FOREIGN FOLK.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 794, 18 April 1910, Page 4

FOREIGN FOLK.

r77--7 '" ♦ ' I THEIR CLUBS IN THE CITY. SOME INTERESTING EXILES. !;■ [By Gtiio.] ■ F,;. ■ There --is ia' strango coming; and going cf feet in the world. Men appear, act • and re-act . upon . each-other, /and- then Vanish, and, as St-evcnson Bays,-"The p,-'-,'tin'shoes/ whicli the. world itself wears, . vS<>. ; ;equahly, forward over blood ..aiid ram." It is like a play in which every T ;.- . une has lost his ewe. When a situation . • .develops, the actor who would fit. it is :: not: there. - When: the curtain falls no one is ready. - When the "footlights are i; -.: brightest they .aro-blown out;. and-what j^- : tii'e^"ame'of the play,'is no rone-knows. life; .. ''7 : '"- —• ' - '' V . . It': - for instance, to find . bits of i §parta, and the Peloponnesus, 7— lOiarkoff,-.-and Yilna dumped down in • Wellington, but they are here, and when. !-7. tho—Neapolitans, Venetians/ Greeks, Savoyards,"''Russians, Macedonians, h&f..; . yantincs, Spaniards, and wdiat not iis- • ' semblo at theijilittle: meeting house 3or |clubs. >in -and about Wellington" on -an ; V/-, /evening, if 1 one "listens as each paints %, -the : scenes. iheihas grow&, -.7he' will be.corisciouiOhat the atmosphere f;. v ofj quaint and is'-stealing in upon him. ■ • ' t yj,: * '. V--At .first, until- one's >fiar grows accustomed, the club,' or meeting place, or whatever they- may calliit; rather re- • minds one of Mr. Randolph- Bedford's f-7.: description,' of'.a wool sale.'" 1 , 1 ; "Balef;" they .all .seem to.be' saying, "halef, -halef," halef; halef, halef," andf' t ;.then, presently,'.then? is ,a .sound > like''' 4 jK)bst," and silerice; and then it begins "halef, halef, halef, halef, halef— In .time wo get-into' - ; ono of the, exiles. ". He is tolling-the-story of tho mobilisation of the 10th:arid' 17th Russiam Army Corps for;the Jap-"' anese War. "Yes.. . . . Slutchevsky rfer general was—ach—what;do you call, mopihso—dot-vos der 10th Corps from Kharkoff and Yacob SemenofT, ho py in .:. - der": schop ,der black. ribbon,- der, ribbon- ; - of . dose dot win. Seventeen payonets r — killed -Yacob Semenoff at Hei-kei-tou— sefenteen payonets of der Japanese ill Yacob, yes. I refuse duty -. . '■ yes. Tanva'Jcw.- My beeble say, 'We liaff — ■ dfer money mine son; and you shall not — .. —acli—niopjlise * init ■' Slutchevsky,.' becauseiof der Juhdenhetae.! So I'revuse ■ duty, and am sentenced to bo shot. ■ I . ■, Tare \vite;trousers ... . . yes - ; .7:7.' 'o be shot. ~ ■ And der' doctor of' the Vl 'te drousers, and hang: up :- . his-^ach—pelldopper- in..der -passage. I bud on der pelldopper, and walk oiit.tomy beeble .and' isvostchik outside, and. : iOer steamer leave Odessa, wit' me' dotnido/ :• .•-.Yes.'' >:• .

-'(A rather thrilling experience," reMarkedthe:;' ' "Was not' Slutchevsky one of your bad generals who was sent home from the war bov sause he: was no good?" 7. ."Och, dot vos it. ■: -Slutchevsky. drink - der absinthe, and ... 7: yes ' ; ; Bilderling, dor general ,'of der : 17th' . thorps, ho play der -fiddle all day. - And mine beeble zay to, mo,- 'Perhnps if Bil- , derlmg blay der. viddle at der war. der Jeponce will run away. It would be .thing,"-.- ''both'., for them • and - for

you » ' 'Pe-paused,' apparently turning over, - effect of bad. music on tho! nerves of the Japanese, and then finished: his, story. ■ . ' — ■ "But I jjonmi '.to New Zealand. ... .V .

