THE BOOKFELLOW.

Southland Times, Issue 14008, 16 January 1909, Page 2

THE BOOKFELLOW.

Written for “The Southland Times” by A. O. Stephens, (Copyright.—All Rights Reserved.) UrYAG-ATXOirS ArMjXDSOJ Dffl. U la unusual (in New Zealand) to —,ako such a confession in pubiic; but love .Sophie Leppel. Wo com.'riunbjato in spirit only. I aa vo not ecv.n lior virgin llosh, so admirably fed; in the ileshJ. feel it is fated never shall t see her. Yet 1 love nor! .Purely, devoutly, abstractly. entirely. When other helpers fail, ami ■oiiiiorts lire, she will abide like the •n-.-ini.ry of Miss Clara Butt's religious fervour (admission, £1 D). Slie does. niii AVOv.Ai, or a i ■ tti;n p.'.s.si i.\. Ret me count my reasons for loving .-V.pbic Let-pel. 1 love licr name. It curves in the amorous air like n scimitar, and the curve closes wiib a martial clang, an invocation of the God of [buttes, soph te rappello. and on tat lc- rnppel-la--latit —•>ii Hie heights where Beauty to l-'ot-J, Food Beauty. Wo cat unco more of the fruit of tin; Tree of Knowledge. Once more a woman feeds us to the

I love her face hi the portrait that is printed with tier pamphlet—the clear eyes, the lirm mouth, the aggressive ear; and I love the square, uncompromising scrap of embroidery that bounds tier clothing at the nee),. It sighs of a decorative sex; yet does not surrender. The bodice buttons in front: the eye-glass hovers lightly on tire buttons, a weapon at poise. There is I know nol what air of vibrant energy in the carriage of the head: on attend le rappel la-liaiit I do not lovo O. 1,. Ah Abramowski. It 1b unnecessary: It might be Injudicious. Sufficient to regard him blandly In the philosophic vista. In his portrait, printed with his pamphlet, ho seems oue of those bright personages perpetually buzzing; so agreeable for a conversational fillip, so tiresome lr. a boarding-house. Life demands for relief the gentle silence of the oyster, his unogSTtetsivc attitude, his large calm. PILLOAV -IT-lOPLE. Pillow-people aro so permanently pleasant. When 1 was very young I had a pillow-aunt, who existed incidentally to dissipate the fumes of juvenesconce. Overworked, overworried, or having sought a too-mulUug ecstasy from the too-too-solid IK.-.1 could go to my pil-low-aunt and rest. She did nothing, said nothing; hut she was. Never warm, never excited, nothing troubled her, Simply -she sat on her sofa (since a chair was, unsafe) and beamed. I basked. And gradually invisible hands of healing eamo almost ]-rd paid y to soothe mo. Ah my tired head lay (metaphorically) on my pillovv-:oint, jangling ncx-ves fell into liamiony, hot pukes grew stilL It Is ono of our own writers wiio has said; “She listens to tho sources Where olden quiet lies.” It was said too swiftly, for the linos run beyond tho emotion; yot it was said of my pillow-aunt. She listened In a long measure, leisurely. An she listened, I could hoar, and wander with her where “peace comes dropping slow.” An hour, and I rose restored, with new zest for the battle, For ftllenco Is but one side of the eternal antiphonjn tbo other side is sound. Between rest and riot the pendulum of life must swing. Only, as civilisation Increases, there is so much delightful riot, and so little delicious rest, that sound surely sliould occur musically, with a nico Upping of the medium, or mellowly, a natural susurnrs, A HEROINE OF HEALTH. It is time to introduce Miss Sophie Leppol. She live;; in England, and thence periodically omits preachments —ao Joyous, It Ls her mission, by diet, to cure tlie ills that llcsli is heir ta if I lovo her, it is because she is lovahio, and because tier pamphlets arc lovely, Ibo detail of a Loppel dietary varies for every patient—good! tho principle is communicated at a fee —aias! Yet tho principle may bo deduced from tho pamphlets it is Shakespeare's- "In br'of, sir, study what you most affect” —and, by a iogicrU reversal, cat what best affects you. So for wo are with Miss Sophia Lcppel—though sho will deny itIt Is not h-er tlieory, but tho exposition of her theory, that Ls enthralling. Sho Is The irood Reformer, and there axe no othora So she exalts over tho discomfiture of fatso prophets:—-

