Between You and Me

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 54

Between You and Me

By

J.T.

(Specially wbitten fob tiie Otago Witness.) REAL JOY. For those who are foolish enough to have the blues and wise enough to want to get rid of them I have discovered a sure and certain antidote. Provided, of course, that you are human. My advice is a trip through the Exhibition with a bevy of school children. For the man who has found all things hollow it will prove a tonic of wonderful efficacy. It is cheaper than most cures, and will not fail. To see real joy, and to learn something of correct values in this drab world it is necessary to see things with the eyes of youth. Just wander unobserved in the midst of the happy throngs, and drink in some of the rare pleasure which is theirs—and yours if you will but see as they see. The other day I saw them and listened to their talk. They observe the wonders so many of us miss, and in the years to come they will count the glorious hours and remember the thrills of new sights. Pleasure is a wanton jade, and the things which promise most ofttimes give least. So if you really want to be happy, and have need of stimulus see the. Exhibition with the happy children’s eyes. If the experience leaves you cold then I am indeed sorry for you. You need—well, I don’t know.

GROWTH BY SUBTRACTION. Mr Lang in the role of Labour Premier of the Mother State of New South Wales is encountering much trouble i’ his endeavour to abolish the Legislative Council. Doubtless he is a surprised man, perhaps a disillusioned man, though it is not easy to show light to a rabid dictator. Belonging to the order of men who can see but one side of a question, and that side imperfectly, he cannot understand why some able and estimable people disagree with him. Not long since he swamped the Legislative Council by the appointment of 25 abolitionists, all pledged (so lie said) to end an institution which had the temerity to think for itself. At the crucial moment some of the Labour Councillors rebelled, and Mr Lang was defeated. The “rebels” included men who have served the Labour cause faithfully and well for a score of years. They have not only rebelled against dictatorship, but they have soundly trounced Mr Lang in their farewell leavetakings to the Labour Party. Mr Bryant, a former Government Whip with 40 years’ Labour service, says that in casting his vote he was guided bv a simple sense of public duty, and complains that the treatment meted out to him during the past month was such as is the lot of a galley slave. The other Labour member’s load, after 20 years, became too heavy to bear. So they leave the party. And now once more will follow the spectacle of “strengthening” the party by expelling all who think for themselves. The expulsions will include any and every Labour man who dares to differ from the dictum of the bosses. The split may have far-reaching consequences, but the remnant will be “the Labour Party,” and the bosses will control the machine. They at all events will be satisfied. All they seek is power. In the process Labour will, however, have lost another considerable section of its brains.

THE HEROES WE WORSHIP. It is a common habit of mankind to destroy its idols. In its very essence hero worship is dangerous for the hero, more especially if he most depend for his fame on his nerve and stamina. This civilisation of ours plays havoc with the spartan regime necessary for physical fitness. The tragic end of “Battling” Siki is an extreme example of the ever-present danger awaiting the unwary hero, and thou oh Siki was in no sense an attractive character he had some tr,ue metal in his makeup. His was a romantic life—page for an actress, dishwasher, hero during the world war, then dishwasher again, until he found fame in the boxing arena, had all Paris to play in, .and the danger of the things he played with he didn’t understand. Then he went to the United States—to the end which, perhaps, was a dramatic climax to his life. TTg was a victim of civilisation, said the Rev. A. Clayton Powell, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church of Harlem, New York, at Siki’s funeral. “He was known throughout civilisation ns the. ‘Jungle Boy.’ the ‘Singular Senegalese’ and the ‘Jungle Hercules.’ No man ever came out of Africa who lived a more dramatic life or had a more tragic end.” Here is the moral, as the minister’s sermon is quoted in the Now York Run : t'A lack of proper preparation and a noble purpose were the two dreadful mistakes of his life. Our civilisation .is perhaps more to blame for these mistakes than ho was. “Emerging from the jungle a little less than twenty years ago, charged with the energy of a Grecian mythological god, he could have been moulded into a tremendous force for good, but was allowed to run wild, like uncontrolled and undirected electricity. TTo left sears upon the body of civilised mankind of which we should all be ashamed. “A man. born in the heart of Africa, twenty-eight years ago, who could win a Croix do Guerre and a Legion of vHonour medal, win forty battles out of forty-two in the prize-ring, and have

himself proclaimed the light heavyweight champion of the world, surely had something in him that educated people should have developed and directed into a channel of usefulness. “Had this been done, Battling Siki might have been a Rene Maran, a Blyden, or a Toussaint l’Ouverture. “To his widow we express the deepest sympathy; to the group he represented wo say, ‘Beware of his example'; to the people of the civilised world we plead for better treatment of the next Mischievous Boy of the Jungle who comes to live among us.” « t • THE PASSING OF THE HOME. Those old-fashioned folk who still believe in home life find much to cause uneasiness for the future. The outstanding obstacle to home-building appears to be the shortage of domestic servants. There all against such service. In America the situation is rather, worse than situation appears to bo rather worse than elsewhere, despite the fact that good positions at from £3 to £4, with board and room, are numerous. Factory and restaurant jobs at £2 10s a week aro given preference. That the situation is grave may be gathered from the remarks of a New York City Congressman: — ‘Statistics of domestic relations, showing the breaking-up of homes, and the hegira to hotel life, are alarming. The tendency is to desert private housekeeping for public housekeeping enterprises, when opportunity offers, as is shown by the statistical figures of women engaged in increasing numbers as barters, hairdressers, women engagedetaoin hrr renovators, stewardesses, janitors, lunchroom keepers and waitresses, all of which occupations are carried on outside of private homes. Obviously some escape from this deplorable condition must be devised promptly if the American home, the cradle of discipline and re* ligion, is to serve and fulfil its missioD for weal. All labour agences report a decided scarcity in supply of trained domestics, despite the fact that at no time have wages and conditions been so good.” The solution offered by the Batimore American has attractive possibilites: “Mistresses of large establishments will be more and more obliged to « r Jopt better methods, labour-saving devices, and numerous short-cuts in housekeeping. Scientific management must be adapted to domestic needs. The future household servant will be the neighbourhood electrician and mechanic, summoned for emergencies when fixtures get out of order.” This is Mary in a role.