D.L.F. PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2572, 8 July 1903, Page 81

D.L.F. PASSING NOTES.

Old Writers' Week for June 24 1903. is now a thing of the past and a matter of D.L.F. histoTj The n>a«OTis for holdrr><r Riich a course *t certain intervals in the" D.L.F. year have

been pointed out and commcnte3 upon from time to time; s>nd it will be sufficient to remark that Old Writers' Week was instituted with the express idea of keeping in touch with the page those who, owing to their having attained the age limit, were no longer eligible to contribute to the page legularly asjm ordinary D.L.F. This 1? practically the basis of OUI Writers' Week. Apart from the object already mentioned as being the purport of 0.W.W., there are several other things which we can find in connection with an O.W.W. "If we compare the letters of an O.W.W. with those of any ordinary week, we notice a considerable difference in»-their tone, though at the same time we can find any number of letters appearing in any ordinary week's list which will hold thc-ir o\ 11 and compare favourably with these of th_ best contributors to an O.W.W. In spite of this fac+, to m\ mind the letter= of the contributor to an O.W.W. appear to ka\e a moie confident tor>o and to be of a 1-etter quality than the majority of thc-e in any ordn my weekly column. And s=o it ought to be, for are no., the contnbutors to an O.W.W the v.ntcis v iio lor five or mere yems have faced and survi\ed the criticisms of the critics of that pel od' 1 ' Her.cc they wi'tc with confidence, anti confidence is worth a good deal, and very necessary for the succe"? of certain ct.icrpiises — more c-spc-cislly in co uiection with ilia doings of a burglar. I made the rci.rark that the toae of the letters of an O.W.W. differed from that of lettci3 of an ordinary week, remarking at the s.>me time that thi» difference was due to confidence and v. pr.t of confidence. My opinion compares favcurablj with that of a German writer, who 13 responsible for the statement that "Confidence is the key which unlock? the door 3 of- the heart, enabling one to speak out without any hesitation. That beiD" <?o. it is \ery clear that all that is required is that new writeis ibni'd have every co-ilideice, say what they think, fnd cctUii ly rot sa\ v hat they know most writers to think, sanp'y for the pripose of being 111 the fashion. Public opinion is a dangerous thing. Carljle asseiti that it is the greatest ho 111 the wcrld, which, being so, thcie is no excuse for want of confidence, ard once D.LF. get thi3— well, Old Writers will ha\ c to !ook to their laurels. .

Turning to the O.W.W. just past, in my mind the palm of victory mu=t be ay. aided to Boy, with Abigail a good second, :.nd a haid fight between the remainder foi third place Amongst h.s imaginations Boy includes a D.L.F. football n.ptch between Town and Country D.L.F. Peisonally, I cam.ot claim to have ever h<<d a paiticular affinity for football — it is too much a case of the roughest wins, with all science thrown to the wind. True, football enn be played scientifically, but how often do we see it payed m that manner? On the other hand, from a game of science — which it can be, and has been — football may, and generally Ones, generate into a game of brata force. 'Tis use'ess for lovers of this pastime to deny this fact, for a perusal of the hiptoiy of football does not tend to strengthen the arguments of foolboll enthusiast-. To irturn to my subject, Boy imagines a I) L F football ma till — Town v. Country. In Jus rcmaiks he refers to the town fco'bal'ers as "city cad",' with shaky nerves Lnwc-r down ho remarks that there is heard the snanpmg of the "eistwhile stout city hearts " Tim ib an inconsistency broad and palpable; but it is an example of the few cases in which an inconsistent argument saves the writer. In this case, Boy accuses the town footballers of having shaky hearts and stout heaits 'Tis well, for had he simply considered that town footbailers possessed shaky hearts, and shaky hearts only, I should have been compelled to come to the conclusion that Boy wa= one of the many urfortuuates who are labouring und>?r the delusion that because a certain boy hails from the town he must necessarily be what is best explained by the term "soft." This is a mistake, and one which many country teams have discoveicd to their loss.

"We are having horrible weather just now." "Oh, Dot, isn't the weather awful?" "What dreadful weather we have been having'" "The v eat her up here has been dreadful'" "Is it ever gcing to stop raining?" "It has been raining all day." - "One would imagine this was winter, we arc having so much ram. ' What is tLis 9 Oh, tin.'- is simply a fan sample of the commencement of the majority of the letters appearing some kttle time back The above arj samples taken at random, but are fairly typical of the rcmaindei. How interesting it is to know, and while knowing to be told by every second wnter that the weather we are having is awful 01 dreadful, as the case may b2. When we are informed &h to the state of the weather, we are, of couise, expected to consider ourselves as blind to the fact itself— that is, we are expected not to see the despised weather, but are to look upon the exclamation, "What dreadful weathei we are having, ' as a delightful piece of news— and new news at that. This, however, doesn't always act, and when I read three D L.F. letters all commencing with remarks as to the "dcadful weather we are having," and find that the remainder contain the same lemark— if not at the beginning, in the middle 01 at the end— l feel somewhat like the man who was asked foi the twer.ty-sccoi"! time about 3 o'c'ock in the morning if he wanted the snow bweot fiom Ins doorstep.

The study of proverbs, maxims, and wi°e sayings is a somewhat interesting one, aaid during the counse of that study one comes aciO3S many peculiar inconsistencies and contradictions For example, take two wellknown quotations " Absence makes, the heart grow fonder," " Out of sight, out of mind ' The one flatly contradicts the other, for wherer.s in the first we are told that abbonce mako3 one remember one's friend even more than formeily, in the second we are told that no sooner 13 that person out of sight, and therefore absent, than we at once forget the very existence of that individual. Take a different exprcasion altogether "The lover, the lunatic, nnd the poet " We are told that these are one and all the same thing, from which we can but conclude that the lovei has no sense — a conclusion which u> likewise applicable to the remainder. Commenting on the lover, Emmerson says, "The lover has more sense, and finer senses, than others." Another flat contradiction. Mistakes of a different character are to be found in the works of the most faijious writers. Taking the mofct famous writer— Shakespeare— as an example, we find that he makes one of his Mibjects in one of his plays refer to a clock, and not only 1? it a clock\ but ail alarm clock. Now, at the period in which this play is based clocks— and certainly not alarm clocks— were not even thought of. " It lias been proved that this inconsistency is not the work of the printer, so Shakespeare must have had a wonderful imagination for coium<» new ideas cud woids. d.l.f. cms.