AUTHORS AND THEIR VIEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18345, 10 March 1923, Page 6 (Supplement)

AUTHORS AND THEIR VIEWS.

STELLA BENSON'S SATIRE.

"They had once married in a moment of inconsistency, but had since divorced each other in order that they might live together with a quiet conscience. . . ."

"In the United States you become accustomed to hearing only women. Men speak guiltily in small suffocated voices."

"Her audience noted with displeasure that she had not yet said anything to suggest that she disliked being British. To. be satisfied with an alien status impliesin the United States—criticism of tho Constitution or George Washington, or something. The word criticism is, of course, synonymous with insult. Aliens have to be very careful." "It is, as everyone knows, impossible to look personally . dangerous and daring when driving a Ford. You have to sit up straight ana there is no spare room for your knees. ' These things give you a mincing bourgeois look. The lady seated by the driver of a Ford, whoever she may be. cannot help looking like his lawful wife, or at worst, his lawful sister. Conversely, in a racing car with a steeringwheel that bends paternally over the insolently prostrate driver, even an aunt looks painted. ..." "He murmured broken, suggestions about the superiority of Milton to the movies. It was a false step. The movies, to the American middle-class, are a substitute for religion. For uplift the home depends on the movies. Edward found himself guilty of blasphemy. Milton appeared in the light of a criminal heresy." " 'Motherhood, manhood, lovelight, grip o' the hand'the movies have made words of this kind music in the American ear. But words with 'home' in them are the most popular—homestead, homeland, home-site, home-town, home-builder. We who live in houses and can see the word mother in print with our eyes and hear the glugging of somebody else's baby over it* food in a cafeteria without vicarious dpmestio testacy, must seem very coarse to Americans. However, the missionary movies are with us now. We shall all, no doubt, eventually suffer a change of heart.""The Poor Man," Stella Benson. ON BECOMING A LADY. "To become a real lady you must attain three things. The first thing is the easiest—to look like a lady. This only lequires observation and attention to • detail. Many people you meet in the street look like ladies. You must be very clean' and very neat, hands and nails and teeth and hair. You will want to dress quietly, so that your garments do not attract attention, but when they get it they will be perfect in every, detail, nice gloves and shoes being more important than grand gowns. It is better to be dowdy than over smart, for the latter is vulgar and no lady is vulgar. With a few years' study you may be able to look like a lady. It requires no great ability; but a lady's appearance is not essential to being one. Many real ladies don't look the part. I might not be token for one if I kept my mouth shut. The second thing is not easyto behave like a lady. You must speak like one, express yourself as they do, and act as they would on all occasions. If you go into domestic service that is a door of advancement open to the girls of the working classes. It is hardly worth mentioning the third, as people say it is never attained in a lifetime— is, to think like a lady. When you have attained the other two, it will be time enough to consider it."—"The Gargoyle," Mrs., Arthur Stallard. THE FIELD OF DEMOCRACY. "Democracy is going to start all human beings in life with equal opportunity. . It will not make all men equal, but it will give all babies a fair chance. It is going to knock out privilege in the field of art. The noblest music, sculpture, painting and architecture will come where the fenius serves humanity and not a moneying. It is going to arrange society so that every willing hand and brain" cm find work and wages. It is going to aV.lish slums. It is going to.make every city beautiful in the poor quarters as w.'l as the rich. It is going to give every chad the right to play and be happy. It is going to strike th© last shackles off the woman's soul. It is going to revolutionise our systems of education so that all children shall be equipped to live and nor merely trained for some station in life." "The only really interesting thing is a human being. I like to labour, but I detest being called a labouring man. I work for a living, fat work too, and slim living, but I am no 'working man.' I have a few dollars in the bank, but I deny that I am a capitalist. I like to meet the boys round the festal board and swap stories and sing songs, and I enjoy an automobile ride and a good show, but heaven deliver me from being a professional 'good-fellow.* I loathe labels, classes, and -smothering conventions, but equally loathe the idea of being classed among the unconventional. Why cannot a body be just a plain man, or woman, or human being ? Is it necessary to reduce one to number 23, sheet A, pigeonhole 7? . . ."

"The one feeling that develops power and judgment is responsibilty. The very thing a nation does not need is the strong arm, the wise leader, the man on horseback, Carlyle's king-man, or any such. What the people need is uncomplicated, quick, simple methods of bringing each public question under their notice, and of saddling the responsibilty of deciding such questions directly upon them. It is the indirections of American Government that have created the bees. Function precedes faculty. The mow people are compelled to govern themselves, the more they becomo competent to govern themselves."—"Christmas 'and the Year Round," Frank Crane, D.D.