A POLITICAL FLAUTIST.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 110, 30 June 1911, Page 3

A POLITICAL FLAUTIST.

The Wellington''-I ‘Post” has discovered that Mr James Allen; M.P. for Bruce,is’l A ihUltis't,' I ;‘Nlotiug : on aits of melancholy!"The- flute, the “Post” observes, can he a very distressing instrument, when its tireless operator keep it piteously on a minor key. “Wo know of no other instrument,” continues our contemporay, “indifferently played, except the bugle and the bagpipes, Avhich more incites one to pray for relief. Mr Allen, careless, heedless of the people’s pain, declines to forsake his flute. Last year, when the people’s representatives were in>Parliament assembled, Mr James Allen, member for Bruce, had one splendid shining. His coin In oness passed away, and a- glow and a glory invested him. 1 , A galvanised audience 1 was’'gkiddcued by Ids words of cluriott'Tqnd.M‘ Mi*’Allen was speaking l'Oi‘* the : IV6V ■ Defence' Bill, and was declaring his intention to fight lor it, slide' by' side, with' the Prime Minisit'ig'dip ! and' down Now Zealand,*' if r V«-?cesßifryi The ‘old-time gloomy Mr A'llen" 'Was ’forgotten in the' now M.rMA.ilen’/ alid ;> m’en on both sides of thm House were thrilled by tlio transfofrfi.atioli. Alas; ; it AViis only a phase of heartiness, not to endure. Mr Allen, retains his zeal for bis country’s 1 defence, but he lias ro- ' lapsed into his old habit of dour pessimism and suspicion about things in general. His- speeches arc mournful dirges about the alleged dearth or death of all decent principle beyond the pale of the “Reform Party.”