OVER THE TEACUPS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 69

OVER THE TEACUPS.

My Dear Readers, — With tli-e opening of our' Cosy Corner Club next month I shall,, as usual, discontinue our chats "Over the Teacups" until the session closes, bo we shall not drink tea together again' for quite a long time, and once more Emmeline's postbag will be ran.sacked from time to time for your benefit. "An article entitled "From the Factory to the Front Bench" in a recent Pall Mall ,-would, I think, be of interest to many of you, for it was a sketch of a most unique and notable^ personality— that of the Eight Hon. John Burns, M.P. Time passes at onoe" so slowly and so quickly — slowly, alas, for our own personal sorrows or misfortunes; quickly — a mere breath on - the mirror — for the lives or events that lie outside the circle of our little "ego." So ~ it --seems "but a few years since we read ~of - the Labour agitator John Burns being imprisoned for rioting in Trafalgar Square ! His ' present position as English Cabinet Minister" speaksl volumes for the intrinsic ■worth and value of the man himself, and - still _more- -for- the unexpressed, subtle "changes in the temuer of the. times.^ His

great reputation as a speaker. He has a voice of wonderful power, trained by long practice in, the open air ; he has a rare gift of' epigram and of happy illustration : is racy and humorous, but naturally a hard hitter. . . . His home life has been simple, open, beautiful. He found an ideal helpmate [Don't .you like that word?] in Mrs Burns, who has shared his vicissitudes and always encouraged him with her sympathy. She is a woman of rare intelligence — as great a credit to her sex as her husband is to his class, — and has been of inestimable assistance to Mr Burns in all his years of varying work and responsibility — from Labour agitator to Ctibineb Minister. Their one son inherits the 'ncaltk of his father ar.d the beauty of his mother." Now. I really hope, you know, that I have not bored you with what seemed to me an interesting topic.

Perhaps Mrs Van Vorst's sketch of "French Cookery and' French Housewives" would have been more to your taste. It is not too late ; let us note some few items from its pleasant discursiveness, prefaced with the old French saying, "Animals feed, men cat, and men of wit know how to eat." Those frail and lovely ladies who helped to render the Court of Louis XIV so brilliant took quite a vivid interest in culinary matters, and we unconsciously immortalise Madame de Maintenon in the "Cotelette en Papillotes" which she so named. To the Princess de Conti we are indebted for rendering fashionable that particular roast many men prefer to the finest sirloin of beef — namely, a Vain of mutton. It was a good many years later that the Princess de Soubi&e set the fashion of that purecof onions eaten with lamb chops which still is known as "Cotelettes a la Soubise." The King himself, if one may credit* some of the Court chroniclers of the time, had an appetite which enabled him to do ample justice to the efforts of his cordon bleu. ",I have often seen his Majesty eat for his dinner four different kinds of soup, a whole pheasant, a partridge/ a large plate of salad, some mutton with garlic, two generous slices of ham, a ijlate of cakes, then some-

wearj^ivorkcis, "Burma, the Lotus Land of AsiT;/'^ and as one re-ads the desire to he? ar.d experience for one&elf its calm, unruffled joys grows, with every picture preserted to the imagination. One is n deadly sick of Japan and the Japanese. Their eager liaste for "Western civilisation seems almost sinister ; our toe effusive admiration of themselves, their art?, their country has cloyed our appetite — we do not like to confess it, but we experience the same sensation as the child does who has 'eaten too greedily of his tempting sweet .

Burma and the Burmese offer a comparatively fresh field for our sham enthusiasms ; shall we talk about this "land of lotus-eat-ing, calm land where it is always afternoon and never the hour of work"'? The quaint roofs of the Burmese temples, like so many diminishing umbrellas rising one above another, are familial enough to us, and when we let the tang of "Tlie Road to Mandalay' 1 sound through our thoughts we almost hearthe long, lazy roll of sea as it sweeps up "from China 'crost the bay" — but really of Burmese life we know next to nothing. "The upper classes, and many of their admiring imitators, confine their activities to watching hirelings work and play. Leisure is their one delight, with sufficient money to dress, eat, and smoke endless cheroot*. Now that tattooing has gone out of fashion the young men decorate themselves with radiant silks of beautiful colour and design, antl the ladies array themselves even more brilliantly than the men with flowers in their raven hair and precious stones about their slim brown throats, their slender wrists and fingers, and glittering in their ears."

The favourite national amusement is the Pwe (pronounced "ponay"), and the entertainment is of three distinct classes: the "posture dancing" by a troupe of girls with a, chorus ot men is the rarest and most expensive, costing some hundreds of pounds to produce it ; it is therefore reserved for great public festivals. The more popular shows consist of the drama, which is made ur> of songs, dances, and jokes by a quartet of damsels and accompanying chorus ; and

l! I entirely approve of every healthy woman nursing her baby herself. I should, perhaps, have mentioned this especially, or have quoted " the top line " of Mr j Broadbent's formula ; but the fact is I ! never thought about any woman failing to understand that the directions quoted were only for those mothers who from one circumstance or othei were unable to nurse their own infants.

