PROUD OF THE 8O’S

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 429, 21 November 1930, Page 7

PROUD OF THE 8O’ S

DEAN INGE UNASHAMED OUTSPOKEN COMPARISONS “WERE WE BETTER THEN?” (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.] Received Nov. 20, 8-4 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 19. Dean Inge challenges the world with the announcement that he belongs to the eighties and asks: ‘ ‘ Why should I be ashamed of it1 ,J .

“Were not the girls prettier, better behaved than the modern? They did not smoke, swear or drink, and showed they were possessed of backbone with out ocular demonstration! Were not Tennyson and Browning greater poets that the coterie of Georgians? Were not Gladstone and Disraeli bigger men than any of the present day leaders? Was not sixpence in the pound income tax better than anything up to ten shillings? Was not the country then a going concern instead of an almost gone concern.” “Then the wealth of Britain was proverbial. To-day *he shadow of bank ruptcy is heavy across Lancashire and Yorkshire. I wish the Victorians could come to life and tell our generation what we really look like, but I suppose 50 years hence some old fogey will be writing about the dear old thirties. 1 wonder what he will find to say in their praise.”