LITERATURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17729, 13 September 1919, Page 2

LITERATURE.

»»» SOME ODDS AND ENDS.* j BUT NOT To BU IGNORED. Ry Constant Readku. iiro lx>oks wliicli cL-Lssifv tlioinsclvos ndurally, and which lit into thoiLpiyiwr i>!;icts almost at onc:>. 'I'ljorc aro otliorsi which always appear odd, and wlucli cut'Jtot U> »<l:ii>tcd to cirouiTLstancos ;-®-ovon when placed on a shelf they aro too big or too small, or not the right, colour. It thus'' corner about that every book-lovor has *j'i collection odds and ends -which ho is unablo to stow away satisfactorily. As with tbo book-lover, so with tho reviewer, a. niuijbor of volumes collect, not important enough to merit; notie-o by thomselvcs which liavo scarcely any relation tho one to tho other; they form the odds and ends. Yet these are by 110 means negligible, as that "whrch. follows tends to show, I.—WHAT BLIND CAN DO. " or (i Somo years/' writes Sir Arthair Peason, "I had beau rapidly losing my own sight, and shortly beioro tho war broke out my eyes completely failed me. 1 had boon compelled _to relinquish my chief work of conducting several daily n;wsp«ix?rs, and for a tiino I went abroad. Very quickly, however, I realised that it is tho blind man who, abovo all, needs occupation, and that tha inoro activo, the. more normal ho can make his lifo tbo happier ho will be." Thus, " from a very busy lifo i» Fleet street," Sir Arthur Pearson was led by a succession of steps to "tho equally busy lifo of caring for our bhndod soldiers." Tho deprivation of sight whioh overtook Sir Arthur Pearson has had a beneficial outcome in tho 'wonderful fact that ho has been instrumental in showing to hundreds of men similarly deprived by tho war, tho v;ay to "Victory Over Blindness." How great, how amazing is that victorv he lias set down in a wonderfully interesting book bearing that title. Before the war, Sir Arthur Pearson -was president of tho National Institute for tho Blind, and as soon as hostilities broko out he was largely instrumental in raising the Prince of Wales's Fund for tho relief of blinded soldiers and sailors. Immediately ha conceived the idea of a hostel, " with plenty of room to move about, and with largo and beautiful grounds," whera tho men could " learn to bo blind." Mr Otto Kahn, tho American financier, placed at* Sir Arthur Pearson's disposal St. Dunstans, a y spacious and splendid residence in Regent Park, London, with grounds extending ov?r 15 acres. While the necessary alterations •were being made, a start was made with the hostel idea at a houso in Bayswater Hill, where two blinded soldiers entered in February, 1915. " When, on the 26th of March, the move was made to Regent's Park, there w<?ro 16 men to caro for, and before the end of 1918 there were over 1500 names on our books and five large establishmsnts, with tho original house at • St. Dunstan's as their centre in London, in addition to several annexes in the provinces, barely provided the accommodation wo required." Tho extent and adequacy, of the work thus undertaken is indicated in tho following . paragraphs:— Beforo tho. end of 1918 over 600 . men liad already learned to be blind, and had returned to their homes. Nearly 700 were still in training at St. Dunstan's and at th 3 various annexes, and nearly 200 were still in • hospital. Fifteen hundred men and more than 800 people engaged in one way or. another in contributing to their happiness and- welfare. There were among these. 595 women— including matrons, V.A.D.'s, nurses, teachers- of Braille, typewriting, and music, regular visitors, and those who oamo to road to the men and take them for walks, and secretaries. Tho mala staff numbered. 293—there ■wc.ro the tho oculists, the doctors, the chaplains, tho workshop teachers, poultry _ farm instructors, ac- , eountants, orderlies, walkers, masseurs, chauffeurs, porters, gardeners, scouts, and > thoss engaged in tho pension, the settlement, and tho after-carr;- departments In tho days when I could ee© I had the direction of some big enterprises,- but St. Dunstan's bccamo the biggsst individual business that I have ever conducted. The idea animating Sir Arthur Pearson in establishing St. Dunstan's was that the sightless soldiers, after . being discharged from hospital, "might come into a little world whero tho things which blind men cannot do wew forgotten, pid where everyone was concerncd with what blind men can do." Tho working out of that idea has yielded wonderful results. Indeed, it is not too much to say that in tho light of tho experience gained Mr Rudyard Kipling will, be calkd upon to invent a fi " lsb { °r. "The Light That Failed." while the tragic not© "will be completely extracted from such stories as Mr B. F Benson's — 'The Angel of Pain." Sir Arthur"' Pearson's personal testimony is highly illuminating on this point:— ' One of tho most gratifying things that we people who have lost our sight have to think of is that as tho years go on «« shall become moro and more adept blind men. . . A blind friend of mine, who gets abroad by -himself almost miraculously told mo tho other dav that during the wholo of the years that he has been blind he has continued to improve what he is sure will go on improving as long as his life lasts. To this testimony I can add mv own, for I 'am very conscious -of the fact that I miss my Mprht loss and less. I now find myself doing things unconsciously over which a great dral of