2. Such an idea as attributing the increased rate if infant mortality to the evolution of the trained nurse and her variously-named sisterhood nevei entered my mind. My intention was to emphasise the stigma attaching to the modern woman, who, with all modern aids to the intelligent rearing of her infants, yet failed more conspicuously than the preceding generation, whose methods we look down upon.

3. My article was suggested by articles in. English magazines, notably one in Pearson's Magazine ; but in writing it I desired to mark my sense of what the local community owes to Dr King's efforts, and in ordei to do this introduced his name in terms of frank appreciation — a , courtesy curiously responded to! Since Dr King has successfully misunderstood the whole intention and spirit of

father "died when he was 10 years old, , and . the little lad had at bnoe to leav« school and join his -elder brother in helping to support their mother. He was taken on at Price's candle factory, and to bis work there joined any odd jobs he could get — "buttons," pot boy on Sundays, anything, for the boy was a born "grafter." His turn for mechanics induced him later on to choose engineering as his profession, and it is characteristic of the man that no amount of bodily labour or weariness • prevented his progress in mental work — always he was educating himself, mind and body, music, reading, cricket, athletics, until the time when, his apprenticeship over, he accepted a post as foreman engineer on some works in progress on the Niger. Here, amid the primitive surroundings and strange perils of a tropical country, the young engineer had opportunities for displaying a courage and heroism which the tamer circumstances of English life might never have jicalled forth. Not once or twice even, did John Burns save the life of a comrade at the risk of his own. With the money saved in this enterprise the working engineer, who was one day to become a Uabinet Minister, made the tour of Europe, studied the art of world in the picture galleries, saw the beauties and ■ wonders of tne old world. i Reading all this one finds oneself un- i consciously correcting the rough idea of an ! unlettered artisan which the name of John Burns,* the labour agitator, has been accustomed to summon up in the mind. A jnjjLu of humble origin assuredly, but of ' deep reading, of travel, and of that keen observation of men and things, that calm . self mastery which fits him to be a leader , of men. "John Burns has attained a •

J fruit and conserves." N"o + a bad appetite that, I take it ! One wonders how many meals his Majesty managed in a dsgr! No greater contrast to this royal gourmet could be instanced than Napoleon — the restless genius who never spared more than fifteen minutes to any meal, preferred taking his meals alone, and worked while he ate. Almost his only weakness in the way of appetite was his liking for sweets and pastry, which was no doubt the reason that the art of tlie pastrycook reached during his reign a summit of perfection hitherto unknown. The cunning little story which Mrs Van Vorst tells, I must find room for : "The only hot food' prepared for Napoleon was a Toast, generally a chicken. As the Emperor was always delayed it was the custom to put a fresh bird on the spit every fifteen minutes. On one particular night, when he k»pt Josephine waiting to dine until 11 o'clock, there were 23 fowls prepared before he partook of one." One more little quotation and we will leave Mrs Yon Vorst's pleasant paper. It shall consist this quotation of "a recipe for 'how to eat' by a man still living at the age of 100." First Meal. — A glass of water at 9 in the morning, and a piece of stale bread. Second Meal. — Soup, toast, stewed fruit, a glass of old wine. 2 p.m. _ \ Third Meal. — Go for a walk.

Fourth Meal. — A little rice -with milk, & glass of Sweetened water, at 9. To bed at 10. l - - , But who wishes to live to be ft hundred ? Xot I for one. Do you ? As far from lunch cookery as from the stress and concentration of those modern developments of which John Burns is a tjpe, is another article which I read recently. The very title sounds pleasant to

the performances of the marionettes, which are- most cleverly, managed. Burmese jtaste goes in the direction of lengthy pleasures evidently, as the people do not think much of a performance that cannot last out for twelve hours!

Boat-racing is very popular, and one writer lays emphasis on the crews from the Shaw States, who stand on the boat and row with their legs. The incessant smoking of cheroots (the tobacco for which is brought over from Madras) afFor^^'quite an industry, as they are rolle<s by the women, and the really "chic" thing to do is to have your own cheroot^ girl who knows and studies your taste in rolling cheroots of just the pleasant pungency or mildness.

Silk weavers, like cheroot girls, are exclusively employed by wealmy families; weli-dressed men generally have at least a •hundred silk skirts in theitf -wardrobe, and smart ladies have twice thal^number. Since everyone wears, or wantjj^ to wear, silk, from the handkerchief So? hi 6 head to the punghi or silk petticoat which reaches his feet, it is easy to understand how silkweaving is the best-paid trade in Burma. There is much more to say, but the gathering dusk forbids us to linger. - Adieu, sweet friends.

EMMELINE.