Topics of the Week

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue VIII, 22 February 1896, Page 205

Topics of the Week

C — OLONIALS, many of them at any rate, have scarcely been able to understand or endure the protracted delay in the setting straight of affairs in Armenia. Now we know fairly positively that Lord Salisbury—usually none too pacific a leader —has decided that even the terrible outrages on a defenceless people must be tolerated rather than England should be dragged into a great war. One supposes that a Government which has proved itself so well able to deal with American bounce and German impudence knows what is best for the national honour, but somehow many of us out here feel a sting of shame from the open acknowledgment of the fact that England dare not resist or resent the frightful atrocities which continue in Armenia. Nor is opinion in the Old Country unanimously in favour of the ‘ peace at any price ’ policy of our dealings with the Turk. One passionate writer thus delivers himself :— • Meanwhile, now that Lord Salisbury’s attention is not engrossed by Washington,we are outwitted by Russia, contemptuously insulted by Turkey, and pleaded to in vain by the people whose great mistake was in trusting to ourgood faith. A war with Turkey in face of a watchful Russia might be dangerous, but it would be honourable. If we cannot hope to keep India except at the cost of ourgood name and our prestige, it is worthy of serious consideration whether we should not let it go. Everlastingly thinking about our Indian rupees, we dare not call our soul our own for fear that Russia should object. We make fine speeches, but stand by trembling while wrong is done —wrong, too, for which we are primarily responsible. We dare not lift a hand in defence of the right, we dare not move to fulfil our pledged word. We cry to other nations to help us to come and do our work. Lord Salisbury is earning the laughter of Europe and the contempt of his own countrymen.’ That is strong, and I think somewhat undeserved. Lord Salisbury is in a very’ awkward position. A war of defence would be a tolerably simple matter for England, but it is quite possible that his advisers have informed him that a war of aggression would infallibly end in disaster—that England, in point of fact, is not powerful enough to interfere any more. It is not pleasant to think of such a possibility, but the extraordinary apathy of the Salisbury Government with regard to Armenia would certainly seem to justify the fear that it may be so. If we are powerful enough, then it is a lasting shame and disgrace that we have not interfered long ago. Here is a portion of a letter written from Armenia at Christmas time. The writer it will be seen, admits that England has some right to hesitate ; that it means a sacrifice to interfere. But how can Englishmen or colonials sit sti and listen to such pleading as this : —

‘Surely, at this Christmas season, with the life of Christ before them, the people of England ought to realise that sacrifice is the very essence of their faith, that without sacrifice we can do nothing for humanity, and they ought to remember that thus far England has never fired a gun or made any sacrifice for the Christians of the East. The English people have expressed much sympathy for them. They have tried by diplomatic pressure to make their condition tolerable under Turkish rule. They vehemently protested against the Bulgarian atrocities, and last year against those at Sassoon. They have tried to persuade the Turks that it was for their interest to be reasonable and just ; but whenever a crisis has come they have sacrificed the Christians to the

political interests of England and defended the Turks. England has come nearer to making a sacrifice now than ever before, but she has stopped short ; she has not done it. * IF the Powers do their duty a responsible government will be established here to restore order and administer justice in the Empire under proper European supervision. That action on the part of England would involve some risk and some loss cannot be denied, but what I claim is that it is the duty of England to make this sacrifice, and the duty of the English people to see that it is made. The chief obstacle to united action in the use of force is understood to be Russia. Those who look upon Russia as altogether bad claim that her opposition is due to her selfish ambition to absorb Turkey. For this she is willing to sacrifice all the Armenians and see the whole Empire given over to anarchy. Those of a different spirit inquire whether England is in a position to cast a stone at Russia for her ambition to extend her Empire, and claim that she is playing the part of the dog in the manger in refusing to allow Russia to occupy Armenia as far as Alexandretta. There are evidently two sides to the question as to who is sacrificing the Armenian nation to their political interests or tradit’ons. At any rate, of whatever sins Russia may be guilty, they furnish no excuse for the neglect of England to do her duty. I have always been an anti-Russian, and have always hoped that there might be some future for the Armenian nation ; but nnder present circumstances, if England does not dare to act alone, I should rejoice to see her come to terms with Russia by making necessary concessions. Anything to put an end to the hellish work now going on in Turkey!’ WOMAN still continues to advance and to snatch from the weakening fingers of man new professions and occupations. I learn from a Home paper that there is another new career for the sex, that of bellringing ! Chime-ringing is old, but chime-ringing by women is entirely new. It is left to Mrs Griffith, of Atlanta, U.S A., to lead the innovation. She will ring the Vangugen chimes at the Exhibition, the largest and most complete set of chimes ever hung. The story of how she studied chiming is interesting. Always a musician of exceptional talent, she found in the Chicago chimes a line of music with which she was totally unfamiliar, and immediately set about mastering it. She secured an interview with the gentleman in charge of the bells ; and, as a result, although he assured her women were scarcely strong enough to undertake the work, she was soon practising daily, and by the end of the World’s Fair had quite mastered the technical part of the operation. The heaviest work in connection with chiming is the transposing of tunes from the key in which they are written to the key of the bells. Mrs Griffith, however, being an educated musician, finds this no task, and during the summer has been filling her music books with transpositions from Southern and national airs.

