THE LETTERS OF LUCIA TO A LONELY SOLDIER.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 884, 9 December 1916, Page 7

THE LETTERS OF LUCIA TO A LONELY SOLDIER.

[Written for THE SUN for the benefit of any soldier feelins lonely while on active service.] Bv the Avon, December S. Dear Lonely Soldier,— * After this week tlio temperature of Hales will occasion no surprise to those of us who have to experience it. Just at present I am only par-boiled, or parbaked —I'm not sure which —but in another day or so I shall be well done. We have"trotted out all our highly original weather remarks to do justice to the torrid spell, and "Isn't it hot?" with slight variations, forms the commencement of most conversations. What should wo do without the weather as a conversational pave-the-way? You see I can't even begin a letter without it.

Some deai' ladies in Dunedin have been agitating for the advent of the policewoman. 'Pears they think she is necessary to bringing people up in the way they should go. and keeping them there, and if the thin end of the Mary Hop movement, becomes inserted in Dunedin, I expect we shall have the lady planting her large, sensible feet all over the Dominion. They would have to be large, wouldn't they? —its one of the traditions of the calling. Anyway, the W.C.T.U. wants Mary 11. and won't be happy till it gets her. so there. Heal the drum and bang the lyre, .Mary Hop, I can feel you coming Higher, Mary Hop, At your trend the wide world shakes And the trembling sinner quakes. And triumphant virtue wakes— / .Mary Hop I

The shining flame of goodness yon will fan, Mary Hop, Ami all human peccadilloes you will ban, Mary Hop, Nil) the glad eve in the bud! Smite mixed bathing with a thud! Brand the "movies" all as Ml'D! Mary Hop!

Oh. you'll hit the limit dizzy, Mary Hop When yen set out to get busy, Mary Hop When yon hale the drunk along, With your trusty arm and strong, Life will lie one grand sweet song— Marv Hop!

The A nt is .'ailed a meeting for Thursday night to do something in the way of repealing the Conscription Act. The newspapers, however, got hold of the matter before-hand, and threatened the "Antis" awfully with irlie penalties of sedition, and nothing much happened. Besides, Law-and-Order, in the shape of prominent officials took the opportunity of attending, and that may have had something to do with the mildness of the meeting. Strange to say, the Minister of Defence is not intimidated by this show of opposition, but declares that he will carry through the Military Service Bill ami hang the expense! The miners are still sulking, and appear to be doing nothing at all, and doing it with great enthusiasm. Still T am not yet reduced to writing letters by candle-light, and the cial supply holds out. Everyone's talking about the Cabinet upheaval in little Old England, and it is mightydiverring to hear the Man in the Street sit in judgment on the whole boiling of them, and minutely contrast • the merits and demerits of Asquitli and the fiery Welshman, Lloyd George with sidelights on Bonar Law, Mr Balfour, Viscount Grey, and Sir Edward Carson. You know, if the Man in the Street were only given a show, he could reconstruct that Cabinet in a jiffy, and make it an efficient, watertight structure, (that would lead the nai tion to victory in ■ quick time! Of course, the Woman in the Street is not hilling her light under a bushel. She can tell you some amazing things about the Cabinet, past, -present and future, an 1 she yearns equally to have a hand in its reconstruction. One remarked to me a few days ago that she did hope "Air Asquith wouldn't have to resign. "He's such a gentleman," she sighed, "ami one can't help Lloyd George is not—-well, not quite. It would be so horrid for the King to have to associate with him." Another vehemently hoped that the late Prime Minister would go down to perdition with celerity and dispatch, as she'll heard that his wife was hand in-glove with the Germans! Anyway, Lloyd George is Prime Minister, which just shows that yott never know, doesn't it? Time alone will tell what he does with his new job. ' Well, here we are within a few weeks cf Christmas. The shops are beginning to look gay and Santa-Clausy, and the Teddy bear, the bunny, the trumpet, and the tan-ta-ra-ra drum will soon be abroad in the land. Camping parties, fishing trips, and seaside interludes are being discussed, and the Soulful Maiden, who deals in machine-made platitudes about the simple life and the nature business bores me unspeakably these days. She and a few other people who have deluded themselves into the belief that they are nature-lovers, are going to take to.the tall timber for a few days, and she has been amassing plans and clothes against the occasion for the past month, and there are still a couple of weeks to go. She will be about as much in the picture as a stage cowboy in a Texas round-up, but she won't know it, poor dear, so what's the odds? I have a secret belief that she would be ;i hundred times as happy if she stayed at home, slept in a bed, and ate at table like a Christian, but she has her reputation as a nature-lover to live up to —a reputation can be a nuisance x sometimes, can't it? I always think (Cesar's wife must have been frightfully fed up with hers. You remember the girl in "The Waltz Dream," who says to the old nobleman who desires to take her to supper, "I don't mind going to supper with you, because you look so safe." The whitehaired old man was furious. "Safe? Safe? AVho told you I was safe? No man likes to be considered safe." And perhaps Mrs Caesar might have liked, once in a way, to have people think that she had a trace of the original Eve in her. LUCIA.