THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14250, 22 December 1909, Page 10

THINGS IN GENERAL.

fill ______ l ;—i ? ■- gV' /.''MERRY CHRISTMAS v TO•« YOU.>. mm '.tbo week is out probably every Britisher who is old enough to talk will have uttered the familiar words, A Merry Christmas to You," and have heard them spoken to themselves. There is ® little in the phrase— moro than 111 the daily greeting, "Good morning. Lovely ' weather, isn't it?'-but a world of meanll'jng may be put into it. And to most of lL:„s the message that the lightly-framed p - sentence bears is tinged with some sentif ment,. Christmas is a time of longed-for M reunion, of family gatherings, when If sundered ties are woven together again, 5 and tender hearts are set a-throbbing by tho long, firm, clasp of well-loved hand*. It is at Yuletide that grown men put ' aside the carts of business, and the quest of gain, and turn their thoughts to memories nf youth ; yearn, perhaps, f or the mother-love that shed a radiance upon that early period, aye, and deem them- • selves well blessed if that very sweetest friend remains to them. Happy, indeed, the wanderer who at Christmas may spend some hours with her who gave bin; life, recalling as lie sits beside her how. in the dear dead days, she would creep into his room each Christmas Eve -md Jack his little stocking till it bulged with Jcvely treasures. How, too, on Christ- , mas bay, she would stoutly pretend qoxl Santa Clans had placed those gifts from Toyland there. Ah, yes, a merry Christmas in very sooth to all men's gentlo mother?. Other tics come into our lives as we grow older, and we in turn, maybe, sec the repetition of our childhood's days iii the eager joy of our own littlo ones, smiling quietly as we wake on the glad morn, to see them seek their mother as soon as Christmas dawns, and clamour r for her to share in their surpassing glee to find that Santa Claus (the mythical old C fraud) has not forgotten them. Those V of us wh6 are living in single bliss, whilst % missing something of the deeper note of If joy that the bells of Christmas strike, li vet have our own peculiar pleasure in ■ the season. Scarcely anybody but en- ;! _ ters whole-heartedly into the general

|"> gaiety that pervades the world. Unly j--; * comparatively a few that are unable to |v; take part in family rejoicings, and for | these there are hosts of friends around. : Nobody Will see anybody elso "left out 9in the cold," at Christmas-tide. It is the time of good cheer, goodwill, and the l : ~ j sacrifice of self. The time, too, of rej conciliation and renewal of friendship, of interchange of greeting and of token. In | short, it is the one period in all the years r - when hearts should be, and are, unlocked, If and tender,- feelings, bright and generous ' ' impulses, enter •in and take possession. | This Christmas, as in the case of former ones, some few- there are who will need those generous impulses turned in their. V direction, and it may be a part of the 1 joy of each of us to remember such as are less fortunate than wo ourselves. With a sense of their meaning, I may be per- ■' mitted to write once more the words, "A Merry - Christmas," - and to'.'. convey the wish therein expressed to those who shall have read these lines-'---s * • '; - fIfi,THE POOR MONKEY.'; .4 l .' s •l'he'longfer.'j ltvo the niote I ani convinced were;not; created to r be chained 'br caged for the amusement' of humanity!. < It is'their simple misfortune that their appearance "is humorous. . So is the appearance of some men, but wAi however much we may ibe disposed to laugh at a man with a funny face, .'we do ! ' not make a - captive of him, > and charge Ipso much a head to see him. - Why, therefore, in the name of conscience should we : make low comedy attractions of monkeys? • There is something pitiable in the spectacle of a man with a barrel-organ and ;a, ■ monkey. Fancy,■ earning one's living, as such men do, by the grimaces and the ; ' antics of a member of the,'ape family This, however, pales into an absolutely. ■ humane scheme of things compared to the ■i i latest story ;of the alleged "use ; to which one poor mousey is put. -* The City Couna; oil was informed the other night, in conv nection with -an application - for a license for a side show,'that the show in question was an . Aunt Sally, and that there '• •. ivas reason to believe the i Aunt. Sally was .tobe a monkey. lam very much inl (-lined to doubt, the story, but, if it were V true, it' would only go to prove how ut- : terly callous and cruel some people can ||$e; As everybody knows, the game of Aunt Sally: consists in throwing balls or S-V" sticks at an effigy, every hit entitling the tthrower to apr tzei" ? Now, no monkey could be expected to enjoy being made a target of, and : for '^thai.■ matter, it is in/'/conceivable that anyone with a sense of 'decency could enjoy making a target of a monkey. That is why I fancy the story must be exaggerated If it is not, and llfif' by any chance the side show in question should open in Auckland, I imagine the proprietor may find that he himself, r* and not his monkey, is the Aunt Sally. > In fact that would be a very good idea. Wi I should like to have a shot at such a person myself, if he existed. , The poor ■f'i monkey ! I remember seeing one pitiful V/ little specimen 4of the tribe submitted to i-'f a i very trying ordeal in London, when I •{'was a boy. During the .parachuting .craze, the then proprietors of the Westminster Aquarium obtained a monkey fe which at each performance was tied to a f parachute, raiser], to the roof—a high one f: —and made to fall with the contrivance.

