Here and There

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 8, 21 February 1924, Page 37

Here and There

World-Famous King’s County Man.As is well known, Rex Ingram, the well-known young film-producer, is an Irishman.. 'He intends to visit Dublin, where many qf his admirers will have an opportunity of seeing him in the flesh. Ingram’s real anme is Reginald Hitchcock, and he is a son of Dr. Reginald Hitchcock, Rector of Kinnity, King’s County. He is never tired of speaking of his home country; and delights in relating stories about his college days at Trinity. Ho commenced his film career years ago in Holywood, California, and for a long time strove hard to bring his original ideas into the film world. At first ho met with considerable opposition ; but gradually his ironness of purpose conquered, and he emerged from the fight with fame to his credit. Some time ago he married - Alice Terry, the pretty and clever young lady who starred in “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” and “The Prisoner of Zenda.” Irish-American Vocalist. Mr. Gerald Griffin, Chicago, who sang at the concert of the Union of the Four Provinces Club in London and is a well-known figure in artistic^and musical circles throughout the United States, was recently fulfilling an engagement in London, and ho intended later to give a series of recitals of Irish songs in Dublin. Mr. Griffin is descended from the family of Gerald Griffin, the Irish poet. Ho is a tenor and has already sung Irish songs, which are his speciality, throughout the United States, South Africa, and other countries. He has written and composed a number of songs in the Irish genre, some of which were sung by Mr. John Mac Cormack during his tour of the Continent last summer. These compositions include songs entitled “The Welcome on the Mat,” “The Mother in Ireland,” “It’s Only a Step From Killarney to Heaven,” and “Ireland is Heaven to Me.” All these numbers are very popular with Irish exiles in the United States and in other lauds where Mr. Griffin has sung them. “T.P.’s” Tip for Working Journalists. —Mr. T. P. O’Connor was the recipient of a large volume of congratulatory letters and telegrams in connection with the celebration of" his 75th birthday. In the course of an interview, “T.P.,” who as usual was hard at work at his typewriter from an early hour in the morning, said that he regarded any day upon which he does not write something as .entirely-wasted. On a day he wrote nothing he went to bed self-reproached for, he said, a working journalist must keep his pen going just as an 'athlete does his biceps- that is, if he wanted to succeed. Amongst the congratulatory messages he received was one from Lord Gladstone, who wrote; “As far as I can remember, excepting Akers Douglas, I am the only survivor of those who were elected in 1880 and served with you in the House of Commons continuously from that date. Those old days and nights! What storms, but what stirrings and inspirations Fathers of the House of Commons. —In view of “T.P.’s” birthday celebration so brilliantly observed recently at the Savoy Hotel, it is interesting to recall that in his capacity of “Father of the House of Commons,” the veteran Irish Nationalist is the 16th holder of that distinction during the last 100 years. At least one of these held the title longer than Mr. O’Connor. This distinction fell to Mr. Christopher Talbot, a member for Glamorgan for 60 years, 16 of which he was “Father of the House.” The late Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman, on the other hand, was the shortest occupant of the office during the past one hundred years; for he only held the post for ten. months in the year 1907. Gladstone would have been at one time “Father” but for his short retirement from Newark. Judging by the perennial virility of “T.P.’s” appearance it would be. hazardous to predict when he will retire from public life, but should he do so his paternal cloak would descend on the shoulders of Mr. Lloyd George, who has continuously represented Carnarvon since 1890, and after “T.P.” has the longest unbroken connection with the House of Commons as compared with any of the other members of the assembly. ■

Dramatist’s Recipe for a Healthy Race—Mr. St. John Ervme’s latest antipathy, it seems, is feminism! According to him, it is responsible for most, if not all, the complications -Of post-war ,civilisation, including the muchmaligned revue. Speaking at the dinner the other night of the Authors’ Club, Mr. Ervin© declared that we (he doesn’t distinguish, unfortunately, between Irish and English playgoers, says a Home, paper) were passing through a period of transition from masculine to feminine. Everything, he felt, was veering from masculine to the feminine, yd in a most extraordinary way was at the same time deteriorating. The great period of the drama was when no women wrote plays, acted in plays, or went to the theatre. Owing to feminine predominance tragedy vanished, and its place was taken by comedy. From that they sank, he declared, to farce, then to musical comedy, and then to revue. And what they would get after that it would be hard to predict. Every healthy.and strong nation delighted in tragedy, said Mr/Ervine, and every weak and flabby nation could not bear it. The outlook for writers to earn their living by providing for the mind of people who had no mind was very thin, and those who had to write, for the present generation must waste away. When writers got back to tragedy, gloom, and misery they would help to get a healthy race again. If. they wanted to get the world back on to decent lines they had to start off with the gloomiest possibly view of it. James Stephens and the “Dummy” Watchman. -James Stephens (whose new novel Deirdre, has just been pubished) and his wife once had a distressing experience on their first visit to Katherine Tynan, the novelist, some years ago, shortly after Stephens had published The Crock of Gold. Mrs. Tynan Hinkson then lived at Clarebeg, Shankill, and had invited the young author and his wife to dinner. It was a dark November evening,, when the visitors left the main road at Shankill and turned into the bye-road leading to Clarebeg. Portion of the road was ‘ up” at the time, as new drains were being laid along the sides. A watchman’s hut and fire stood at the top of the road. The Stephens, who had never been in the district before, were groping their way along the footpath in the dark, when they suddenly .heard strange shrieks and sounds behind them. On'looking' back they saw, against A the light of the watchman’s brazier, a small, stunted figure following them. Mrs. Stephens, becoming alarmed, began to run, dragging her husband with her; but they had not gone many yards when the ground suddenly seemed to, open beneath them, and they found themselves lying in six inches of wet, sticky mud at the bottom of a five-foot trench. In a second or two, much to the surprise of Mr. and Mrs. Stephens, their pursuer was in the trench along with them helping them out, and when they were once more on terra firma they scraped some of the mud from their clothes. The Stephens presented a bedraggled appearance when they arrived at the Hinkson domicile, where they were provided with a change of garments and ate their dinner decked out in various “misfits.” But the climax of the story lies in the explanation of -their strange pursuer of the roadway. He was the. village “dummy,” and was employed as night watchman. He had not noticed the Stephens until he saw them heading along the path to disaster. His cries, which the poet and his wife mistook for the yells of a maniac, were the nearest thing ho could utter to a word of warning. Some wise person remarked later, “Well, it’s only in Ireland that they’d have a ‘ dummy ’ for a watchman.” "* 1 vVA-A. — 1 i i 1

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