caro. and thought Was necessary a year or two ago, and oil. newly-blinded peoplo will have the same experience as timo crocs by. The plain fact is that an intelligent blinded person becomes more and more normal and less and less blind every year he lives. Tho sub-title of ".Victory Over Blindnoss reads: "How it was won by tho mrn of St. Dunstan's and How Others May Win It The two sides of tho story are likely to attract a multitude of readers. In addition to the interest attaching, to the personal experiences of tho brave men Wjio, having helped to gain tho victory over, the hosts of Germany, have also succeeded in winning a development of tho and senses which gains for them victory over blindness." there is riven a detatled deseriDt:on of th* ways and means _bv which that victory was won. Equally interesting and most useful aro the practical hint* given in the best way to help and insmrc th* soldiers who hayc lost their sicht. This doßfiininn is not without its blinci-d men, and what Sir Arthur Pearson writes as to the attitude which should bo assumed towards them ought To be well heeded:— Tho more I came into contact, with the world of tho blind tho moro it seemed to me that the dwellers in it were retoo oftfti as a peoplo apartlliero was too much pity for~their blindness and not enough sympathy with.their human natures. It seemed to me' that ii people had in the past been goner-' ally treated entirely in t-htf wrong manner. Sweet, kindly folk had talked to v£. m f " out ™°ir affliction and the terrible difficulties that .beset' them. If you tell a man often enough that ho is afflicted he will .become afflicted, and will adopt tho mental and physical attitude befitting that soul-destroying word I determined that at least in i»y own dealings with the blind the word pity and tho word affliction should not be used. I set myself -to live as activo and as independent a life as possible, and it became my ambition to do whatever I could to help_ blind people to escape from that passive half-life which seemed so commonly accoptod as inevitable. The blinded soldiers . represented, of course, an exceptional group in the blind world. Blindness is largely associated with old age, with enfeebled bodies, f ond extreme poverty. Those who aro born blind or lose their sight in infancy •iire at a great disadvantage compared -with others who have «cen tho world and whoso memories are stored with pictures of all that is in it. The vast majority of the blinded soldiers wero young and healthy, keen, and ambitious;' they were just tho people to respond to the ideas that I had formed. lI.—THE UPRISING OF ITALY. Tho nature of the difficulties encountered by the- delegates at tho Peace Conference m dealing with the settlement between Austria. and Italy cannot bo fully comprehended without some knowledge of the era which Italians call by tho name of the Posorgiinento, the uprising or resurrection of a grcAt nation from the servitude imposed upon it by foreign arms. This uprising against the: power of Austria was the heroic ago of,modern Italy, and the leaders *(1) " VictoTy Over Blindness." -By Fir Arthnr Pearson. London: Ilodder and Stouchlon (7s net.) (i!) " The Holooanst: Italy's Struggle -With the Hapsbuxg." Br A. A. Hue; translatwl by P. H. I/loyd, M_A., Ojon. London: John Murriiv. (7a Bd net.) ► (3) " Tho CSnrrch and tho Plain Man." Bv David J. ParJaG, JC4_ Sydney: Angus rnd Roljoiteon. (S&J

' 1 of the bid for freedom were all brilliant men. Some of these. Imulers are well known world over. Mazzini, tho prophet; (.•avour, tlic statesman; nnd Garibaldi, tho warrior, l>oar names which have passed into household words. There are others, to-day partly or wholly forgotten, whoso lives and agt ions merit attention. Of such aro Allien, Li go Foscoto, Ix-opardi, Silvio, Pcllieo, Massimo d'Azeglio, Pallavicino, Pelrio hettembrini, and tho Duko of Castromediano. Madame A. A. Pine's book, "The (, Holocaust," translated by Mr P. R. Lloyd, describes eloquently and accurately tho struggle of Italy against tho liapsburg, which, with varying fortunes, but in ultimate triumph, was carried on from the beginning to the end of the 19tli century. Of tfio leaders in that, .struggle Lord> Bryco says, in a brief preface: — All were inspired by a lofty patriotism, and widely as they differed in tneir views and thoir temiKraments, all wero inspired by a cdmmon purpose to make Italy froo and to tiako her one. An Austrian Minister had contemptuously said that Italy was "a geographical expression." They jnade her a united and independent nation, borne d:cd in the struggle. Somo spent long years in exile. But they suffered ■iinci died not in vain, and their memory ccservos to ho cherished, not only in Italy but also wherever heroism is honoured • and certainly not lea?t in Britain and America, whero ali the best minds and warmest hearts of those days gave sympathy to tho patriots of Italy, and gave also a moral .support which cheered them during the weary years when success seemed almost unattainable. Ihe spirit of these men of the Risor-'i mento was a spirit with which all the peop.es and all their leaders now need to be imbued. They were idealists in the best sense of the word. Their minds were bent upon those high ancl pure things in which the true welfare and happiness of nations consist. They were thinking, not of territorial extensions, or the development of commerce, or other forms of material prosperity, but of freedom, of good relations between all tho members of a community, of the brotherhood of peop.es, of duties as well as of rights of the rule of justice in a world set free for peace in which nationalism was subordinated to tho common welfare of humanity. The arrangement of the book may *he gathered from its division into five parts entitled respectively "The Awakeners, "The Indomitables, '-The Exiles," "Tho Martyrs, and "Tho Warriors." "Tho Holocaust may profitably be read at the present tune, especially if the lessons which tho history ; sets forth in its pages are applied to tho problems of to-day. in.