“Three AT. wo l-’ood Reformers Dead. "Others Will Follow Boon. ■‘Air J. J. Grevnhalyb. of Southport, died in lur, 7iln yvr.tr. This vegetarian passei away it yejirs before bis time. ■'Miss ri. E. smith, of Kingston-on-Thames, died suddenly from an attack of peril-jut Its. Bho was a lifelong ve.get.-tri.'uu "Air J. 1L Pwordflgor, a vegetarian, dropped dea-1 of heart disease after a healtli fast of nine days.” So does Alias Sophie encourage the rivals —Uie others. Her own patients encourage her, "The death of a Leppol Heroine. ‘‘My renders will be uoi-ry to hear that. 1 have lost a pat lent in Bradford di; tiic.t, . . , Though sho was able to -.ni.i' the prescribed foods fairly well at ilia Ci'imn.-Tir.-cmi'kt, her strength never improve,!. . . . In tills way tin. young indy struggled bravely for lu-o ir-iiii-rhs. Sho kept a diary, which she sent n-e from tune to llmj. There was nr-Y--r a raKvtikr- in it. and never a murmur that she wanted other foods than those i.iis.-.-i-.-ils-d. ‘-•.nd;- nariunt died like a trw 1 hj oral no tn lii" strugg’.o for health by natural m-:',ns. ” It is an epitaph which mi chi bn multiplied—in Wanganui, for example. A. MARTYR OF DISEASE. Tn ArurtraPa lives a reformer! food reformer, who In his apostolic day was dire as a pestilences. Mis gospel was .nfi-rtv’ij::; and whi-n lie on-ached a h-.-dr, weird man with r, gilt ter! eg eye—--n-dentim.-d victims fell like moment bef-To t>,o scythe of Time. Tlie gospel breed op bananas and unleavened l-ri-ad: end for the pure in body bananas cjono -.v.-Tiid suffice. The enthusiast, him-f.-cl" livvd utKlur (!) e sky in One weather, under a tent in umt; barn netted richly m three tmtanss r. day—and contemplated marriage! “Rut your wife win alter all that Kim will want (Lings to oat, things to wear, a bouse, and furniture in the bouse.” “Nor—and tho prophetic eye gleamed —“she 1-, my disciple. Wo shell need only—three more bananas." Ho has found It otherwise. “■Women,” as one friendly tells mo "havo bo mud! more sense than men.” Dut in Lie until usiastlc primes . . . There- was a alu.e-maker in an Australian snhurß Sedentary- life had made him grossly corpulent, unwieldy. To him. in evil hour, I-tilo led the food prophet preaching hl.s insidious gospel. Tho stioo-malmr listened, was iinijressed, canvlnccd, and substituted nnuina for quaihe He hnd 1-ien used tn rich meats wil.li spicy savour;;; and the revelrion to unlcavor.rd broad was severe. Brand —and water; with a banana a, a treat, rarely. Tbo shoe-maker groaned; but tho prophet preached. "You havo mado your body vile; it is mere carrion: first you must purify It, and then you will regain your strength.” And iho Bhoe-maiccr persevered. Actually faith (and hunger) removed his mountain of flash. His skin fell in folds around hla skeleton, but his head cleared, and ho became almost active. His wife (poor woman!) bad been used to push him upstairs: ho could now mount almost nimbly.

“But I feel weak." "You must become weak In order to become strong. You havo to relievo your body of the foul accumulation of forty yearn. Du you expect Unit this can be done in n toy?'’ And the shoe-maker believed —and persevered; ho was succeeding sp-len-ilidly: lie bad even reduced lib; d’ot to throe banana;; a day. Thou, one morning, the prophet arriving to greet and cricouiago Clio believer, wen met will, awful tidings. Air is dead?” The shoe-maker had expired, unlucky camel Hint lie was, at the last Btnv of the; load of gospel. “This patient died like a true hero in the struggle for health by natural mean:;,” as Alins Leppol put it; or, adapting Heim''., more rhetorical pbra-c-, lie died a shoe •• maker in the liberation-war of humanity. A FkIJIT-FOUD .REFORM KI!