If It was usually some seconds before the i 1! parachute opened, and the breathless, , gibbering and chattering state of the 1 frightened little .beast attached to the §£, r bar when, it reached the floor was _ pitiftlul to see. When will men cease to torfe ture the dumb creation? Not until other I .men make them, I suppose. 'To my mind ■. , the crusade against cruelty to animals ia y || .pot half general enough. ' f. LOT OF THE TELEPHONE GIRL. 2 If I were a girl I certainly would not % work on the telephone exchange. It i : ■ transpires that the girls that do are not i- allowed to talk. The hideous cruelty of K: it! Could anything be more awful for p a woman, young or old, than to be doom- | ed to silence? It is unnatural, and I f'i ■won't allow it to pass without protesti ing. What is life to a girl unless she 0- may gossip? Wherein lies the use of §£ existing if she be debarred from telling the secrets entrusted to her overnight to "the other girls during working hours If Why, if the female tongue were trained % not to wag, what a dull old world it would be to be sure. The prohibition put upon telephone girls may only be the X, thin end of the wedge. Who knows but ; that -the rule of silence may spread to the 1 shop, to the .factory, to the office, and §|fto all other walks of life in which Amelia is keeping some Adolphus or other out of a billet? If it wero to become customary girls , would '. pine away and. die. * Or, if £ they lived on, it-would only be ; to ( mope ""'in- dumb."despair- , with their dearest oc--0 cupation gone. To be a good conversaS? tionalist, to - talk well, ; to scold well, to i:.'tell scandal well, :ar girl wants tonguepractice, and ; it is fearful to contemplate ,/fcOW: dull; existence would , be ; if wives

never nagged, and sweethearts forgot to say "Yes." But, somehow, I think that telephone exchange ruld is more honoured in the breach than m he observance. I know this, that now and then the girls in the Dominion exchanges aic rather long in answering the bell, -ine reason may be that they are exceptionally busy—they always say it is— l suspect that occasionally the wretched old bell rings in the middle of an interesting conversation, and is just allowed to ring until that conversation is finished. it all I hear is correct, however, not being allowed to talk is not the worst thing our telephone girls have to put up with. It is hinted that, if the Auckland girlsj only dared, they could say something as to the bad ventilation and cramped space conditions in 1 which they have to work. Good health is not, so I am informed, invariably the lot of those particular gills, i It would be interesting to know, at all events, if the conditions imposed by the Government upon factory-owners as regards space and ventilation are complied with by the Government itself at the Auckland Telephone Exchange. If not, the time to make an alteration will be when the new post oflice is erected and the present antediluvian premises in Short-land-street are less crowded.

LATE CARS. The various local authorities in Auckland have been asked by the '1 nun ways Company,, to authorise a new time-table, under which it is proposed to run several late cars. The movement is timely and likely to bo much appreciated by the public. As a sign of the times it goes to show the progress of Auckland when the need for running cars up to midnight becomes apparent. Growth in a city is always, curiously enough, marked by an increasing number of late workers, tg say nothing of late pleasure-goers. Americans recognise this fact by running both trams and trains, in the larger cities, not only up to midnight, but all night. In Chicago, for instance, it has been the custom for many years, and there the continuous traffic has brought in its train the " open-all-night" restaurant and hotel bar, or "saloon." As Auckland's population grows so it will be found will the army of night-travellers increase, and in time there will almost certainly bo allnight. trams, just as there are already allnight ferry boats to the marine suburbs. I am wondering whether the inauguration of late cars will make a difference to the theatres. At present if a performance is late there is usually a regular exodus before the curtain falls, many people beginning to grow restless for fear they' should miss the tram home. The result is often a wild stampede from the playhouse, which nullifies the efforts and drowns the voices of the actors and actresses on the stage, and I have noticed, pained surprise on the faces of many of the latter on such occasions. Even the best of plays, however, fails to appeal to the tired suburban resident- who is under the risk of having to trudge three or four miles by sitting it out to •' the protracted finale. ' -Late . cars may' prolong their stay at the theatre, and indeed there may follow quite an ! after-theatre supper vogue. In fact, I think - this is bound to come sooner or , later. .;

THE DEATH TREATMENT. Christmas .having been,! from time imt memorial, associated with ghost stories, the latest "creepy" tale from New York seems appropriate -to -the present season. I refer to the narrative of Mrs. Babcock, who has.described to a New York paper the very latest- and vmost up-to-date experience gin things uncanny. /Mis. ' Bab- ■" cock, so: the story.; goes, . impoverished herself by ~; giving all her >. money ; to the Christian Scientists. ';Apparently she fell •out with the leader of the movement,' Mrs- . who | thereupon, if reports speak • truly, subjected her to the "death r treatment."- This consisted foff mysteriously earning poor Mrs. Babcock- ■to ! 'see . things ,'^in;the -night. 4 The -alleged victim ; ; makes horrifying statements ;< as " to, chat.tering teeth, ice-cold blasts of air, "Mrs. . Stetson's blue eyes all around the room," and other spiritual " visitations. Mrs. Babcock omits to state what she had for supper that night, but I happen to know ; that some American ladies are very fond of broiled lobster, takefl internally, before going to bed. The \ "death treatment" reads very like common "or garden nightmare, but stilly there is no telling, Mrs. Babcock may have a vivid imagination, and Mrs. Stetson . may have miraculous powers, or she' may be a mesmerist. In any caw iTm;glad I .am not down on her, ; little ; list '{ of subjects '< for treatment.' , If -the authorities fin the United States - are •not careful it' may become fashionable to work' off. grudges' and. attain revenge by •this process ! of scaring the life out -of anyone - opposing, the wishes, of anyone else. '-1' suppose the art is one 'than can be acquired,vy seeing that - Mrs.- Stetson is said to have acquired it. . The idea would come in mighty handy to leaders of Governments when 1 the Opposition grew too cheeky. Sir Joseph Ward should go in for , a course of lessons, so as to be in a j position next session ' to subdue those Government supporters who are -developing the:nasty hfcbit of voting against the Government they are supposed to support. There would be unlikely to be any more 1 "fourreverses in a month" to record against "the Ward Administration if the " death treatment" were • vigorously applied. The General.