ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12856, 3 May 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

MORAL PROGRESS. Mr. SerinoN' has said many daring things during the twelve years of his Premiership, but nothing more courageous than his claim to credit for New Zealand's moral progress. The othei day the Herald published an admirable letter from a Cambridge correspondent, pointing out that the Government had ignored moral for material progress. It is probable that the Premier saw that letter, for in his speech on his anniversary day he deliberately followed its lines. x However, he seemed to think that the moral progress >f r countryis to he gauged from its criminal records. That is a very unsafe criterion of moral progress. Let Mr. Seddon ask himself what he has done himself -or moral progress. What example has he set the rising generation? King Dick had better keep to material progress, and leave all talk of moral progress alone. LESSONS OF THE WAR. The cablegrams refer frequently to the lessons of the war. All the nations are watching the operations in the hope that they may learn something that wul put them ahead of their neighbours. The fust- great lfrsson the war taught was: Be, ready." In other.words, the battle is often to the man that gets his blow in "fust." Now, that is a lesson si Britisher should need no giving. Ash any bright pugnacious schoolboy how a battle' should be fought and he will dilate on the value of the first blow. Another lesson is. Dogged does it ; and another, Hit hard, and when your foe is winded, give him no time to recover. The fact is, I do not thin!; that there are any lessons to be learned from this war that might not have been learned from any war since- time beyan. It is the fashion, however, to talk of the Jessons lu' the war. The Civil Lord of the Admiralty (Mr. Leo) says the designs of warships are to be altered because of the lessons of the war. That may be to risky thing to do. lor so far, there lias been no dingdong fight —not such a fight as would tost. anything. Schwab, the late steel trust magnate, thinks, too, that he has discovered the battleship that would beat creation, and has got the order for a number of them from the Tsar. We have heard often of inventions that were going to depopulate the world, but somehow they do not work. The bayonet and the hand grenade are not extinct. "Human limitations put bounds to many things and to none more strictly than to methods of killing in war. DRAMA IN REAL LIFE. The dramatist is often accused of exceeding the bounds of nature in the situations he creates. His accusers usually are people who live humdrum lives, who have experienced, happily for themselves, neither passions'nor adventures. There is a drama being played in Italy to-day that exceeds in effect anything that one finals on the stage. I refer, of course, to the trial of the Countess Linda Bonamartini, for the murder of her husband. The Countess is described as a beautiful woman, and her letters and her speeches in Court show her to be a woman of some intellect. Her letters to her elderly lover, Dr. Secchi. are full of Southern vehemence and eloquence, but her speeches are even more picturesque.. i The judge- one day read a letter from her to Dr. Secchi. and said: This is a, passionate love letter written by a passionate woman."' The Countess sprang to her feet and exclaimed: " When I wrote that I was referring to the suffering of my soul. My whole mind, my 'whole thoughts, my whole soul, were at that time given over to Dr. Secchi; but now that I know that he has not <ven the courage io give the' lie dircc/ to the calumnies uttered by his servant, Tisz Borghj, I have freed myself from his influence. - Ino longer love him, and my whole heart is now bound up in. my children.'- It is Shakesperian in its "directness; and its vigour, and the great master might have written this outburst: "I am a poor, lost woman, abandoned far from my parents, far from my children—a woman covered with shame and bespattered with calumny. Oh, what fate is mine? But my innocence will triumph* before the Court." and she sank back on the bench, covering her face with her hands and sobbing bitterly. There is material for many novels in the Bonamartini trial. . THE AGONY COLUMN. " Perhaps the most widely read literature of the -day is the agony column. For months "Shy Lady" and "Silent Worshipper " conducted a correspondence in the columns of the Morning Post, that attracted widespread attention. "All the newspapers took notice of the correspondence, and quoted it freely. There, was something poignant, yet tender, in the notes that were exchanged. It was generally agreed that the notes were too spontaneous to have been manufactured ; butthen, who does not remember the Englishwoman's love letters! In the agony columns of the London Express there began in Fehruarv" a similar correspondence between "E.F." and "G.S." As it developed it became evident that the notes were loading up to an elopement between a woman and a married- man. The woman was saved by reading that weakest of all moralists, Robert Burns. It seems, the- tempter was an admirer of Burn-;. " E.F." put in the agony column, "I have conquered myself. I cannotwill not— take the step. You taught me to revere the writings of your favourite, and he has decided against you. "These moving things ca'ed wife and weans, Wad move the very neart of stanes." , "I came across that last night, and it struck me like a whip-lash. Go home, to those who love von." After this " G.S." entreats and upbraids in vain. Robbie Burns bud won and her last note is " Farewell." BIRD PROTECTOR? IN BERLIN. . Hie British have led the way in movements for the amelioration of the condition of every living thing upon which pity may be cast. We do things reasonably, however. We appoint inspectors to discover cases, and to prosecute, They do things differently in Berlin. The Germans are a logical people, a people given to much pondering and to deliberate doing. They have started a society in Berlin for th. prevention of cruelty to animals and the methods ot the members re new. They are pledged to stop in the etreet all Indies wearing birds in their hats and warn them that the birds will be torn out if not, at once removed. The crusade has begun, and there is a «reat outcry Iron: the leaders of fashion. According to the latest accounts tho society was collecting funds to defend its members on charges of ISS'JUIIt. ' -' A CENTURY OLD. " What in it to be ■) century old? Manuel Garcia, honoured of musicians the world over, knows. H' was tutor t. Jenny Lind and Otto Goldschmidt, Jenny's bus. baud, .vas present on his birthday with congratulations. Most people would have pre fcrred tha* Jenny, rathei than Otto, shook have been there. The world does not reiei too kiridlv to the Swedish nightingale's bus band. On his centenary Senor Garcr helc a. reception in Loudon. A throne had beer prepared foi him. "He entered the rooii amid volleys of cheers, and with short quick step*—; trotting motion— walked unaided t< the dais, stepped up with agility, and tool lii. seat." He held a reception for an hour He i* described as a little over sft; bent * with age; close cropped, white hair, anc moustache ; bright black eyes, looking on upon the world undimmed. When he re turned to the hotel he stumbled on tjn stairs, and turned indignantly upon a frienc who sought to take-his arm. In a little speech he made in the evening, he gallant!} said, "Try all of you to think yourselve: ' ■ 100 years old to-day—not the ladies. Ihougl they may come to that, they will nevei look it. " They will never know it, and m one will ever believe it." The old'gentle ; man who was in Madrid when Welhngtoi ■t- was fighting Napoleon's marshals, and i schoolboy when Waterloo was won, ma< have vears of life before him yet. ln< spirit "behind those undimmed eyes will ar ■crt nature's; decay. ' The. General. :"■':■' '■■' '. " • ' . '~>. "' . ' . ■-■ . . . <r.r- !: ,ii\,■!.':, •!■:.'.. .'. :■.....-..■■■