PASSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12118, 10 August 1901, Page 4

PASSING NOTES.

The convincing of the Hoer. though slow, is a thing i'.lrejuly assured : not so tli.it of t-lm pro-Hue r. Against stupidity the ynrts themselvescontent! in vain: in the pro-Boer we have stupidity plus malevolence. Tlj« BritMl pio-Moers have contrived to wreck tin- Liberal party: hut tint doesn't make tliem happy. Nothing less would content them than the ruin "f their rountry. Most peopl? have heard of a- terrible IWt, with the iniiinN "IV 5.," who has- occasionally been permiMed to cxpuv> h : * sentiments in IrtUrs In the London Tin.is. A year or so b ! t-:k no Mic-h hater of Kn.'.'lainl as "J 1 . 5.," nobody srt iii lliy-ivnt ite: his leit"rs of i'lat time r;<vnihl:d nothing >o much a* the liii'i-wiit'." \iiriol into Die (are of any-h-i'ly and everybody bcarinj,' the British nan)''. I'll! t hi* logic of huts has thoroughly bv.'.ed '*J\ S." "There k no clrincc of iV.'.dom or safety for us, save inidtr the British Hag." he writes.

By the war wo have but shuttered ourselves and cemculrd the foundations of the British Ktnpiro. o:iWotonurd by cant and sickly >.en;:ti:r!itrii\\ Grcit Britain vrould have expired i'i the course of a vorv few yours ii she had :io; hecti roused fiorn her syncope by us ATrituMdcis. Thankn are due to us that this new ciiuivy is hut a new hirth fur berth? dawn of her lonjrc.'t and mo.it brilliant day — f her people have but saiise enough to make their miliary power great enough to prevent evil and to maintain justice and lighU'cusnoss.

. . . . 1 nrojnise also that mi other Tower would have treated us a* well as i!ie British h'ive done ,*o far, and 1 am completely disillusioned as to the friendship and generosity of all olhcc nations. Further lesk-laueo is Miieidal n:ad?;e*s.

You ma.v convince, a, Boer; the pru-tiuer miiv no man hopo to convince. .An illustration nf the stupidity, <t»ss and incorrigible, in virtue of which mtm otherwise

sane are doomed to be and to remain pro-Boers is afforded by a writer in the Daily News. pro-Boer organ, who warns the people of tho colonics to look out for themselves.

li the Uo:ts are bayoneted into submission, ce.miot you '-C" that the riiy ]Ij ■;y come you - men of Xew South Wales, Vidian, of .W.v -Zealand—may have to dcteiid yourselves against the Imperii Power? Of Cmmh 1 suy lioUiin;:'. tier tile American would moteet iij/amsl injnst-ice. Mr Chamberlain '.lire never isy his haul on her.

The last touch is incomparable: "Of Canada. 1 say nothing ; her the American Eagle would jirotecH "! This -flinw doesn't see that the. colonies m themselves part and parcel nf the Imperial Power. No. nor -could ymi get the idea into his headnot witli a steam-hammer. The no!ion of a. medieval Init-ain, shut within the Four Seas, .<:•(!!s to the making of the pro-Boer, and would probablv lis found branded upon what he calls his heart.

The Empress Frederic!;—J.Mighler of a great- Queen, wife of an Kmperor. mother of an Kmperor— must have seen in her life now ended good days not it few; nevertheless her death suggests the note of tragedy. The manner of her death, painful and humiliating in the lust, degree, recalls that of her husband. Apparently both were victims of the same horrible milady— fact of ill omen for their children, one would say. (treat hopes were buried with the Enip'.vor Frederick. Tfe. had done great things ami was capable of greater; 1)v his side the Empress, too, would have played a great part. She had ooalilies not lessremarkable than those of -her mother. Nothing could be more pitiful than the story of the Emperor Kr-derick'.s threemonths' reign with its lamentable ending. Since that event the position of the Doivagcr Empress, socially mid politically, seems to have bteu one of total eclipse, a fact which may remind ns that, for a time at least, she was believed to have little reason for satisfaction in her lelations with her eldest .son. For years whilst Crown I'rincess she had been, as a foreigner, the special aversion of Bismarck, who never spared a gibe at the expense of "the Englishwoman." Taking their cue from Bismarck the (icrfiians disiilied and districted her, pattern of all gocdness though she was, as loyal to tiermiu'.y and Herman interests as tier husband or as llism-trck himself. German feeling has come round, as it was bound to do : even the French are fervid in their praises—and with reason, for to the humanity of the Crown J'rince Frederick—influenced liv his wife, insinuates Bismarck-— they owed "inch when times v/ere worst with them in IS7O. We British do not forget that the Empress Frederick was a daughter of our own royal house, and that her Herman with its consequences has of late been of no small value to lis: how much we cannot toll. Peace to her memory! Mr fjedilon probablv at some time or other lias heard mention of Fiankenstein, German medical student, and the monster ho fabricated out of the fragments of bodies picked up in graveyards and dissectingmoms. Life, be conferred upon it by galvanism; but there his science ended. A human soul and human sympathies he failed to give it: wherefore the monster ill revenge dedicated its ghoulish energies t« the destruction of the author of its being. Tf Mr Pcddon's literary recreations have acquainted him with this story, he will tie reminded of it just. now. He himself is Finhkenslein : his parricidal monster is the Seddon Labour Legislation. I don't say that. Mr Seddon's reforms, so called. a.rc all and altogether bad: neither would T. say it of Jack Cade's. "There shall be in England seven hart-penny loaves sold for a. penny '--to the obvious advantage of Ihe consumer, and, in principle, closely resembling Mr Seddon's proposed operations in coal: "the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops "-where",-; the) wrong?— "and ] will make it felony lb drink small beer,' a policy which would have, at any rate, the support of the prohibitionists, Then