—'TOE CHURCH AND THE FUTURE. Archdeacon Davies, of Sydney, has issued ™'V ,no J? I ™* entitled '• The Church and the 11am Min," a ser.es of lectures which he delivered m October, 1917, in St. Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, under tho Moorhouso 1< oiindation. Theso lectures were deuvcred before large audiences, which instead of dwindling, as such audiences are apt to do, increased as the series progressed • and tho book .is issued in the hope- that it may reaai a still wider audience. The headings of the lectures furnish a rough - >rm* e ground covorcd—itamely : lh:ngs As They Are," " Causes. Alleged," Organised Selfishness," "The Progress of Labour,' " A Study in Personality: liic 1 lain Man in his Environment," "Ihe •strength of tho Church: Tho Available -Re'sources, and- "Moving Forward." The rono and temper of these lectures may be indicated in the following extracts:— ; A study of things as they aro will show that tho world cannot be saved by a purely economic gospel. Tho great war is a tragic condemnation of organised selfishness. . . . The Wan has taught takes more than economic efficiency to make the world a fit place ■ to live in. ? w hil° organised selfishness has failed, even wlir?ro tho principles have been accepted and applied, Christianity has succeeded whero its teaching has been obeyed. The partial failure of the Church has not been duo to her principles but to her inefficient application of them. lhe_ plain man's acquaintance with history is too superficial to give him tho rig.it perspective of events. He is not equipped for fiieasuring prpgress, real progress, nor for estimating the relative of material and- spiritual factors. Tho lack of equipment comes 1 out clearly in the history of tho Labour Movement. Ik ' s impossible to understand tho , Labour Movement or the Socialist propaganda w.thout beitrin ££ in mjnd the torrible sufferings endured bv the wagooarnere during tho period of the industrial revolution. , j When we are tempted-to boast of our progress" during the last hundred years, let us'_ remember tho myriads who paid the pnee of that "progress" in broken lives, stunted bodies, starved minds, and nc Ejected souls, the great army of the exploited whoso poverty made others ' rich.* At each st'.go in tho history of Labour ,? re U r en great hopes and great diMppomtments. Trade Unionism, 1 olitcal.. Propaganda. Soiialism, and syndicalism have all been bom of disappointment. ' Ideas have been embodied in schemes, schemes have been put into policy. Policy has been proclaimed in agitation and practised in various ways, and still the new era has not dawned Tfhe problems of poverty have not boen solved. •. :, • I' lo senso of disappointment abides and predisposes fhe main body to follow the impatient spirits who want to forcc tho pace of progress. Two great facts stujid out in the course of modern economic history— namely, that social injustice has existed, and has not been entirely remedied, and that progress lias been achieved mainly by the umtrd efforts of the workers themselves. Whatever many people may say there is a religious aspect to tho Labour movement manifested in two ways. . First, v there are men and women' to whom the ideas, objects, and group of interests (jfiierally included the term • Labour ' serve the purposo of an object ot worship, evoking enthusiasm, service and self-sacrifice in a sacred causra the progress of _Labour. This idealism is tho real driving force of the Labour movement, and while it intensifies the difficulty of th; 3 Labour problem to tho mere materialist or the hardened money maker, it presents to the- Christian thinker and worker a point of contact that y'eMs greater hope of healing the constant "strife which threatens to break out into open class war. There aro men and women who are in the Labour movement for what, they can give for it, and not for what they can get out of it, men and women who have mnde heavy sacrifices not - for persona] gain or self-advance-ment, but for tho good of tho brotherhood of Labour. Such men and women are the salt of Labour, and though thev are a minority they do impart something of the spirit to the majority and lift the , efforts of Labour abovo the attempt to ' get the most in return for the least possible. Archdeacon Davies' book v.'i! 1 prove most valuable to students of the social question apart from the opinions expressed therein, because of tho mass of information it contains. '"The present situation of the Church in Australia and, indeed, in almost every modern civilised State has been stated , ns it is revealed in current (acts and figures and in the l'frht of a historical survev of the last century and a-half. . . . 'The Labour Movement in particular has received special attention as constituting the characteristic environment of the plain man who does not ,go to church.