ANDREW AND THE LADIES.

Southern Cross, Volume 15, Issue 25, 12 October 1907, Page 7

ANDREW AND THE LADIES.

(To the Editor). Sir, —I never so fully realised the force of the aphorism, “Multum in parvo,” as I did on reading Mr Andrew Kinross’s words in his letter to Denis in your last issue, whore ho says ;—“I feel sad because I have lo&t so many lady friends. I have a large heart, and there is room for a great many in it.” I don’t know Mr Kinross’s exact chest measurement, nor what he draws in the avoirdupois scales, but whatever these may be they are .only as the case is to the contents,; the eggshell to the egg. Some men are said to wear their hearts on their coat sleeves, and I presume this is where Mr Kinross carries his heart, and this is where those many ladies, whom he holds in it, nestle. Mr Kinross should have been born an East, ern potentate, like King Solomon. He had room for a thousand lady friends in his heart, and a sort of guest-chamber in it besides for casual ladies like the Queen of Sheba and other strange women —Moabites, Ammonites, Bdonites, Sidonians, and Hittites.i ‘‘And it came to pass when Solomon was old that his wives turned away his heart other gods.” Here we have a striking illustration of the power of women over some men—men of great might and prowess in the pride of their manhood being brought to the condition of mere teetotums under the hand of the softer sex. ‘‘Pride of prince and strength of kings to the dust woman brings.” I do not know which picture presents the most regrettable example of masculine degenerateness, Solomon or Kinross. When we remember Kinross in the days of his might, when he was like ‘‘Tubal Cain in the days when earth was young who lifted high his brawny arm to fashion sword and spear’ —Mr Kinross did not fashion swords and spears in the days when he and this New Zealand earth were young, hut he used weapons mightier than either —the pen and the voice—when he went forth to do battle in the councils of the State for the oppressed of any race. Like Joe Foraker : ‘‘Whin there was no wan else to defind th’ poor naygur fr’xn persecution, Joe Foraker come to th’ front.” —(Dooley). When one remembers those days of Mr Kinross’s power and might and compares them with the present, we might well exclaim with one of old—‘‘How are the mighty fallen !” In those early days, if you wanted to see Mr Kinross you had to seek him among the assembled wisdom of the State. But in these days you can only obtain occasional glimpses of Mr Kinross behind the flutter of_ ladies’ petticoats as he gyrates into view in the mazy dance. I do not know the exact period in life when men recover from this prostitution of the masculine powers to those of the softer sex, but Solomon was well advanced in years when he declared the world was all vanity and vexation of spirit., Solomon’s world was pretty much circumscribed within the harem—that is where he got his sur-

Ifeit of the world'. Mr Kinross is well' over the line of three-score years and ten, at which time the fires of life are said to be much cooled. But there does not seem to be any coolingl in Mr Kinross’s coppers yet, and he hids fair to break the record put up by Solomon—a record which the world has never ceased to wonder at. But when they read of the doings of the bard of Kinross-shire and his might—how he danced, how he sang, how he wrote love lore about his true loves, how he walked, how he talked to the ladies, to the babies, to their mothers, how the ladies pressed round him in numbers quite alarming’, still he did confess courting was very charming—sighing, dying-, cooing, wooing, courting—very, very charming—when posterity reads all this about the bard of shire Solomon and his might will DCwiped from their memories. Yours, etc.. T. BUXTON.