CURRENT TOPICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 313, 2 December 1933, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS

(By “Wayfarer.”) Small Girl (bored with history lesson) : I should have thought that Henry the Eighth business would have blown over by now. Now that repeal is certain in the United States humourists of that nation are finding a new. angle on prohibition jokes, “it’s going to be jolly hard,” writes one, “for people to learn to be temperate again after drinking so hard during the di'y years.” ***** * With “dancing” and “indiarubber” dollars looming large on the United States monetary horizon, coincident with the issue of a commemorative N.R.A. stamp depicting the professional man as the possessor of only one leg, he might be pardoned for contemplating whether he will soon be left without a leg to stand on. Lynch law, of which so much has been heard in the past week as a result of events in certain parts of the United States, is a term loosely applied to various forms of executing rough popular justice, or what is thought to be justice, for the punishment of offenders by summary procedure, ignoring, or even contrary to, the strict forms of law. The origin of the name is obscure; different writers have attempted to trace it to Ireland, to England, to South Carolina, and to Virginia. The practice has been common to all countries when unsettled conditions existed, or in threatened anarchy. In Europe early examples of such a practice are found in the proceedings of the Vehmgenichte in medieval Germany, and of Lydforce law, Gibbet law, or Halifax law, Lowlier justice and Jeddart justice in the thinly settled border districts of Great Britain. In later years it waß found mainly in Russia, in South Eastern Europe and in the United States. Under the term “lynch law” it has come to be considered peculiarly American.

Within the United States the population expanded westwards faster than well-developed institutions could follow, and on the frontier there were alwaj's desperadoes who lived by preying on the better classes. To suppress these outlaws resort was often made to lynch law. Men trained in the rough school of the wilderness came to have more regard for quick, personal justice than for abstract justice and statutes; they were educated to defend themselves, to look to no law for protection or regulation. The same impatience with abstract justice may be said to be the cause of the lynchings of kidnappers in the United States within the past week. In the past forty years the lyncliings in the United States have exceeded 4000, of whom more than 3000 were of negroes.

Although it is difficult to be surprised at anything in this astonishing age, the International Shoe and Leather Fah, which recently opened its doors in the salubrious London suburb of Islington, had some alarming features —alarming, for men are cowards all when confronted with new fashions (according to a visitor to the fair). Some of the exhibits for male wear were too frightening for words. There was a pair of bedroom slippers on the toes of which were tiny electric bulbs that could be switched on by a sideways pressure of the heels. This particular mode has been especially designed for those unfortunate men who are always losing their studs! Then there were sandals, and “Monks shoes,” which domed right over the ankle, “keeping it warm on cold days and thus eliminating the necessity for spats”; “bramble-proof” shoes of appalling conspicuousness; shoes for sports wear in “fluffy reversed calf” ; openwork shoes resembling lace; shoes in turned calf, with insertions of washable pale calf; and last, but by no means least, models in suede in a multiplicity of colours, calculated to dazzle the eye of the most hardened denizen. Most men, on beholding these wonders, could only redden and turn away. The footwear for women, of course, was quite another thing, although the makers were frank enough to admit that the feet of what we humorously call “the weaker sex” ai - e gradually growing bigger. The fact is not yet openly admitted, but is privately attributed to hiking and kindred ebulliences. The samples on view tactily-' suggested tltat ladies could adopt a size larger without being deemed a whit the less dainty, and they were all extremely artistic. Thanks to the feminine craze for two-colour shoes in leather, crocodiles, lizards and snakes are heaving reptilian sighs for relief in many a jungle to-day. The fashion is for black and white evening shoes, sieve-like cocktail shoes, cruising shoes actually depicting nautical scenes, and bedroom slippers of heartening gaiety. The “Louis” curved heel is apparently as “dead” as the unlamented strap and button.

It has not taken the Londoner long to find a special name for the young men from the universities and public schools who, at- Lord Trenckard’s earnest invitation, are now joining the Metropolitan Police Force. “Gentstables” is the nickname and the policeman’s lot is not a happy one if he happens to be a “Gentstable.” Writing in one of the national newspapers, the other day, a “gentstable” of the discontented sort complained bitterly that he was no longer “received” by his former society friends who were now disposed to think that his proper place was in the kitchen with the maids. He disliked the entire lack of privacy incidental to life in barracks, he deplored the absence of culture among his fellow constables, and he yearned for invitations to fashionable houses. Indeed, it was quite obvious that he had belatedly awakened to the fact that he had chosen the wrong vocation.

As was to be expected, his letter created a first-class sensation, and the editor of the paper in which it appeared was at .once inundated with angry, and sarcastic rejoinders. _ The unfortunate young “gentstable” was variously described as a “class-con-scious snob,” a “misfit,” a “blackleg,” and a “fool.” He was given loads of gratuitous and insulting advice. He was abused. He was laughed at. One correspondent even went so far as to make a suggestion to the Commissioner of Police. “Lord Trencliard,” he wrote, “should so improve the conditions of constables graduating through the public schools that they can be spared the indignity of contaminating themselves with those whose positions and opportunities for promotion thev will usurp!” But, as it happens, Lord Trenchard is entirely satisfied with the recruits who are now flocking to his banner, and is particularly _ cheered by the eagerness of promising young men to join up under his short term scheme. Even if it be true that a “gentstable” here and there grows a little hot under the collar, the Commissioner knows perfectly well that the great majority of the new men are not only intelligent, but content with their lot. He is building for the future, and can afford to smile at the eccentricities of a few who grumble at the present (says an English writer).