ALACKADAY!

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2011, 19 March 1914, Page 6

ALACKADAY!

THE ERA OF DISCONTENT. FLEETING PHASES. [I3i meeb Mere.] What is content? I know if 1 askc'l ray friend the 'Philosopher tho question 1 would prompt a discourse that would, consume thn whole of his evening homeward way from tho Bank Corner, to Kolburao Heights. >-. Instead, I put the query to a patriarchal politician. Hβ was a cynic. He said there was scarcely such a tlii'ug nowadays. Like the ttuiii bird, it was becoming extinct. There- was a tiiae when people were reasonably happy with their worldly lot: contentment was not then far to seek. Now, though? Take any class or stratum of Society. Was _thoro pre* sent the element of a eontaut-eil stability? In what served tho purpose of to-day, si change would be desired to* morrow. A pampered poet, a pleasurepursuing present: these- were the destroying borers -of our national hardihood. How dire this disease of discon* tout''- was becoming I Was prevented from hearing as a rugged, bronzed teau in store clothes at this juncture seized tiie politician's hand, and gave it a pump-handled shake. "How's VTeilm'tou?" tlio countryman inquired, and the politician had barely uttered a polite '""Nicely, thank .you," <*rti lie was listening to a tab of woo about, a baek-Moeks road. A trameav, winch for a moment stopped its clattering near-by, offerttl a haven of escape. A mail' in the "smoker," whose life had to do with tlie sea and ships, was growling to a companion. "I sec she's"sigiiallofl now. Bfoomk , well left Wa.nga.mii at "seveiitliirty, and hero's it's four .o'clock. l They _ tell yer there'll be nothing doing till six—and then if yer go down Tor might get on, and yer not." " A sporting-looking individual was anaiTiei.natisinjr the inconsistency of those who coi.iiitciian.ced the totalisator while decrying the bookmaker, ivlwn a mildmannered mail leaned across towards nio. "New Zealand's a beautiful country, ho told we, ",and |lte New" ZeaJniulers are a beautiful 'people, I'm often sorry I'm not native-born. You know. I think tho Now feijsinfrir is tleveiopmg a sixth sense—clairvoyaliee. A young fellow I know, twenty-nine Re is. is clair-audfeiit. As he goes alon<r 'the street spirits—:—" _ "What sort of spirits, fisato?" interjected this betting authority. And thus I lost some enlightening information, as the mifd-maniwrccl man iijuorcd tho Question, and became silent.'. To see ourselves as others see us— that woiiH save Us, said Scotland's •Bard, from many follws and foibles. "Go, get a grainaphoiie," said a dorical misjiiouor to a congregation of women the other day, "and lot it take record of your nagging at husband, child, and ■servant, Then listen U thuj 'daily record, and you will woader if you are that person." - .- ' But if.- as the imld-maiinoTcd man said, we a.re developing the clairvoyant ™ nse - the* , * , may ho some excuso' for 'tis. We claim it as the Britisher's priyilofio to gi'owl—no raatter what the circumstance, tlio occasion for the growl will bo found. Wo arc .not a race of Marie Tapleys. tha .oynjcal .politician had said; "Find mo a jnaa who'•'can hoitostiy say, 'I'imh content.'" J. d<l not know wlicther ho thought I was a prefer perscra for .a- Diogenes-like niiiision, but I fancied >l had succeeded the other night. It was at a political meeting; tils two factions among tfeu oeenpants of tho auditorium were in turn .contented to bo discontented with the speaker of tho moment. Amidst all the- din .au elderly gfentl-cmaii, of most apparent- sckolarship, was standing in tte doorway, proJ'mjudly immersed in a French treatise, referring every now and tlieti to the many written marginal annotations. Around him, ii-irto i-nilor-meu shrieked epithets • others., with ■ arms mt~ et-rotchcti, like bidders at a wool sale., «ejo calling out: "Jla - . F-fehor? Mr, Fisher?" livery irmv and tltou a- poJjoeman was hustling out a too-rowdy nialcaiitoiit. But stall the aged: schokr pursued his traiirJatioii; fortjooth, so iHieo.uc'enied did he sp.p-in, he rajght have beea secluded in a library, and tho noisy liUmaus but as mawy musty quiescent totiW'S around him. "Yer don't mind, <Io yer?" bellowed a man staudJKa alongside tho student to auotlwr M-Jw, elevated -an a form, wag wbis'iiug round au arm like a wiudtnill.. "Why don't tltey give him a cliauco to speak ?" replied thu \vi»dmiH.. "1M yer don't miud, da j-erf" psrfiistctl tlio lowly one, "JVl.ind what:-"' camß the reply. "Hitting mo in tho jaw with yel elltew!" I'ho book-lover stele away as tho aifgiHivent warmed; oven i'or hiai, ifics-i oblivious of mortals, tkoi-o was not enough content in. tho a-tmosphero. . . Tho weekend night express had -taken ino far afield'from the strivings of tiio Empire City. It was a 'Wende-riaßd region, Tourists wero in abtii-i-iiaHce. It is a barren prospect to seek for content among them, as ilioy never know what they Want next. Along a gleaming white- roo-'Jjvuy I liad wa»d.ercd till a grovo of pines gavo shade from a scorching summer sen.. Oppoato Ibis I sanctuary stood a little cottage, star-" roiHtdcd by manukii thiokcts anil native shrubs. Its yutsido appearance, like the habitation of tho lattlo Jim.of tltp schooldays poojii was "old and Jnoafl." But atitidst tho hosts of "Surrey Villas," "Monnas," "To Whora-us," and 1 "Ivys" it riaimed a distinctive prej eminence. Across tlio rough-painted I door, in large lettoraig, was painted; COTTAdE OF CONTENT. Musingly 1 wondered if tho sign Was hypocritical, and then fancy conjured tip many reasons why perhaps it was not so. Hc-fo there eoutd be no sharing iu tha squabbles of tlio Joiiosos next d<jor; no . piatro-practisjng concei'ts l;<sfoj'c dawii; no bonowiiig of tho ltiornii-ig j paper iminoijiately on its delivery; jsq canvassujg book fiftrids; no runaway sailprfl with roils of the "real vicuna'. 1 ; no-— "Hey, enjoying yourself?" An appiu'itioii had crossed mf lino of vision— jdi old. gontlciKiiH iu. a linen garb, suitable- for a-n.v tropical climate, and A white pith liclinct from which drosped a HM)5(|U;tiT veil I He was so keen on biographical facts that I wns Sony I had not a copy of ftiy last census paper to gh'o him. And thcii I said I came from Wellington 1 ' There is one 'place, that's a long way better thaa.Wellington —and that was his native towii. Harbour, elhwate, etc., etc., Auckland was, and eter would ha, in the van. And why was.it ivot the Capital? For a moment I faiietcd that : -AtifiMaml's extinct V'olcrmo had erupted again. He had never yoi met a Wellington man . who Would give way in tho '"slightest : thjn-cc as to Wellington's sflpra-ns suitability »s t3ie sisattrf Govcrl-uiieiit. Pmp it was Eiefcouingl It w;>s not his lai-s-, sion, howoyor, to treat the. views of' adfllcscancß—common sense would como with age. Even' so, in -o-vir lioliiSayings docs the canker of a disecnt-ont, work its Way, To kavo tho atmosphere of qtmrrel 1 : strallctf across to tho Cottage. Near the doorway » large-blaek eat was ptii-ringly licking a forepaw, and then indtistrfoiisly rubbing it over its face. Alongside, w:' t s en. empt-y saucer. Was that 'Content?