"HURRAH!"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17471, 15 May 1920, Page 1 (Supplement)

"HURRAH!"

A REGAINED LUXURY. BY MATAXGA. The progress of the Prince has evoked many a British cheer. The . waiting crowds that thronged his road of route hare known of his near arrival by the uplifted voices of those getting earlier glimpses of him, and he has moved through the Dominions to the accompaniment of such outbursts. He came to us, and he will arrive again at Home, through a long lane of cheers. We were losing our power to cheer. For one thing, education had been doing ite work in the moderating of our emotional transports. Only simple souls have the luxury of complete abandonThose who become increasingly aware of the point of view of other folk— education brings such knowledge—pay forfeit usually in the loss of that luxury. Whether the price be too great or not is open to argument, but it is undeniable that with the growth o| education " the tumult and the shouting dies." The naive noise of th* child give* way before the oncoming of maturity. And some of the recent directions of our study have led to an introspective habit among us. Wb*lß we have been influenced by the knowledge of others' feelings, we have also been putting our own minds through a laboratory investigation : sensitiveness to others' views of ue has been accompanied by a self-critical attitude. Moreover, the practical nature of our age has put a premium on deeds as against utterance, and mere noise has been naturally sus- j pect. The Cheers of War Time.

The war loosed our tongues a little, and on occasion we could vent our pentup feelings in 'a shout. But in a war like this last, where death's sable wings cast deep shadows over most of our heaits, oven the triumph at the end found us 50 solemnly aware of the world's sorrow that cheers quite naturally died upon our lips. Victories had a terrible cost, and the sight of returning warriors brought memories of those who would never come thus to our welcome. If we were a little undemonstrative, then, we could hardly in* the circumstances be blamed. So "Hurrah!" retired as a rule into the shelter of dictionary speech, and the old-time "three cheers" were a bit 6habbilv represented by the triple "Hip'ray!" of the football field. Then the Prince came, and with every reason to be glad we got back the old British habit. The returned soldiers cheered, the old veterans cheered, the children cheered: and it became as easy to cheer as it was for the Prince to smile. We shall be non» the worse for thi« experience. A dropping of the wiseacre attitude for that of the child will bring freshness back to life. There is a severe limit to the good to be, got from keeping one's finger on one's own pulse: on* hands would accomplish little if employee] continuously so.. Even- the 'mirror of others' regard for us has severe limits of service: gazing ever there, we should go nowhere. . ,

The Conventional Cheer. But cheers are diverse. Some have no spontaneity. They are more the offspring of habit than of heart. They voice no swelling emotion of admiration or of joy. They do only menial service. Listen to the tittle men with the red whiskers, who assists' in giving tone to Charles Dickens' first published story, "Mr. Minns- and His Cousin." The festive dinner at Poplar Walk, given by the ambitious Buddens within the protection of " the front garden and the green railings and the brass knocker' and ' all that," which Dickens-lovers know so well, hobb'es to its-close over the stumbling-stones of the toast, proposed by Mr. Octavious Budden, in honour of the meek, unhappy guest'. The speech ends abruptly at a boulder of a word— gratification"—flung into its path by the most privileged and aggressive friend of the family. " Standing, gentlemen," he shouts, " and with the honours. Take your time from me, if vou please. Hip! hip! hip!— Za! Hip! hip! hip!—Za, Hip! hip! hip! Za-a-a!" So the Old Monthly Magazine of New Year's Day, 1834, gave form to the first of many social cries heard by the discriminating ear of the people's novelist. It is the cheer convivial, the somewhat conventional vehicle into which we try at times to crowd the riot of our good-fellowship. It carries camaraderie rather ths.n regard. It is the boon companion of the platter.

The Tribute to Valour. There is quite another cheer that voices deep-souled admiration. It is the spontaneous tribute that valour wins, given without grudge. It was heard in the brave days of old, when Horatius kept the bridge, according to Macaulay: And when above the surijes They »aw his treat appear. All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry. And even the ranks of Tuscany Could scarce forbear to cheer.

You Vill hear this applause of pluck when u fireman efforts a gallant rescue in the sight of all the street. It is the many-throated acknowledgment that man was "born for .daring deed and self-for-getting. In its roar you may catch the thunderous denial of the whimpers of cowardice that would insinuate their mean falseness into human life. It is the asseveration of the striving soul. I Captain Kane and his brave men of j the Calliope heard this soulful cry above ' the hiss of steam and the hurricane's howl and the roar of the plunging ! breakers on the coral palisades of Apias harbour as they fought a way out to the | rafety of the open tea. Clearing the reef i by a few feet and throwing her foreyard over the United States flagship as she rolled helplessly alongside, the Calliope made her inching progress. She drew away at last through the entrance, and theic burst from the doomed Trenton's deck cheers that ling yet—cheers that the American admiral himself lead. Across the seething waters British cheers made echoing answer. In the sea fight of Jutland a sergeant. ! and a little group of marines pot adrift i on a laft amid the. welter of the struggle. ! They were .it the, cruel mercy of living Irn ssiles and heaving waves when, holly i heedless of their peril, the British de- ! etroyers ra'ed h\ thurn to come to closer ' quarters with the In,: German battleships. I ''What did you do''' the sergeant was j asked after their sub-sequent rescue. " We stood up and cheered '' was all he said in I reply. How feeble- n the midst of all j I that fearful tumuli ' How sublime, really '

The Ministry of Encouragement. Cheers, then, are no ignoble part of the world's human speech 'J hey may take a fine place in the ministry of encouragement. Florence Nightingale, who re corded in her letters many instances of British cheering in the (.'rimea —cheers for berse.f sometimes, but oftener cheers fur others' greit deeds of open disregard of peril, repeats a story of French cheering under quite different conditions: — "I heard the other day," she wrote in 1863. "of two who were nearly lost by he'ng raught by the tdo on the coast of Fiance, and a little French fisher girl ran all along the wet sands to show them the only rock, half a mile from the shore, which the tide did not cover, where of course she was obliged to stay with them. It got quite dark, the water rose above their kness. but presently they heard a sound. fa : nt and far off. and the I ttle girl said, ' They think the tide is turning: they are shouting to cheer us'' 1 often think I hear those on the far off shore who are shouting to cheer me.'' Whether her fancv have truth or no, there remain? the h ; gii duty of encouraging each other in the present workaday world. As we have opportunity, let us cheer.