THE MINOR ARTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12906, 19 February 1906, Page 6

THE MINOR ARTS.

J. Clarence Rook.)

that Mr. Augustine Birreil is in! i command of the. national 'education, l , should :.like to place before him a scheme that should appe&l to a man of wide sym- ' pat-hies. It is the establishment of an= ( other faculty, which shall reach every child | in. the United Kingdom. Let me suggest a college—several colleges—cheap colleges—for instruction in the smaller concerns of life. For ex.ample, I have- seen in Oxford men ol' splendid intellectual capacity walking about . with umbrellas—that proved to the eye that .they had? never been taught to roll an umbrella ; and here at once ccmss Mr Birr ell's chanGe. Eminent men who do not know how to roll an umbrella! ; There- are- things we all have to do day Iby day that we—most of us—do ■eery i badly. Things that might be done well and easily if only a Minister of Education would catch us young. You have but to climb to the-, top of an omnibus to see the man uneducated in the minor arts. He is tryingr to tarn a newspaper against the wind. Every man thinks he can. run a, theatre- or manage a newspaper, we: are told, wre are told. But watch the.- man on the- gardes, seat! How many men : can tie up a parcel ? The problem often faces one, and is shirked. The youngest man at the stores will tie up a seemly parcel containing a joint of meat, a tia of Bardinss, a m, a clock, a packet of pills, several yards of dress material,, end. a canary ; -.in' a And there axe other men; honest drtaxens,. who cannot reborn an ordinary 'book fcxthe' : lender just because no one has taught them : how/to pack a book and tie it m*. t ! Every day we of London have to travel 'on the Underground: Railway. And no • day passes but some woman rises from • her seat prematurely, plunges into my lap, i apologises . .1 reply that the pleasure was unexpected. . . But -the reply is i an evasion. I know there are millions of i people in London whom no Education 1 Board has ever taught to sit still until - the train stops. Day after day they jump ■ up three seconds too soon, the jerk comes, s they are always .surprised, and stagger s to and fro like drunken men. s "But the very simplest of the minor arts 1 are a .mystery to most men. since they 3j have had no official instruction. Possibly s- a man may be forgiven for not knowing b ,te opea .«n .oyster. JJore excusable, 1 perhaps, is ignorance of the art of opening

a br>ttle of wine—or a bottle of spirits— _ when the cork-screw "has been -forgotten. Nevertheless, the method is wonderfully simple, and if Mr Birrell would include it in the proposed course of instruction many picnics would be saved from disaster, ill-temper, smashed bottles, and wasted refreshment. - Think how much you would add to the comfort and happiness of a man by teaching him to light his pipe against- a wind. It must be easy enough. Mere heavy-booted, splayhanded navvies can do it upon wind-swept, }»alf-made Tailway tracks, and men of genius cannot do it at- a corner in. the Strand. Wherefore one appeals to Mr Birrell for - the establishment of a Chair of the Minor Arts. Indeed. I foresee a daily half-hour iu the County Council schools during which waiters, omnibusdrivers. motor men. assistants from _ the stores —many more—shall give five-minute lectures on "How to do it." _ For the next generation this would be most beneficial, and Mr Birrell should look j