THE COMMON ROUND

Otago Witness, Issue 4074, 12 April 1932, Page 5

THE COMMON ROUND

By

Wayfarer.

Venerable elders of our city doubtless clapped gnarled hands loudly when the most distinguished citizenry deferred to the leader of a movement which once was the sport of our wits and our rowdies. They might recall the days, some fifty years a<’O, when General Booth first sent his vanguard into the highways, and the dust * n . fowling street frequently rose in swirling storms as Salvation ‘Army and Skeleton Army came into argument. They might recollect those riotous scenes when Salvation Army meetings were made hideous by the din of opposition bands of irregulars. They might contrast the throngs which filled the Town Hall on Sunday ami listened raptiy to the Army’s leader with the crowds which forced their way into places of assembly at Oamaru and any other town of consequence and howled the Army speakers down, piled high the Army's furniture in broken heaps, and in no quavering tones denounced the Army’s Grand Old Man.

M e are to-day a peaceful people, quick to acknowledge the good that our neighbours do, willing to tolerate that which we cannot approve. Fortified by ou r recognition of its social ministrations, empowered by our contributions, the Salvation Army has grown great in prestige and 'good works, lolciance is extended to its more flamboyant activities as a tribute to its quiet, efficient service in the succouring of the tin fortunate. We appreciate the Ai mj s work, and we hope the Army appreciates the public generosity which makes the performance of that work pos-sible-generosity that is extended not alone in coin but also in endurance. How many dwellers in city flats, how many guests at hotels, how many strollers in village streets, have not been generous in their restraint? For it must be written that the musical aspirations and vocal ambitions of the Army are not always fulfilled in the noise that issues from its street-corner bands and choirs. The spirit is always willing, but sometimes the brass is weak in harmony, the quartette lacking the vocal beauty of those angel voices of which it sings.

Tolerance, we repeat, is the sinner’s gift to the Salvation Army as well as pennies. . For instance: It is evening at a holiday resort that shall be name” less. Round the pier extending from the main thoroughfare of the town holiday-makers are assembled in amiable groups. , They are pleasantly tired by the day’s excursions, and gaze dreamily towards the hills, or talk quietly and contentedly with their friends. As the sun sinks the water becomes luminous and the grey clouds are shot with an ethereal glory of gold and pink. Even the most insensitive idlers respond to the quiet charui of those minutes. At sueh times the most thoughtless are very near to Beauty, and the most harsh are spiritually uplifted. . . . From the end of the pier issues a sudden startling clash of discord. Shrill voices, gruff voices, and a cornet split the veil of peace, and the night becomes loud with noise. It is the Salvation Army raising in challenge its lurid banner where Nature flaunts her ineffable mantle, and in three minutes the Army has triumphed. The peaceful holidaymakers, shaken rudely back into their mundane frames, have lost in a trice the spell that moved them, and are soon arguing about football, squabbling with their wives) or trudging homeward on tired feet. Tet when the collection bo:, confronts them they regard its bearer without rancour while they produce their sixpenny piece. Tolerance, we say again, the Salvation Army receives as well as 'pennies.

Ourself, we think a brass instrument an improvement on a moonlight-flooded dream any day. Let us have trombones in the city reserves, loud-speakers attached to the hoardings at every scenic resort, and the quiet bays of the Peninsula fitted with automatic barrelorgans. As for the Salvation Army band, it should be subsidised to play in the city streets eight hours a day. *Our only unfavourable reaction towards it is one of envy. Hearing those cheerful, strident notes, that booming of the big drum, we experience the same longing which assailed the poet: —

Since life contains for me no plan I'd like to be the trombone man, I crave the chance, you understand. To blow one devastating blast When least expected by the band!

While we should be the last to suggest material considerations should influence the seeker after salvation, there must be something solacing to body and soul alike in sueh a performance.

General Higgins, in one of his Dunedin addresses, mentioned that the. Army turned no one away from its doors save the “politically sick or distressed.” Parliamentarians, who enjoy so many privileges, will probably deplore this exception, but both the. professional and the amateur politician have so many schemes of their own for bringing salvation to the world that they would scarcely be interested in the Army’s plans. There is another class which, according to a Fleet street story, is beyond redemption. It relates to a great Vivly at the Albert tlall, with General William Booth at his oratorical best:

i i E e neral was a positive bearded prophet of retribution. He stamped up and down the platform, eves Hashing, arms gesticulating, and painted an inimitable picture of the torments that await the unconverted. From a thousand throats echoed pious “ amens ” i^ 13 ! 1 - 8 * ie Bords ” as his magic i C i l'i S Bsteners to repentance. Sudden y the general’s fiery eye detected a jpung man sitting immediately below him, apparently unmoved by his fervent nonl 4°P?’ Levelling an accusing Aposes-— hlm 10 cried ’ Bke a wrathful «X?i Ung ,nan - are you saved?” c l,„i >’• me? ,” asked the other in a shocked incredulous voice, “ I'm a reporter.”

Doubtless it is their search for such unregenerate sinners, not to mention publicans, which leads the Army lassies into the public bars, otherwise abandoned to garrulous masculinity save for the occasional graciousness of a barmaid’s ministrations. Their abhorrence of such a haunt well-concealed behind a collection box and a pile of newspapers, they lighten many an habitue of his ability, if not his inclination, to purchase what is within the casks. It viould seem that there is an obligation, not fully recognised by the frequenters ot public-houses as yet, to return the compliment by attending at the haunts of their uniformed visitors. This fine spirit of reciprocity would surely add to the gladness of mankind, so long as the callers did not attempt to carry the principle too far by reaching into the collection boxes for a return of the goods whereof they parted unguardedly m their natural element.

Lord Baden-Powell says that every man in New Zealand i s ‘ a gentleman. t ’’ us ? llon - members will remember tins during the debate on the economy proposals. J

All New Zealanders, he added, describe American films as tripe. This word is indeed a genteel addition to our vocabulary.

The late William Stoney left £ll.OOO for distribution by the New Zealand public trustee to poor immigrants. We anticipate a host of applications from the Stoney-broke.

A woman who applied for the post of public executioner at Budapest said she wanted to avenge herself on men for the disillusionment they had brought her. But there would soon be a Lack of population if a man was executed every time a woman lost her head.