MUSINGS and MEDITATIONS

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1, 5 January 1907, Page 35

MUSINGS and MEDITATIONS

By

Dog Toby -

THE NEW CHUM. I have just received some letters about a young English lad who has failed in his Army examinations, and whose parents feel that the best thing for him is to go to New Zealand. And what delightful letters they are: how they breathe the spirit of a refined English home. The father, a brave old soldier, writes a strong, sensible letter:—“l don't suppose you remember Percy: he was only a boy when you left. He has grown up to be a strong, manly hid, and I hope he >ill run straight. He has not got too much scholarship, though he is bright and intelligent; but they don't seem to care much now whether an officer is a sportsman and a gentleman, they seem only to want bookworms. It was very different in my day,” and the brave old man runs on to express the opinion that the whole Service is going to the dogs. Times change, and we are too radical and too reformed now to care as much as we used to about the honour of the Service. The mother will write a long, chatty letter, saying she is sure the examination was not quite fair. Percy knew really a great deal more than some, of the men who passed. But they all think lie will do well in New Zealand; he is so bright and clever. Alas! my dear madam, brains developed under the English public school system and the sporting instincts fostered in an English country house do not count for as much in a new country as sheer grit and knowing how to take advantage of opportunities. And the sister Madge, who was always rather a tomboy, "is sure her brother will have a ripping time, and she only wishes she was going with him. She tells you she knew Percy would never pass for the Army, as he hates books as much as she does, rind she tells vou all about the new curate and how different he is to the dear old rector, and asks you if you remember the old mulberry tiee. and the haymaking. and a lot of ether things that make you think and think, and wonder if after all you are as happy here as you were at home. And in due time the lad will come out. He will bring with him the usual new chum outfit of perfectly useless articles—a thermometer to take bis temperature, a compass, a weird an*l wonderful knife, a perfectly useless box of tools, a medicine chest full of compressed drugs, sil-ver-topped bottles and ivory brushes, and the inevitable india-rubber bath. His friends will have equipped hint with all the gear necessary for exploring strange and savage dimes’. But your heart goes out to him: he is so jolly and lighthearted. so confident that he ean do anything; " don't you know,” so trustful of others and honourable in huhself. Of course, he will take a farm, and equally, of course, he will neglect all your good advice, atxl he will pay double for most things, and will be regarded as a heavensent blessing by all the people who have horses and cow's and other domestic pets to dispose- of. But it will do him no harm: he is learning, and all education worth having must be paid for. in spite of State schools and education bills, and, above all. he is learning to do things for himself. When you next meet him he will strike you as being more manly and independent, and a trifle shrewder than of yore. He will have a hard time at first, and the dinner will generally consist of fried steak and strong tea: but he will lie trappy and healthy, and his farm will begin to bring something in. and the settlers round will take to him. and in time he will marry a good sensible colonial girl and he will cease to be a new chum, and others will lie writing to him in turn to look after their sons, who have failed for the Army and are going out to the colony. It is lads like this who made New Zealand when pioneering meant more than a trip in an ot-ean liner'and a settled country to come to. They wen- not afraid of putting their hand to anything: they cleared bur forests, founded our towns, made our* roads, and built up our great

houses of business. They fully deserved the success which attended their efforts. Let us hope their spirit is still alive amongst us, and that we may welcome many Percys to our shores, with their strange outfits, their very English expressions, ami their singular innocence in matters agricultural, but with their real grit and high sense of honour, and that British pluck that overcomes all obstacles. ON WOMAN. The sapient individual who remarked that women were of two kinds, plain and coloured, hardly went far enough. Some women are both. All our modern aids to beauty have not yet solved the problem of giving ns eternal youth and loveliness. The mere man is alike impressed and bewildered by the eternal feminine aud all that goes to make it. Enterprising firms occasionally post me. along with catalogues of seeds and saddlery, catalogues of essentially feminine gear. I hope they do not post these same documents to Sergeant Hendry or District Judge Kettle. We can never hope to analyse the secret of woman’s charm, and yet how potent it is, and how many little things go to make it. Hair nets and crinkly pins, mysterious things called “pads,” funny little curlers made of some springy stuff that shoots across the room if you rightly manipulate it between your finger and thumb. These things are greater puzzles to the male mind than the decisions given in our local police courts. Fashions change with bewildering rapidity. A woman’s sleeves are sometimes puffed out at the shoulder, sometimes at the elbow, and Sometimes at the wrist. A. man will stick to his long slecver.” but a woman’s sleeves will sometimes disappear altogether. Then they buy' long gloves in a vain endeavour to solve the ever-tantalizing puzzle of how to make both ends meet. The most hideous fashion will be adopted so it be the fashion. I can remember the day of a certain " ornament ” known as a dress improver, the chief object of the improvement seming to lie like the object of the Lords' improvement to the Education Bill—to provide something to bo sat upon.

You ean never argue with a woman, you will never try to if you are wise. I ean remember going to an entertainment with a club friend, and paying double what we should have paid because the young lady at the ticket office explained that she had no change. I can remember she raised her muff to the level of her eyes, and looked most bewitchingly over the top while she explained that we surely didn’t want her to do anything so. purely commercial as hunt about, for change for a sovereign. When we got inside my friend remarked: “It strikes me there were three muffs in that business.” A passion for analysis and definition is the bane of modern life. When wc try to find out the reason for the charm of anything beautiful.. the eharm usually disappears under the process. We say women are credulous, but we welcome the credulity that takes the form of a belief in ourselves. And, thank Heaven, they don’t reason; they only love. The mere man. rough, clumsy, uncouth, untidy in the house, but with a blundering, stupid, big kindliness, is still a hero to some dainty, loving woman. Her confident assurance taht we are really much smarter than Smith, who has got the better of us in the last deal, that we are heaps and heaps better at public speaking than Brown, whose practised oratory is at once our envy and despair, soothes our wounded pride and helps Us to believe in ourselves.’’ When wc have made our century we look to the pavilion for applause; when we have been bowled first ball, we go to the one woman in the world who we know will assure us tlrat it was a horrid sneaking thing and not fair at all. As I sit in the twilight and think on past mistakes and past successes, my thoughts go back long ago to one who

wotikl have understood, to one who would have appreciated. For the sake of the one 1 would fain pay tribute to all. We live ill a world dull aud dreary enough, with much that is drab-toloured aud commonplace. It is the dear, loving. unreasouiMg 'creatures, with their unexplained vagaries. their torturing anxieties over hats and dresses 41ml lacy things, hut with their strong'ufTections. their devotions aud their lieiiefs, that make our life worth living, that give us courage and strength to face the world, and tenderness and love for our fellow ire::