It is pant time to introduce Air O. L. M. Abramowski, who is a doctor o: medicine, and liven in Australia. Tinfact is better stated vaguely, wince to Air A bra mowski’s gospel of food reform (which makes (tie fourth Imre referret 1 to, out of fort:.* thousand flirt ore no; hero referred to) there attach-.-s the advertisement o,( a pair at fruit food, which may be the microcosm of comes--ttbio virtues —“and then ag’ln.” Dr. Abranunvski’s pamphlet, it should have been said, supplies two portraits,— .and the f.i-.-il portrait is Ural of a gentleman who obviously cannot but;;-!. lie looks, this gentleman in the first portrait, gorged and lack-lustre, and lie is published by way of frightful contrast to the alert person who sprang, fullfruited, from his forehead. Dr. Abramowski ’ has, to say many true tilings, and many tilings that are nearly true, but not quite. In effect, lie says this; that as the body ages, am) vital power fails, it must not be asked to perform the digestive tanks which in earlier years it accomplished easily. Mere Is the oldest wisdom, Uie most obvious; but, when Dr Abramowski presses the limitation of age upon the natural appetite of youth, lie defies intelligence and overpasses prudence. The science of diet is a science of truism;;. While food docs a man good, it docs a man good, no matter what its kind or quantity. Life is maintained either by the new strength of new fond, or by the stored strength of old food; and to live is to draw continually upon the one fund or the other. Perpetual motion without friction is as Impossible In physiology as hi mechanics—yet in each field there remain disciples of the foolish dream. THE CONCLUSION. "Breakfast Is now a meal that nobody troubles about In our house,” says Dr, Abramowskl, whose doctrine has been adopted by his young family. Put against tliat old Lord Coc-kbum's dictum, that bo had always found the best man, and tbo best cockerel, among tboso who mado a good UrcaJifast. The nchreaki’ast plan is. in fact, a plan for Invalids, and for Invalids is doubtless often a good plan. But those who cart digest, let them digest; and those who cannot digest had better chase their meals before Urey catch them, in ancestral fashion, before they resign themselves to the dogma of renunciation, Strong men, and strong nations, axe built out of strong food—as much as they can master: it la weakness, not strength, that revolts from bread and beet Or idiosyncrasy-—and each must learn his own.

Tho mental lightness, fho power of endurance, to which many food reformers paint in proof of the virtue of this or that diet of abstinence, are in tho general view a false glow, a mock vitality. Tho rice-fed Hindu has these qualities tn high degree—and strong race after strong race has held him In subjection. The solid work of th-o world is accomplished by youth in conjunction with protein-—and for strenuous crises the protein has to come in tho shape of meat. Ploughmen demand a plentiful breakfast; and the Japanese havo deliberately enlarged tbo national dietary. In tho mental hold, with exceptional Individuals olio-wed for, abstinence during the period of labour must bo made good by recuperation through food after labour; or tbo -result of labour shows a definite and fundamental loss of power. And this, If It bo not good doctrine for all, in the soundest doctrine for tho averaga GAD : li V THE DREAM IS DKEP. Sing mo die song that never dies. Of little Lovo blinded and bold, Blossoms unblemished and blue skies And tho green going into gold. All tbo uproarious pipes wo played! Frenzy and Folly, Fire and Joy; Curds wo caught up for a maid And ballads boisterous lor a boy, X hear tho blended bells and bauds. The fiddler;-; fiddling on the green, The clapping of a thousand hands. The trembling of the tambourina O, happy hound run kindly slow; Black lies the Night, nauseous and grim, YiTto kuowcUi what a man may know “Not all ho hath shall dlo with him.” Tho man God mado lie droameth deep Down in his heart High tn the air His heaven lies. How shall be sleep? He bad a dream—the dream was fair. —Shaw Ncilson. A WORLD MORE Tho world is wide, Tho sea is deep, Star-legiona Tide Along tbo steep. Tier room is small, J .ir;-celled imd square-; The world and all The stars are there. In depths of gin.-vm. Where corals curl, Sea, gardens bloom W'eii pea-! end pearl. The round earth glows J'Xowcr-Ii;. at noon: With rose and rose The earth is strewn. My spirit spurns Tiu.sc bir.-onis—-I seek The rose -hat burns Upon her cheek, Pa-jrl of tlie sea. Flower of Uu; shore. All hi esc is she And a world more. —Bodurlc Qnlim. ONLY A BIRD.

Tbo Lord of Love no hotter day would lived To bond bis bow, or try his arrows' BpC-ed. Tho morning came, when, pec-plug o’er the grass, I saw the orchid lift Its quiet eye, Scanning the yellow iii-1-1 for her lo pass Beneath the shady oak that ecrtn-ncd tbo tky With leaves and acorns, like a taiKistry. And but a bird came winging o'er the mead To taste tho first sweet honey-stalk In seed. Then from a rich man’s garden, grow the sound Of water falling on the pctallM lawn Till hill and valley dreamed of rc-sen di own’d — And keen, gathered Lost, against tho dawn Glimmered the white bright statue of (he faun. Tbo Lord of Lovo no better day Would need To bend ills bow, or try his arrows' speed. Beyond tho wall, where apricots of gold Hung warm and heavy for the ro.nt boo, A grand red butterfly, with sails unroll'd Dipped his glad pennon in the leafy 800, Then fluttered up and hovered doubtfully. Only a bird came winging o’er tho mead To taste tlie flrst sweet honey-stalk In seed. —Hugh McCrae,