TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14889, 31 January 1914, Page 10

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Tho canons of art "Undramatic" seem to bo as evanDrama. escent as milliners! modes. A Lessing comes and sete up a "classical" tradition, carefully dividing off the various branches of art, labelling them "This is poetry," "This is painting," etc., and then a Romantic Movement, and after it a Naturalistic, and an impressionist, and a. Neo-Impressionist and goodness knows how many, other movements come and show .that successful art-works can be produced which ignore such distinctions. An Aristotle, a Freytag, or a Brunoticre set up formulas defining drama and regulating dramatic construction, and modern drama is conclusively showing in a variety of way. that these venerated formula! can be blissfully ignored, and dramatic art yet be no loser. Such, at least, is the contention of a writer who in the December "Bookman" (New York) discusses this socalled "Undramatic" Drama. The Shakespearean tradition demands that the • chief incidents of the action in tragedy take place beforo the audience; tho French classical drama of Racine and Corneillo, however, bans all action to the wings. Both are art. Aristotle says that action is tho prime essential of a play, and that the method of the drama is to show character through action. What, then, is to bo done with the lato Mr Stanley Houghton's "Hindle Wakes"? This is a masterpiece, "because it reminds us vividly of life and tells us something that is new and true," yet it is almost utterly devoid of action, -It does not exhibit character through action, but through /dialogue. Yet it would be a cowardly resource to label such a noteworthy work "undramatic" just because it does not square with the postulates of the "Poetics," Again, Aristotle laid it down that the plot of a play must exhibit a beginning, a middle, and an end. Modern drama is more often than not deliberately planned so as to show no such demarcations. "The Madras House," for instance, ends with this typical stage-direction, "She doesn't finish, for really there is no end t to tho subject." "Shall we," pleads the writer, "dismiss such a fabric as 'unstructured' after it has entertained us for two hours with the activity of one of the keenest intellects at present working for the English theatre?" The German dramatist, Freytag, held that a play must be divided into fivo successive sections—exposition, riso, climax, fall, and catastrophe. This principle, founded on the (since disproved) assumption that Shakespeare planned his plays in five acts instead of an uncounted series of scenes, is still widely held, yet a piece such as Galsworthy's "Tho Pigeon" succeeds in dispensing with rise, climax, fall, and catastrophe alike and in yet being a play, and a very remarkable play too. The conclusion is that unless most of the best of the productions of modern dramatists are to be consigned to the scrap-heap, the dramatic bylaws and regulations will havo to he very liberally extended in the future.

The bitterness of feelThe ing existing between Burning the rival factions in of Ireland at the present Lundy. crisis was well exemplified by the precautions taken last month at the celebrations of the shutting of the gates of Londonderry against the Irish Jacobites, the great feature of which is the burning in effigy of the traitor Lundy. The soldiers were confined to barracks in order that they might be available instantly if required, and extra police wero drafted in to cope with emergencies. Either the efficiency of these precautions, or the absence of any incident calculated to ruffle the sensitive temper of the people, made proceedings run smoothly enough, and Lundy was burnt at dusk without causing any breach of the peace. The ceremony is a picturesque one. It takes place at a high point of the wails, and Lundy—a huge figure, 12ft high, clad in the field-marshal's uniform of the period—is let down on a great chain from tho top of Walker's monument, a torch is put to him, and he is drawn slowly aloft amidst the execrations of a Protestant crowd. "The scene," says : The Times," "might be said to represent the Ulster problem itself, for below the walls, in a hollow beyond the old fcity, stretches out one of tho poorest quarters of Londonderry, the Nationalist 'bogside,' and its people, safely segregated, stand at "tho doors of their houses, enjoying the proceedings, but shouting the while their own party cries, the favourite of which is 'Home Rule and a Fenian King.''' The "bogside" has a prescriptive right on this occasion, that of setting fire to its chimneys. The idea is that the smoke may ascend to the walls, cloud the spectacle, and embarrass the operations of those conducting the ceremony. On the. occasion in question, fate was .•urainst the Nationalists. The wind

happened to blow in the wrong direction, and the burning of Lundy took place in full sight of all, an omen, some think, unfavourable to the prospects of the Home Rule Bill. The work of some "Christmas people is such that they Claims." must find it more difficult than others do to take a rosy view of human nature at 'Christmas time. Some of the clerks in London insurance offices aro thus unfortunately situated, for about Christmas time the number of bogus claims for accident insurance increases. This way of raising money for a Christmas holiday is becoming popular, and. indeed, the fraud is so common throughout the year that the companies have had to establish a epecial detective corps to deal with the perpetrators. This has broken up the gangs, but thero aro still many individual swindlers working successfully. A dioublo joint is a great asset in this kind of fraud. One man lived for two years on a double-jointed ankle. In almost every district in London he was carried off a trnmear or motor omnibus with his ankle dislocated. A doctor was fetched, and certified that the ankle was dislocated, and the insurance company paid out from £5 to £10. Then another claim would be sent in from another quarter of London, and under another name. Some women show great deliberation in the engineering of their "accidents." They will enter a tramcar or motor-bus and carefully look for a flaw in the floo-" or the hand-rail. If a board is loose or broken, a piece of the rail missing, or there is anything else on which they can work they nse it. A jerk of the car or bus, and they are on the floor, or fall on the seat, with their wrist out of joint. Other passengers may give evidence that such and such a board was loose, or 6ome other defect was apparent, and the rest is plain sailing. When they have worked one district well they proceed to another and change their names. It is said to he ft common crick to slip on a piece of fat outside a butcher's 6hop, tread on a piece of rope behind a cart, or step down a coal-hole. The last is a risky business. One man who tried it broke one leg and injured the other, and tho money he got did not pay for what he sui fered. Petty insurance frauds are nob confined to personal injuries. A stallholder in a market did well for himself by placing his stall a little out of line, so that pedestrians frequently knocked up against it. Again and again his goods were upset, and the insurance company paid up until it grew suspicious. There seems to be some credit in thinking well of mankind when you are in an insurance office.