CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12533, 21 June 1901, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

•The death of Queen Victoria has rather interfered with the popularity of thait excruciating composition

JINGO BALLADS.

" The Soldiers of the Queen," but the ballad haa had a- vogue unequalled in the music 'halls since the d'ays when Macdermott created a furore with Hunt's famous ditty— We don't -wiwii to fight, -but by Jingo if we do We've got -iihe skips, we've got the mea, we've got the money too. That song gave birth to a nickname which promises to surviw the memory of either vocalist or composer, and the "Pall Mail Gazette" goes so far as to declare it the most important political song of the last century, at any rate subsequently to the peace of 1815. It was in> 1878 when feeling ran high concerning the Busso-Turkish Wot that Maodermott made his great hit, and -eveni Cabinet Ministers might i.ave been seen in' the 1 stalls of the music halls. Jingo ballads have had' a good deal to do with the persistence of the Imperial spirit among tine London crowds. Majuba brought a great crop of lyrics, and it was in those 'days that Miss Vesta Tilley used to inquire nightly "When shall Old England be Herself dnbe more?" After Tel-el-kebir, Mr Harry Rickards replied with "We're not dead yet," and then. Charles Godfrey took the town by storm with "Too late, too late to save him," a Gordon ballad, and " Fighting with the Gallant Fusiliers." Bub there was really no sustained success in' patriotic music until Mr Leslie Stuart's ,'-'-Soldiers of the £l»eea". pw»e »juk J&

Kipling's "Absent-minded. Beggar/' like Mr Pat Kafferty's "What do you think of the Irish now?" and Countess RusseU'a " Bravo! Dublin "Fusiliers," is already dead, and no song of conspicuous merit*" ■seems likely to take its place. . The music-halls ring for a night or two with songs like our own "John Bull, Junior" and' "The Boers have got my Daddy," and' one popular swinging chorus urges the public to " Take the muzzle off tho lion and let him. have a go," but "Soldiers of the Queen" is the only patriotic ballad of recent years that can be compared, in popularity to "We" don't want to fight," and Mr Stuart's song is already out of fashion.

misfortune's FATOTOITE.

Few men have been so assailed by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as' an, snmate of <the Guild*

ford''Workhouse Infirmary, who recently died. James Cutterson Pratt, the ;-oa of a barrister with a life interest in property in 'Northumberland, was bom in 1835. At thirteen he became a cadet in, the Naval College of the East India Company, andwhile in his 'teens was fighting! Malay pirates in Borneo. A lieutenant at twentyone, he took part in the Kaffir War of 1852-53. Wherever there was fighting,. Pratt was sure to be in it. At a bursting shell smashed him 'badly, but a shattered leg was only the first of Foxtuners buffets. He was nursed and patched up, and got back to India again just in , time to take an active part in the fierce fighting at Lucknow, Delhi and Cawnpore. He emerged with distinction, and Forrcn» «eemed for once to smile on him, for he •was made Resident Magistrate of a ciistriot in the Bombay Presidency, and married a niece' of Sir William Ghaytor. But the sunshine of domestic happiness was soon clouded over. The vessel that was taking his •'irife and daughters to England went down off Cape Coast with all on hoard.' He was invalided Home, but l the shock had been i3o great that 'he was landed: at Cape Town, and remained there two years with cloudedi mind. And when he recovered it was only ■ to find that he had been reported dead and (struck off the- company's list of those entitled to pensions. He gave up trying to persuade the company that he was alive, and combined -sheep-farming at Rondebosch •with coast surveying for the Cape G-overn-jment. On the advice of a geologist ha purchased for £350 some 13,000 acres near the Limpopo, including the site of Johannesburg. But scarcely had he settled: down to his farming, when <tbe Zulu War> 'broke out. He joined the volunt-sers .under Lord Chelmsford, and was one of the 60!) who inarched to Pretoria after the revolt of the Boers. When the South, African Republic was declared, 'Pratt, in spite of all temptation to belong to tha Boer nation, remained an Englishman, was-escorted acrosf. the ■border, and had his property confiscated'. But the unkindsst cut, of all was eoiil to come. Whem he got back to England he founds, that not only were all his relatives dead, tout that he himself was, too. At least so me War Office told him; its books said he had been "dead fifteen yearn, and that settled the matter. When he protested that'.in spite of all his battles on behalf of an ungrateful country he was still alive, he was told in -affect that his death was a "chose jugee," and that the War Office authorities could not see a dead man. Pratt came to the conclusion that perhaps the War Office was right after all,, and that he was better dead. Without friends and •■without money, he sought refuge in the Workhouserlnfirmaiy, and there, after lingering out his last years, he died a pauper.

An American newspaperman Ihas just darted a society im Buffalo to •which he has given this cuiiious title. The members are not pledg-

THE OKDER Off don't knock.

ed, as the name might suggest, to abstain from personal violence" or ironi entering a stranger's room -without announcing themselves, but simply to refrain from speaking ill of—from " knocking "—their friends and acquaintances. The slangy title was adopted because the founder recognised iihat if he called his orgaaiisation a "S»ciefcy for Ithe "Promotion of Goodfellowship," or -anything like that, lots 'of the people h© hoped to reach WGuld be alaraed by the mere name. The objects of the "Order" are described in the articles of incorporation as follows: —"(1) To overcome in its members -the deplorable habit of speaking ill of our fellows, otherwise known as knocking, and by precept and example trying to indues others to do the same. (2) To better the social and moral condition: of mankind by a true, devotion in its members to the cause of charity ia its broadest sense. (3) To keep the Golden Rule ever in the minds of its members. (4) To bind its members together in a social and fraternal manner." The motto of the Order is, "If you can't boost, don't Imcck," and the founder explains in iibook he has issued, that to "boost" is to speak well of a person, and that to "knock" is ta speak ill. As parallels to the motto, the' founder recites the Biblical injunction fron* St 'John: "He that is without sin among ym, let him first cast a stone," and the Shakespearean gem of philosophy, "H« that steals my purse steals trash, but hc\ tha* filches my go°& name makes me- poor indeed." The ,: book" contains a long lis? of things that will be considered knocks, including "scandal," "jovial knocking," "knocking without words," "political knocks," "newspaper criticism," " business knocks," and a score of other common offences. Thei by- . laws prescribe a fine of one cent for every knock, and it is left to the oonsdei.ee of the member to impose the penally. Seven-ty-five per cent of the fines go to charities selected 'by the executive and twenty-five per cent to the cost of tho management. The Order has already mode very considerable progress in America, and steps fore' being taken to establish branches in ether countries. Christehurch. would be Eone the worse for the presence of afltrong society pledged to use- its influence against tho practice of " blocking."J ' .