COUNTING THE MISSES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20979, 19 March 1930, Page 11

COUNTING THE MISSES.

“ They count the “ hits,” not the “misses,” I overheard someone say. Many people do that—especially the superstitious ones and those who frequent fortune-tellers-' parlours. They will inform you that on such-and-such an occasion, when Tom “ sat down 13 to dinner,” Tom died a few weeks afterwards 1 The "hit,” you see! We are not told anything about the other 12, who are probably still alive 1 And then there was that time when, passing under a ladder, a paint-pot fell upon Elizabeth’s head. Of course, that was because it is extremely unlucky to pasp beneath ladders! We hear nothing about the other occasions when Elizabeth walked under a ladder and nothing happened! Nor of the ink-pot upset- over Elizabeth’s new frock as the result of her walking too near a desk at which her small brother was writing! No! They are “misses” and don’t count! Superstitions survive because of the “ hits'.” We are not told about the “ misses.” , - But there are other directions in which just the opposite happens. We hear all about the “ misses ” and next to nothing about the “ hits.” Particularly in matters religious arc the “ misses ’’ counted. Let a clergyman err and the ’ world rings with the news. A finger of scorn is pointed at religion itself. "See its failure!” men cry. They forget all. about the 99 “hits” in contemplation' of the one “miss.” It is the same with Christian Science. The othef day a- woman—a Christian Scientist—died, it was avowed, through lack of medical attention. Of course, the case appeared in the press. The , cures attributed to Christian Science go, for the most part, unrecorded. Again, we hear plenty about the *' miSses,” not the “hits”! Spiritualism also comes in for similar unfairness. We are told so much about the impostures—the failures—and so little about the successes; It is for this very reason that dissension among Christian bodies is so deplorable—disagreement within the Church—strife within the Salvation Army! The judge who urged the latter to settle their differences amicably Was wise in his generation. He realised that the evil would blot out the good, as it always so readily does in matters spiritual. Strange to say, in affairs relating chiefly to the material world, the.“misses” do not appear to be so disastrous and farreaching. This biased vision also applies to marriage. We hear too much about the failures. Publicity is given to the “ misses.” Wc heai 1 just how many unions were dissolved last year compared with previous years—how many suits were undefended. Oh! the statistics relating to divorce arc most sedu- / lously kept. i And, besides this, we have our attention continually called to causes of marital unhappiness brought before the police courts. In fact, our eyes are kept focused upon the drab "side of Carriage. Rarely, sadly rarely, are w& summoned to gaze upon the other Side —• to look at the “hits”! (And how far they outnumber the “misses”!) The result is our judgment is perverted: our vision distorted! So long do we gaze at the backsliding of teachers of religion, at failures in creeds or philosophies; at weakness in the married state, that we forget about the triumphs, in the realm of spirit; the dazzling beauties in. the union of

A woman who combines art with feats of acrobatic skill has been selected by Sir Oswald Stoll to decorate part of the interior of the Stoll Picture Theatre. True to his reputation for sparing nothing in the cause of public comfort, Sir Oswald is aiming at eliminating the eye-strain which most people experience when leaving the darkness of the kinema for bright light, and Miss Whinfield, who has done a great deal of mural decoration in big London houses, is to be responsible for the work. Once, when doing the ceding of a music hall, Miss Whinfield had to climb across several roofs and do a tight rope performance on a ladder over one yaw-ning well between two houses in order to be lowered through the roof of the theatre dome. One night it snowed, and the next day her path across the roofs was like the famous Switzerland Cresta run. But she managed it all right. The custom of throwing dice for Bibles annually observed under the will dated 1778, of Dr Robert Wilde, of St. Ives Hunts, England, tok place recently. The cost of the Bibles is defrayed from the rent of an orchard known as “Bible Orchard.”