i blue, the lonian Isles gradu--7 .a'ly. caine ' intoi the-conversation" witfr ?. the in-' understood that'- he ' now:: had iTii.' Grepk.', He-,was " from" ': i Ithaca, famed island' .'of - Ulysses • and '— rPeneldpe,' and to -Ithaca', -to'.bis' mother, 1 [he .sent a cheque by every iiiail 'from Wellinston He knew all .the .. old . -Greek thist-ory . aud_ legends, and spoke sri f; i. ; ' i Y oy r ' r a nd ■ Agamemnon, .- of /Mihtiades, Aristides,-,and Pliitb - just one reads about them: in the classics. v .^",'h 0 .threw.in the rather strange.'fact ' -■ that; only' a. few' months ago," a native . - of-ancient Sparta had'- a fish shop • - § r i ? 'i-■ ■ Spartans,' • however; —he to America when' they emi-' grated ' ■ -^ e . had travelled, everywhere appartold great stories, of'the' Le---jvantme ;• steamers, "which "annually .carry!, ' 7°jj °- ' Mohammedans down 7 ,to , Jeddah,'.- en route to Me6ca; '> - ' - , Oyer the topic of Meoca tho' inter: : ; viewer called.a .Halt, slowly.;matured a iTOmtvoi.'.yiew, ancl then put.: it to; the "fcta white men, .otirclrhardt and ■ Burton, , had' ever been, to Mecca. Here is a chance for any colonial, who • happens to have the means; _to distinguish himself; The cap.ture, of Powelka .would- only b© - "fifth-- §[' > -M'stmctiou compared with being ' the,first. white-.inin' south - of ' the-' line to penetrate the Holy City of Islam.. ' , an l- Aase,..-.Mecca' would' be a": fine •\ to; see. v.,./' : : > _ ,Fino place .to see!" - esclaimed tho ' With contcm ' lt .»- 7''' i,v OU x c ' o , n t , those.people, then?" No, I don't. ■ I fought for my'coun- ::: 1894 £ 5® ai ° st; - - he Tur,:s in Thessaly. in

"And were beaten?" 7: - 77' iit! ' by 'Edhem I'asha." were too good for you?" -. Not at all; but thoy had Krupp .cannon. and -aJot of: German: officers No nation can- stand up to the Ger-xnansT-rnot: even .you." :.. The - evening ' was- getting on,- and-the yoom was- w fill 0 f Upcoming" and goings Of, strange footsteps and strange "IWef, halef, halef, halef, '' »" Tinging with J f ~ oalef . and - "pob'st." Eventually , there occurred - a i? de ? Cl '' iba J ,I 0 idiom,-'who s eadfastlyj declined to state his natidn-u-r,rn' i®' K ociology and politics \vero as, peculiar as his English. New ii. ?? ld ' ate mudl meat, with Knnat 3 ® v r Wfl3 suffering from national indigestion, with which was- allied a. national fierceness and a national craving for sensations. Wo had tried every violent experiment possible in our ,sport, our education, and our laws, pery legislative measure we " had was honeycombed with strango .practices, and, really, we did not seem to want the laws so. much as ; -the sensation of making ,them-and playing with 'them lor.'.a;while. .' Stnking'- cases of, this craving for sensations,' had-just been seen at Palmerston, ."'iwlioro a whole town had armed itself and gone about .with guns to: search for a man whom ■most Of them would not; have been, able to, recogiiise -had they- met him; 4 ' .'But. he. added, - th»> desiro- ' to < appreliencl Powelka was' only secondary; the priJnary impulse was a dumb, -blind,' subconscious one for a now sensation—tho ■eensatioh of attacking something. > "I dell you mein frendt," he went on, "your Goff'ment is vbto moocli chosen of dor larrikin, class, und mako laws vot f>uit der man init dor loudest voice. And der man mit der loud voice moost half der games, and der Powelka gun shoot to geeb his mindt occupied, or he make more loud noise, and der Goff'ment do not like dot If , vou half goff merit of der larrikin, by . der larri£in, for der, larrikin, den in ten.years time maybe der larrikin vill ,be der Goff'ment. Nova Zealandia vos to be strange place to live in soon, I dink." It is indeed a strange coming and of footsteps, and rio t'vo men see the sarno scene or .set of facts alike. I went home to dream that Epaminondas and his three hundred Spartans had opened a Wellington fish shop, that Plato ownod a street fruit barrow,, that Epictotus gathered bottles, and when .thay. spoke to you they all seemed to be. saying tho samo thing— "Halef, halef, baler," and then presently, "pobst,"