BRITONS' MARVELLOUS PATIENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13847, 28 August 1919, Page 6

BRITONS' MARVELLOUS PATIENCE.

(By"a New Zealander in the Daily News.) s To-day the Englismon's manners arc in question. He is written down as a grufE and graceless boor who snarls and shouts at the telephone, struggles for a place in the bus or tho tube, wrangles -with cabmen, anil generallv is a nuisance to himself aiid to others. Even his moral* «r»i criticised, and the war is bluiued for un imagined change , > . as if the happening of a.few months merely could alter what is the result of centuries hpCnt in l settled circumstances. To. rue, a young man and a stranger, the Englishman is ns I had expected him to be from all that I hud read. Quite unconsciously I had made me a psyche -—is that the right word for n composite portrait? anyhow,, it will do — from a thousand characters, in a thousand books rend at random. And it was a verv good portrait., in its way—naive as those we have taken for three shillings to put on our passports, and; artistically, as worthless. It left out nearly all that was uud is the man himself. The virtues of the man arc not such as leave much outward nmrk.

For example, who yet has written worthily of the patience of the Londoner? He will sit for half an hour in a bun and tea shop, waiting for the waitress to be rude to him. In railway refreshment rooms he will sigh quietly and go back to his carriage, still unserved, after a ten-minute stop. Somehow or other I have it in mv head that he applies for a week's leave of absence when he goes to get a hair-cut and a shave. In no other way could he afford to linger long enough to take his turn. If it were nut that wo keep regimental barbers, I am sure that a carefully-worded petition to be allowed to get one's hair cut would produce ten days' leave and ration money. You see the officer would know how long it had tnkeu him "himself. If the Londoner notices these matters he never shows it. In all his life he complains about one thing only—the Government : and against it onlj- in an impersonal sort of way. as though it were to be classed with the climate or the weather. About a month ago I blew into a pbiee where they sell cheap and substantial meals. I had all day to waste. But after half an hour's delay I began to grow restless; the veneer of philosophic patience peeled in big flakes. I looked about and saw that- out of the fifty or sixty men only two others were attempting to hurry up,the overworked waitresses. One wore Canadian badges and the other told me later that he came from Sydney. This most excellent quality is never seen better than when one is travelling in a holiday train. I came down from the Midlands by a wean- contrivance which stopped at each place where there was likely to be a man and a dog. Every woman in those parts seemed to be visiting her Friends. Each traveller had four parcels and a baby, and the average journey appeared to be about twelve miles. Oh. but it was weary and dreary and long, that trip. I bore with it down to Hugh} - .and decided to wait for over an hour for a faster train. Yet I daresay not one Englishman in those thrice-crowded carriages had any thought of complaint. One even preached the unbearable doctrine of compensations to me, saying that high fares at least kept mam- at home, and guaranteed a measure of comfort in travelling. I asked him it he were Mr Mark Tapley. He said :

"No. but I knew a man of that name in Chorley. Perhaps he might be a relative." Just then we reached Rugby. I was glad of that, as laughimr inwardly alwavs hurts me. There is something sturdy and lovable about this patience of 1 i.e Englishman. It marks him off from tie rest of us very clearly. It allows him to see for himself whenever he is in the presence of outland men. He watches them, vapor and fume :iid fret: and in the end is served long before them, even though they bad places higher in the queue. Their nerve is broken and they have gone away. The Englishman is there to the end. It is traditional with him that eventually the needs of his am will be recognised. He has faith in himself and in his cause. What he wants he will get . . . .presently. Whv. then should he worry?

So far he has been patient with me. insolent in my vulgar praise of his most obvious, most negative virtue. Naturally I should have liked more to talk of positive excellencies : but I !aik" ability to ''praise him to his face with a courtly foreign grace/' Presently, when I am very far away, I shall write about him again, .praising his kindness to strangers, his ability to suffer fools gladly, and his quiet answering of what must seem to him absurd, irrelevant, and unnecessary questions. I'll have more time then to deal with these things as they deserve. I shall not be kept waiting in so many places.