TYRANNY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13639, 6 July 1908, Page 7

TYRANNY.

OF THE RIGHT THING

By Lady Grove.

It is not easy for those who, as children, never willingly endured coercion aiid on whom, when grown up, it has been a tempted, to understand the thraldom the- Kight Thing exercises on the minds cf some- people. I have. hear, an exalted ecclesiastic- exclaim with mock heroic • but semi-serioiw intents "I would sooner die" than substitute one expression for another, or one pronunciation for another, or use an unfamiliar table utensil. I know; one lady -whose husband insists on using nVhknives, but instantly dismisses the. footman guilty of.putting one in her place. "SOONER DIE." ; - :

Yet, as I have: said elsewhere, fishknives are creeping tip." One reviewer with laborious huinour, wished to know "how fish knives crept?" and "up what?" and I have one friend (and here is. magnanimity for you; I am not ashamed of him!) who telis me that he has never be-en in a house where fish knives were not used, andT. he expressed surprise at the badly equipped households I seemed unfortunate enough to frequent! Alas, he moves in wealthier circles than 1 aspire to! And herein lies the truth of thk and similar "prejudices," that those who don't use them, simply can't afford to furnish themselves wi h this modern convenience. So we pretend we "would sooner die'' than pot-sees them! And those who have got them would "sooner die" than go without. I have a French friend who was asked by her publishers to change something in her book to something in more eonformi.y with the public comprehension. " Plutot mourir!" exclaimed this valiant upholder of individualism.

Even in these days there are martyis willing to go to the Blake in vindication of their faith. But it is faith in things material, and - the stake is the burning pillory of private opinion. I also said elsewhere that to be a" slave to convention is to be doubtful of one's security, but at the same time I reminded my readers that one man may steal a horse while another is nob even allowed to look over the hedge'at it... The degree of conformity will doubtless depend upon the amount of individuality possessed by each person. INSISTENT BRIDGE. . I heard the host of a large country house (solemnly declare that he considered the learning of. Bridge an imperative dnty. "It is not a question'of whether out likes the game or not," he maintained, "it is inexcusable selfishness in anyone to refuse to play so long as i remains the: paramount pastime of society." i believe that Bridge nas bten the "Open into circles otherwise impenetrable by those who have established ■ htnu-.cives' tncie, much t s member-' ship of the irimrose League or its Liberal counterpart is eagerly bought by some who niaio polities the stepping slone to oiht.Tw.se iuaccestibie regioLs. Tbise lauer means are conipara ive.y innocuous, but linage liolds snaiis thai art sonic- . times pnialls to the unwary. i Know of a countiy paisuu's daughter, whece parents contrived (and it required considerable con-rivance on their part) to arrange a fortnight's visit to London for her, to stay wiiu a rich relation they had there. : Elated and fear-lets, she set forth wi h a gift of £5, which was to be tpeut in the way that would afford her most' satisfaction. Two days'after lur , departure the needy clergyman received a .ueaiibroken le ter from his daughter saying that she owed £3O to one of her busts guests, and her' despair at the picspi-ct - of being unable to pay was piteous, ilie father journeyed to London, paid the sum, which stood for more than a month's stipend, and returned with a daughter. perhaps no wiser, but certainly sadder than the bright ingenuous maiden - who had set forth so happily a few days before.

This may be a unique case. Let its hope so, but what tryanny can be more mischevious than one that forced this reluctant girl (for she w;is reluctant) to take part in a gambling game, with which net ther her means nor her brains fitted her to cope. To find an -unaccustomed source ot amusement for the country mouse was a sacrifice these town" mice were not prepared to. make, and a trouble they were not disposed to take, to the poor girl yielded easily from the inevitable dteire not to render her presence irksome to her entertainers. Debts of "honour" mui-.t be paid, however discreditable the process by which they are incurred. And tiie circumstances under which this debt was contracted were not creditable to any of the people concerned. DRINK AND THE BATH.The time has happily gone by when yc. ung men were . forced against their inclination to imbibe intoxicating drinks'at m-ess dinners, and the King has added to his universal reputation for wisdom and kindly forethought by decreeing that, in his service at public and private dinners, it should not be made compulsory to drink the Sovereign's health in alcoholic beverages. It can no longer be said that the convivality of . comradeship . may lay the seed of destructive vice.

The spread of hygienic ideas, if it lessens the temptations of vice, brings tvrannies in other forms. .In countries 'other than Servia, it is said that the daily,bath has its terrors for those to whom it is a novelty.' It is related of one prominent, person that on bis first visit to a coun'ry house where he' conceived that complete immersion -was expected of him, he sprink- 1 - led.the floor surrounding the bath -with the water that; was prepared for him,

while confining his ablutions to the limits he habitually preserved lor tbeui. 1 iememptr r-caumg. a- . iren'tu stoiy. which turned upon sonic new baths, latt.y erected in a provincial town, for the bsmfix of the .enterprifciug citizen,- diis.rous of indulging in so novel a proceeding as bathing. the worthy niotner of a. large family, during the. temporary absence of paterfauu.ias, announced Uer 1.1-U-ntiou of trying the experiment, and her daring created the greatest excitement in the bosom of her a.-sembled family, culminating in the joyous exclamation from one of her offspring of burpi'i.o pour Papa!" DRESS. Some men make a veritable fetish of dressing for dinner. 1 had a lrieud oi the old scnool, who told me that he never remembered throughout his life dining in anything but evening' clothes; and although he was for seventeen consecutive yeais in Parliament, he never omitted to appear in the house after 4i certain huir in augho but the regulation ■ suit. By a' curious coincidence he died . wheu over seventy in the same correct garb. I shall never forget the .consternation once produced in Paris, by an English lady, who had been asked to dinetanu go to a play wLh some English friends of hens, residing there ~ officially, when sue appeared in evening dress'; and of hatless. She was muffled up and lent the headgear, without which her friends would sooner have died a thousand deaths than allow her to appear at the thea re in their company. . In nothing so much as in the correct .'form of clothing, according to locality and ftjocal customs tfoes the exac.ing influence .of habit exercise so tyrannous a, sway. T ! have seen Moorish ladus t,f the highest respectability in crossing a rtivaui uncover portions of their anatomy to a degree that would certainly, in tliis country, invoke the. interference of a guardian: of public morality, who would consider them-. selves hopelewsly immodest, if they: permitted any male but their lawful lord to catch the most.fleering view of one of .the features of - ( their face. We Westerns, on the other hand, think it no shame to .expose our peison in- the other direction. ■Thus custome doth make creatures of us - all. v -