AVe will noi'. leave one lord, one gor.tlanan, •Spars none but {!ic::o that <;o in clouted shooa, for thc-v are thrifty honrat men.

"I will apparel them ull in «»».» livery Unit t liey may agree like' brothers.*' hp continues.—and we weni io he lislcniii!,' tn Mr Barclay. There i« atao a savour of something we know in Cade 1 ? heinily to Lord .Say before cutting off his head:

Thou hast mo/.t traitorously corrupted the youth of Hip realm in a gMmnuu'school; ar.d, whereas, brfore, our forefathers had no otli ?v lot-ki but the score and the tally, thou has! cause:] priuliny to be used; nj:tj contrary to the King, hi.s Crown and digniiv. Thou hast built a paper-mill. It- will be proved to thy face that tliott hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abominr.blo words as no Christian car can ensure to hoar. Thou dost ride on a footclclh, cb=t thou not?

Jack Guile is not to lie condemned utterly or without qualification: and the same clarity, must bi! extended to modern apostles of his principles. Xew Zealand Labour laws are not all bud. hub some of them are write bad enou«h to ruin their author. And herein is poetical nistice. that. Mr .Seddon. if ruined politically he is to lie, should be ntim'd by the work of his own hands. From the Opposition I hope for nothing ; the Opposition is a shotten haddock; but everything is to be hoped from letting socialist legislation -do its worst. National evils generally bring with llierii thvir own remedies.

A mining investor whose signature proclaims him "Disgusted" addresses me in a sort of parable:

Mr Civi.=,— Dear Sir, I always read Passing Xotes. Yours on dredging are wonderfully clever. That is why I ?m so anxious to serve I'ou. Vol! would not te!:e a present in hard cf.sii, so 1 propose taking you into partner--iiip. Tile directors of the Such-aiid-Such l)ied«,'ii;; Cull!])-,my have issued 3UO debentures of £'5 earn, terminable in tiiontlis. I ir.ve taken up i::y portion. No-,v. 1 propose that you and I bay up al! the debentures, and. iu 15 take possession of the dredge and claim. You need have no fear; ihe claim is a geed one, or I, who live almost o.n the spot, would not have given 30s premium [or shares. This is the old story of insufficient capital with its consequent alternative between liquidation and raising more. Whether raising more takes the form of debentures or preference shares is a detail, and unimportant. 1-lither form is a mortgage, and— if the claim is good, the security ample, and the inures: £0 per cent.—the essential thing is to be a mortgagee. To that essential my correspondent seems to have attended with due care; so. as 1 make out, he is at! right.. lime particulars that he adds respecting the claim ate interesting; as 1 have suppressed vhe name nobody will be able to take nnt'aii- advantage of this ir.fornation.—except. of coarse, niyself, and i am above siisnieiou.

