ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12660, 14 September 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

y DOOLEY ON FOOTBALL. We have been hearing a good deal about rough play, in the football field in New \ '■ Zealand lately, and I am glad the authori- \ ties recognise the necessity of drastic mea- |. , sures to put this sort of thing down. L When the public go out to see a football \. match they expect an exhibition of scientific play, and not a series of pugilistic V encounters or vicious attempts to maim an opponent when the referee is looking else- {-;■; where. Hard, vigorous play is to be expected, for football is never a very gentle game. It is deliberate and intentional v , brutalism that must be rigorously suppressed if the popularity of the game is not to sinFer. If the celebrated Mr. ,; Dooky can be relied upon, New Zealand is not the only place where the rough .play trouble has cropped up. It is evi- , dently not unknown in America, for, com- ' * menting on a match between the Christian Brothers and the St. Aloysius Tigers, Mr. ; Dooley gays: — ' It took some time i'v to pry thim off. Near ivry man iv th* Saint Aloysiuses was tied in a knot around wan iv th' Ohristyan '"{:-{. Brothers. On y wan iv them remained on th' field. He was lyin' face down, with j his nose in th' mud. " , "He's kilt," says I. : - "I think he is," says Dorgan, with a ;S;: -merry smile. . Jjyy';':■:;■■" 'twas my boy Jimmy done it too," gays he. . '• He'll be arrested f r murdher," says I. "He will not," says he. "There's only ! wan polisman in town cud take him, an' he's down town doin' th' same f'r somebody." he says. Well, they carried the corpse to th' side, an' took th' ball out iv his stomach with a monkey- wrinch, and the game was re- '■■• shumed. ••■ ■'".'.■'..■. ':,■'•';;.:'. "Sivin, sixteen, eight, eleven," says Saint Aloysius; in' young Dorgan started to run down th' field. They was another young la-ad r-runnin' in fr-onfc iv Dorgan, i; an* as ' fast as wan iv th' Christyan . Brothers come up an' got in th' way this here young Saint Aloysius grabbed him be th' hair iv th' head an' th' sole iv th' fat, an' thrun him over his shoulder. "What's that la-ad doin"r" says I. . ** Interferin'," says he. •- , . '"I shud think he was," says I, "an' most impudent," I says. , ,<->■■.-,: ,-,,. "'Tis such interference as this," I says, "that breaks up fam'lies," an' I come ■■■ ;■■■■■ '.■'..■■■. '■■■'' away. THE MISSIONARY. , 11 the recent massacre of missionaries at New Britain had occurred a hundred years ago the general comment in England would have been, " What wicked waste of valuable lives;" but the work has attracted some of the greatest and best men the civilised nations have produced, and in the course of time statesmen and i merchants and scientists have been com- - pelled to bear testimony to the wonderful r changes that the missionaries have brought about. Charles Darwin had great scorn for the ' man who sneered at missions, and after mentioning the hor--1 rible condition .of savage life before the advent of the missionary, lie remark* : "In a voyager to forgj'li these things is base ingratitude; for should he chance to be at the point of shipwreck on' some ; ' unknown coast, he. will most devoutly pray that the lesson of the missionary may hay© reached ihas far." Nowadays even the man in the street is getting ashamed to ridicule the work of the missionary, for to do so is ' really a sigh of ign-oraaee, and yet a century ago missions, and missionaries were spoken of .with jibes'{ami contempt. . The change from this state of public feeling is. ', well illustrated by the poem in Punch its 1575 o» tho death of Livingstone— • Open the Abbey doors, and bear him in, . : To sleep with king and statesman, chief ana IL spoken of,with jibes and contempt. The change from this state of public feeling is well illustrated by the puem in Punch in 1875 osi the death of Livingstone— Open the Abbey doors, and bear him in, Te sleep with king and statesman, chief ana The missionary born of weaver tin . But groat by work which brooks no lower "wage. , He needs no''epitaph to guard a name , ;f ||.y r Which men shall prize while worthy work is known; ' '~,.»_ He lived and died for man, be tais his fame; Let marble perish—this is -Livingstone. OUR LEGISLATORS. Nearly half the time of our Parliament seems to be occupied in dealing with the liquor problem, and yet our. liquor laws are S| still far from being the most perfect in the world. Amid the din raised by extremists on both sides, the moderate man, who is not prepared to vote " no-license," and yet wants • to see the traffic properly regulated and the ' law obeyed, can hardly make his voice heard. Our legislators are once more in the thick of the fight over the new Licensing Bill, and the general opinion appears to be that the present session is goinrto be as long as wry of its predecessors. - What is the good of it all? What is the use of making these long, wearisome speeches, full of iteration and reiteration. They convince no one, end have not even the merit of being firstrale literary or oratorical efforts. It is a long time since an Opposition speech convinced a Government member, or vise versa. It would ; -- ; be quite : sufficient : :: :; '.if the ;' Minister in charge of a Bill explained his ■' measure, and the Leader of the ; Opposition stated the objections to it. One of the free lances might also lie allowed to state his ■ point of view, and after that it would be a great raving in time and money if the vote . were taken without further wrangling. Stonewalling and such like methods may be sport to legislators, but they cost a lot of money, and the taxpayers may well say to their representatives, "What's fun to yon i*> death to us." DESIRE FOR THE PICTURESQUE. r A few days ago a man was severely dealt with at the Police Court for using " terrible" language, and hardly a- week passes by without some case of this kind coming before , our j magistrates. ~ I have often pondered i over the origin and cause of swearing without , ■ arrivin" at a. satisfactory explanation. An ■ East End , clergyman says the reason why men so often make use of strong language , w the natural and laudable desire to impart a vigorous and picturesque touch to the I narrative. The use of sixty expressions of a ( >i lurid t"*pe indicates the yearning for an em- 1 «' t pbatic style of diction. Mr. Kipling coins L a word when he wants to strike you "with ' the weight of a six-fold blow." And where j., . he can use Hindustani and call somebody ! "a pukka hero" the British working man ' ' ' has to fall back on the adjective of lurid ' JHyytype.;; "The working man never learns a ! j[ ■' tithe of the expressive adjectives and adverbs ; that abound in the language. But his soul '. hankers after something more virile than ' . 'very* and ' extremelv, and in his meri- - torious but unlearned endeavour to be pic- '• turesque he falls into the e?,Tor of profanity." ' Commenting on this a "poet" in the London Daily Chronicle writeis: — 1 I yearn to make my diction glow ? . With heat that isn't in it, " And thus my lurid " lapses " flow f. ; -At sixty-odd per minute; fet had I English at command ; My language would be suave and bland. . 2 ; When cultured writers pour their souls *\\\ (Not theirs our paltry shamming) I The flood of otatory rolls, ; ,t with force there is no damming; , \" . But we— meagre is our strck— Turn for effect to words that shock. From weak and helpless man -we turn %- v « »To invocate immortals. And when in bitterness we burn |> ; ; ' Approach Gehenna's port-is; 1 Hi. ■ for Earth, with all that it contains. • « naught when inward fire constrains. ] A But when a KMins finds at length The end of his resources: ; , - Ini Hindustani knows no strength. , 1 • . In counterfeit no force is. And so, like us, begins to swear. ! <j May I for one half-hour be there' ip! Tire General