HUSH!

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16301, 29 November 1918, Page 7

HUSH!

MORE KAISER’S THAN ONE. Mr. Arthur Ponsonhy has a rather sarcastic article in the “ISation on those who think they are m “authority.” He points out the strange elevations to which men reach, and with what strange garments they wrap themselves round when they so arrive. Let us try to analyse this mysterious element, because it would appear that no one is impervious to its influence. It will be found in a manager’s office; in a board room with its neatly-arranged table, comfortable chairs, and frock-coated chairman; in the law courts, especially, where archaic procedure and bewildering formalities are calculated to impress a prisoner and even a spectator (the judge himself, not an individual, but an emblem disguised in his robes and wig as the majesty of the law, and clothed with the sanction of society; incidentally, justice may be done, but the main point is that authority shall be main tabled); in a Cabinet Minister's roomapproaching through echoing halls, deferential brass-buttoned office-keepers will escort a visitor through ante-rooms, and when the heavy door has closed with a dull thud behind him, and he finds himself in a huge room smelling of Russian leather and sealing wax, it is quite impossible to talk to the human being behind the tremendous writing table as if he were sitting next him on the top of a ’bus (and the surroundings have produced their effect on the Minister just as much as they are now producing an effect on his visitor). “Then in the palace, where everything is arranged to impress, hurrying uniformed figures, powdered footmen, heavy carpets, endless corridors —again that smell of leather hushed voices, a feeling of somebody important round the corner, broad staircases, vast mirrors, just to show you how small and insignificant you look, a presence to be readied, the distant gurgle of royal voices in far-off passages, a desire to escape or hide; pictures and armour of ancient kings, a feeling that it has all been there since William the Conqueror’s time, that it is all different from what you imagined when you wrote the article on ‘The Passing of the Monarchy.’

“Is it impossible for people who inhabit such places to fell, or even look, like ordinary mortals? Whatever may bo said outside about them, and whatever you may have said, tliey feel secure and impressive, and they know you are obscure and impressed. “In the bishop’s palace the atmosphere is heavy with authority, and even, too, in the vicar’s or the minister’s study. The pulpit, where a man may admonish his fellows without fear of contradiction, interruption, or even question, is a very seat of authority. The headmaster’s schoolroom, where the trembling boy is overawed; the police court, where the culprit feels like a rat in a trap surrounded by wise magistrates, learned counsel, and impeccable police; the bank manager’s parlour, with its smell of gold; the society drawing-room, where the unaccustomed visitor shuffles and stammers before the smart and well-dressed company of great people who are so terribly at their ease; even in the trade union, where tlie officials have exchanged the life of working men for that of organisers—in all these authority resides, and in each it is not alone in the personality of the particular representative that it is felt. He seems to have behind him all the others arrayed in commanding force, and 1 awe-inspiring, invisible, yet everpresent company.”