational value, and it would be wrong for the State to' deprive willing students of opportunities for acquiring knowledge or skill. The step taken by the Wanganui municipality, therefore, is a wise and proper one, and is well worthy of mutation.

LIVERPOOL PRIVATEERS.

Modem methods of warfare have certainly made a great advance during the past few years —perhaps it would

be more correct to say during the past few months—in that privateering is now practically abolished. It cannot be claimed for that profession that it exercised a high moral influence over its votaries, and the most that can be said for it is that it has provided material for some excellent works of fiction. In “ Chambers’s Journal,” however, a writer recently gave some plain historical facts of Liverpool privateering. The first mention of privateering in connection with Liverpool is in the year 1563, when a ship belonging to Sir Thomas Stanley, son of the Earl of Derby, brought a prize into the Mersey amid “ great rejoicings.” It was in the reign of George 11., however, that privateering was taken up as a business enterprise by the Liverpool merchants. In 1,744 Liverpool possessed four privateers, which, during the French and Spanish war, captured about a dozen ships. This was however, a-small set-off to the round hundred sailing to apd, taken from Liverpool by the enemy. On the breaking out of the Seven Years’ War, in 1756, French privateers came in great numbers into the Irish Sea, and English merchants- naturally took steps to protect themselves; yet Liverpool was actually blockaded for. several weeks, and in four years 143 vessels belonging to the port had been lost. During the American War of Independence Liverpool entered with energy into the privateering business. During 1778 and 1779 no less than 128 private cruisers were fitted out, and almost all of them were successful prize-takers. The greatest of Liverpool’s privateering heroes was a personage famous in.his'day, and not yet utterly forgotten, namely. Captain Fortunatus Wright. Soon after the outbreak of the war with Prance in 1744 he, conjointly with some English merchants in Leghorn, fitted out the Fame privateer to cruise against the French. “The Gentlemen’s Magazine” for December, 1746, stated that the Fame (Captain Wright) had captured sixteen French ships in the Levant, worth £400,000. Half pirate, half xnan-of-war’s-man, the privateersman was useful in his day, but that day has long since passed. He does, in some measure, deserve the halo with which romance has surrounded him, but he could never have been a desirable companion in times of peace. He fought the enemies of his country, and so deserves much credit, hut he was liable at all times to develop into a mere- robber on land and sea.

AMERICAN AKMX PENSIONS.

The army pension list of America has formed the subject of much discussion, many grave insinuations,

• ■ and a certain amount of ridicule,, It has probably deserved them all. Although more than thirty years have elapsed since the close of the Civil War, the mumber of persons still enjoying pensions amounts to nearly half the total fighting force placed in the field by the Federal and Confederate Governments. Faulty construction rather than faulty conception of the laws is said to be the reason for this state of affairs. The manner in which the Government has administered the pension list, rather than the regulations which control it, is responsible for the fact that the sum being disbursed : in pensions is twice as .large as it ought to be. There are signs, however, that the- evil is being mitigated. The Government now employs a Pension Commissioner, who is a singularly able and incorrupt man, and a large staff of special agents, who journey through the country quietly investigating the bona fides of the pensioners. The experiences of these agents are sometimes amusing. Only last year they discovered that five women had just been pensioned because they claimed to be widows of men who fought in the war of 1812. Again, they found that no less than three women had drawn pensions as widows of a soldier who had died wifeless thirty yeats previously. After these disclosures it is not surprising that the greatest precautions have been taken to guard against similar frauds in connection with the His-ipano-American war. Recruits before being accepted have been carefully examined’, and they will he subjected .to a further examination before" they are discharged from the army. By this means the War Department intends to provide itself with a complete record of the condition of each man When he leaves the service. At present the war pension list amounts to something like £29,600,000 a year. The average pension is £27. The average sum which each soldier entitled to a pension after the close of the present war will receive is estimated at £33. ' Altogether 2,772,000 men enlisted for i the Civil War, and of ' that number 2,100,000 actually saw service. Compared with these figures the force engaged in the present campaign is insignificant, and although each pensioner of the war of 1898 will receive more money than the pensioner of the Civil War, the extra sum thus paid will be relatively so small that it will not materially increase the heavy burden which the nation is already compelled to bear.

MOBAi; MUKBEII.

The question so much discussed of late as to whether the mind or the laboratory is to rule bodily diseases is

one upon which ordinary lay minds cannot pronounce any decisive opinion. The bacteriologist with his armies of microbes, spores and gems must fight his own battles with the metaphysician, supported by his phalanx of emotions and mental forces. There is, however, one strong position which all students of mental influences can maintain Without fear of bacteriologist or materialist. A much larger number of persons suffer from mental ill-health than is commonly supposed, and upon those the powerful influences of mental suggestions might be very beneficially, exercised. Any careful and thoughtful observer must have noticed the low state of brain activity exhibited by many men-rand women who have actually passed through the usual school curriculum. Take for? example our Police Courts. There is not a-, day passes but one can witness a crowd of . strong, able-bodied young men jostling each* other to get seats on the hard, grimy bensehes of the Court. Of course, their greatest friends and admirers would not ventur&ito claim for these gentlemen any 'large anaaunt of mental capacity. Their facial expression is a very striking and unlovely index to their characters. There they sit for hours, mouths agape, swallowing the •unwholesome garbage and, 1 the poisonous, -moral atmos-

phere around them. It is impossible that the scenes enacted day after day before these young men: can fail to have a disastrous effect upon their minds. The habitual and vulgarised contemplation of crime must at last tend to destroy the moral fibre of people attending the Court simply for the gratification of their idle curiosity. Mental suggestion works slowly and surely, and with great subtlety. It removes, according to its intrinsic nature, the good or the evil latent in those subjects of its influence. To suggest by a series of Police Court dramas all the lowest and most debased features of human life must sooner or later destroy in the spectators who witness them with previously vacant minds, all the noßler and higher suceptibilities of their nature, and morally murder their spiritual life. It is quite time that public attention was drawn to this matter, and that those foolish, idle young men were warned of the mental dangers they are running.