I HAVE always (says a writer in an amusing contem porary) taken a special interest in that department of the post-office which has to do with the deciphering of enigmatic addresses. Instances of the cleverness of the clerks in this department are numerous and marvellous, too ; but I think the following, related to a group of men the other night by Lord Playfair, a sometime British postmaster-general, shows an intuition that almost amounted to genius. The department in England is called the blind man's department —a peculiarly British appellation, it seems to me. Any other nation would call it the department of the eagle eye—and not very long ago a letter with the following cryptographic address was sent there to be put on the right track : John Jones, 1.C.5., Orlsware. It was immediately turned over to the blindest man in the office, who made this out of it : John Jones, High seas or elsewhere! But there was still an indefinitness about John Jones’s whereabouts, so recourse w’as had to the marine directory—another British institution—and it was found that there was a John Jones, able-bodied seaman, on H.M.S. * Trafalgar,’ stationed at the Cape of Good Hope, to whom the letter was forwarded, and, as turned out afterwards, correctly. Now, this may be a tale of Lord Playfair’s to show the special efficiency of the British post-office under his administration, but it sounds impossible enough to be true.

AMONGST the papers and magazines which arrived on Friday by direct mail was Woman, and from that bright little journal I extract the following set of resolutions for the new year : — Bv a Wifk:— Even when I have been proved right, I will not say ‘ I told you so.’ . , I will not make him selfish and absurd by servilely waiting on him. I will not make the house too hot (or too cold) for his bachelor friends. While ready to take sympathetic interest in his correspondence and business affairs, I will never show curiosity about them. Bv a Husband I will not go to sleep after dinner, unless she does so first. I will never advise her to do anything like * Mrs Somebody Else.' I will not dole out money to her as a favour, and moreover oblige her to ask for it first. I will not insist on putting my fingers into the smaller domestic pies. By an Engaged Girl:I will not speak of my fiance as * he' tout court. I will not tell my friends that I am ’ sure they will like him when they know him.’ I will not ostentatiously play with and display the engagement ring. I will not consider myself privileged to be a nuisance to the whole rest of the world. These were the prize-winners in a competition for the best set of good resolutions for the three personages mentioned.

TTIHERE have been several attempts in the past at L internationalising magazines and magazine literature. A more ambitious effort is (says the Speaker) about to take shape in the trilingual Cosmopolis, published in London by Fisher Unwin, and simultaneously in New York, Paris and Berlin by publishing houses of the highest order. It is to be circulated extensively on both sides of the Atlantic, and to contain articles in the English, French and German tongues by writers of real eminence. The list of contributors includes Sir Charles Dilke, Mr Andrew Lang, Mr Edmund Gosse ; M.M Paul Bourget and Le Myre de Vilers (the latter on Madagascar, of course) ; Dr. Theodor Barth, a well-known German Liberal journalist and politician ; and Professor Mommsen. Mr A. B. Walkley is to chronicle the progress of the drama in England; Mr Jules Lemaitre and Dr. Anton Bettelheim are to perform the same office respectively for Germany and France. Moreover, the politics of the three nations concerned are to be dealt with in a monthly chronicle —a much-needed addition to current literature which has often been begun but for the most part has come to a speedy and untimely end. We wish Cosmopolis every success in the good work of promoting international intercourse, and trust that it may some day develop into something more polyglot still.

NAPOLEON ’ is (as Mr Jerome observes) not an intellectual game, but then, as he says, you can always be sure of making up a table of ‘ Nap,’ for everybody plays it, and the ways of playing it are varied and peculiar. One of its latest developments is known as ‘Jam’ or ‘ Fork ’em Nap,’ and is Purchase or Ecarta Nap, with a re-arrangement in respect to stakes. Nothing less than three can be called, but if you go four you are bound to bid for part or the whole of the pool, in addition to the usual stakes. If you fail you pay in the amount of your bid against ‘ Kitty,’ or take it out if you succeed. In calling four a following player can overcall you also with four, but with a higher risk against the pool, and he again can be overcalled in a similar manner by any player who has not declared or passed. A * Nap ’ call must go for the full pool limit, and, of course, supersedes anything else. Should all the players ‘ pass, ’ the card stakes are doubled on the next round, and remain fixed at that price until a call is successful, when they revert to the original figure.

This privilege of backing your chance for what you think it worth is distinctly good. Those ghastly impostures, the ‘ Wellington ’ and * Blucher ’ calls, should never be adopted in this, or, indeed, in any other form of the game. It would be fair enough if a player could go ‘ Wellington ’ or ‘ Blucher ’ right away, but they can only be declared as overcalls, so that the first hand with an absolutely unbeatable five can bid no higher than ‘ Nap ’ —the lowest five call—to see perhaps the pool with treble stakes swept away by a much inferior following hand. It may probably be of interest to mention that the ‘ Wellington ’ and ‘ Blucher ’ calls were originated by card-sharpers for the purpose of either overcalling their victim’s Nap,’ or when the cards had been ‘ readied ’ against him, todrive him up to call * Blucher,’ and so mulct him in treble stakes all round.

I T is astonishing how uncharitable and how villainA ously unjust the majority of us are concerning other people's doings. When the late Bishop Luck built the very fine residence in Ponsonby which is identified with his name, there was much carping and sneering on the part of those who were unacquainted with the Bishop, aud who imagined that his object in collecting money

for a Bishop’s palace was a selfish one, a mere desire to provide himself with a sumptuous and luxurious abode free of cost. Those who personally knew the late Bishop never, of course, suspectedany such unwortbiness ; indeed, the very idea was one to be smiled at, for Bishop Luck was one of the most rigid and severe ascetics who have ever lived in the colony. For his successors he built the fine residence in Ponsonby, spending upon it large sums of his own private means, and leaving it to them absolutely. Another example of the Bishop’s generosity and love of the beautiful is the magnificent altar which he presented to the Church of the Assumption, Onehunga. This truly magnificent work of art is composed of the rarest specimens of marbles and other ornamental stones. Its cost before erection in the colony was, I understand, over /'6OO. It is without doubt one of the handsomest altars in New Zealand. Pictures of both the altar and the interior of the church in which it stands are given on page 199.