Now, swing that you and I arc going together in this venture, it is only ri»ht that I should give you some particular* about the claim. The wash ;s composed of btaek-sawd gold, much hotter than Hartley and Kilev's. The dredge is a modern, up-to-date dredge, or po it was intended, but owing to it havingtaken two years to build it is now a little behind the t/mes. The contractors finished the building early last month, and although it has not done two days' work it has been undergoing repairs for three or four weeks. I think our directors are waiting until there :s more water to the dredge on a higher level. They will then be able fo get at some old ground, and there will hs very little strain on the machinery. There will flot be much gold in old giound, but thut does not matter. Our directors i-im issue more debentures. 13 til of comsc thut will not atipc-l nt'—we shall have the first niorlg-ijje. T have held shares in dredging companies for many years, and have done fairly veil, but our directors in the other companies carried on the buaiueds in ? different manner. If he means io insinuate that- the directors mudd'i?d away the old capital and will probably muddle away the new, I am entirely tuth him. There is nothing that anybody can either insinuate or affirm to the discredit of the. guinea-pig director Unit 1 am not prepared to believe. Dear Civis,—ln writing poetry do you get the rhyme (irst? or do you. !ivst decide iwliAt you want to say, and thru look for the rhyme? This seems the proper way, but it is difticult. Von may have the finest thoughts yet be unable to find rhyme#.' August 7. Perplexed. Advising this innocent is a ticklish responsibility. Am Ito iiip in the bud a possible Tennyson, and inflict mi New Zealand literature a.n irreparable injury? That would never do. Summoning, therefore, my best- mtellinouce, .1 say in reply, unhusitatiiiglv.—rhynivs first. Thought:? are not: essential. Anybody troubled with the disease of thinking bad hotter stick to prose. Vur the spring poet, rhymes anil metre are the first consideration, especially rhymes. * For rhymes tho ruddora nre of verses, Wiih which, like ships, they steer their courses. Metre is mainly an affair of ear; if the poet himself lack ear, be may assume a similar deficiency in bis' readers, and go ahead untroubled. It is well, however, to give some attention to metre, for the sake of the critics, and lo avoid extremes -such, for example, as of the sacred bard who did for the Pentateuch what Tate and Untidy luid done for the Psalms; e.g., Pharaoh, King of Kgypt, was a great rascal, he wouldn't let the Children of Israel, with their wives and little ones, their flocks ami thei-: herds, go three days' journey into the wilderness for to eat Prsclibl. Two lines: the rhymes all right—laccal and Paschal; but the second line open to ml-iukm in respect o[ its length. Hut objections of ibis nature are prvhaps mere pedantry. Apv poet as is a pout soon learns not to mind them.

As an exercise in filling thoughts to rhymes there is ranch virtue in the Wench amusement called " bouls-rimes''—rhymed endings. You tix your rhymes beforehand : the. scope of the composition—the thought, so t-.ille'l —then lakes cure of itself. Let us set down half a dozen rhymes at hazard: you lit I' 3 stirs together weather Required a poem in thiee couplets ending witii these rhyme*. Consider them well. "Hers" seems to say that there is a woman in il : "vntt" that somebody is addressed; "together" and "weather'' taken in conjunction suggest an outdoor wa.lk. On this basis we can start. We assume an inevitable he. an equally inevitable she. make them casual acquaintances, and let them easifclly meet. The opening word is with liim, of course: "I H-.n welking only for walking's sake;—may I walk with you?" Quite simple and natur.il. that. Her reply has to end with "do." and doubtless' " do!" will be its stfm Mid substance; but not in the naked imperative—"may I?" says lie : " Do!" says she ;—we. must contrive something belter than that. "You may," she said, "ii' not afraid a hazardous thing to do." A clever "woman, you see : she challenges conversation and makes an opening for him. What he will say in reply is obvious: but how are we going to get in the word "hers"? This way: "Why hazardous?"—He turned as he spake, and measured his step with hers. Very neat, though I say it- myself. }>nt. .her reply must have ihc. awkward ending "stirs." This seems a poser. "He stirs"? —"she stirs"'.'—no good. "Breast that stirs"?—"breeze that'stirs"?—"mouse that stirs''? That'll do it I " There arc eyes," she replied, " and clacking tongues, bo it only n mouse that stirs." The remaining 'rhymts. "together" and "weather." are almost too c.isv: but not tlie more on that account should we slide into banalities. The high level of this poem must be kept to the end. Due cogitation evolve*; the couplet thus; "And suppose they see, not a mouse, but me— and yon, as we wr.lk together?" "'What then?'—you would ask; well, we both may count on a season of stormy weather." Tliero von a.re—poetry while you wait ! Let us now collect our lines and sse.how thev vim. He and Sue. "I am walking only for walking's sake;—may 1 walk with vcu?" "Wi may," she saitt, "if not afraid % hazardous tiling to do." "Why hazardous?"—He turned as he speke, and measured his step with hers. "There e.rp eyes," she replied, "and claekiug tongues, be il only a mouss IM stirs." " And suppose they see, not a mouse, but me— end vain as we walk together?" AMjat then? —you would as!:; well, we both luav eeunt on a season of stormy weather." I.iic rhyming is all right, the scansion correct: the beginning and the end hang togetherv"lint more would yon have? H is respectable poetry. and that is about all you can say of Tennyson's things, or Milton's. C:vis.