THE QUALITY OF PATIENCE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 282, 25 August 1919, Page 5

THE QUALITY OF PATIENCE

WHERE THE ENGLISHMAN WINS OUT SOME REFLECTIONS (By a New ZeoJander in the "Daily News.") Tcwlay the Englishman's mannora aro in question. He is written down as a gruff and graceless boor iv'ho snarls and shouts at tho telephone, struggles for a place in the bus or tho tubo, wrangles with cabmen, and generally is a nuisajice to himself and to others, Evoij his morals are criticised, and the war i» blamed for an imagined chango . . . as ir the 'happenings'of ft few months merely could Biter what is the result of coitunes spent in settled circumstances. To me, a young man and a stranger, thb Englishman is ns I had expected him to bo from all that I had read. Quite unconsciously I had made me a psyches-is that tho right word for a composite portrait? anyhow, it will do—from a thousand oharacters, in a thousand books read at random. And it was a very good portrait, in its way—naive as thoso wo have taken for three shillings to put on our passports, and, artistically, as worthless. It left out nearly all that was and is the man himself. Tho virtues of tho Englishman are not such as leave much outward mark. For example, who yot has written worthily of the patience of the Londoner if He will sit for half an hour in a bun and tea shop, waiting for the waitress'to be Tude to him. In railwayrefreshment rooms he will sigh quietly and go back to liis carriage, still unserved, after a'ten-minute stop. Somehow or other I have it in my head that ho' applies for a week's leave of- absence wlion Tie wishes to get a hair-cut find a Shave. In no other way could he afford to linger long enough' to take his turn. If it were not that we keep regimental barbers, I am sure that a ' carefullyworded petition to be allowed to get one's hair cut would produce ten days' leave and ration money. You see the officer would know hoiv long it had taken him himself.

If the Londoner notices these matters he never shows it. In all his life he complains about one thing only—the Government; and against it only in an impersonal sort of way, as though it were to be classed with the climate or the weather. About a month ago I blow into a place where they sell cheap and substantial meals. I had all day to waste. But aftier bn'-If aii hour's delay I began to' grow restless; the veneer of' philosophic patience peeled in big flakes. I looked about and saw that out of the fifty or sixty men only tn : o others were attempting to hurry up the overworked waitresses. One wore Canadian badges r.ijd the other told me later that he came from Sydney. This'most excellent quality is never seen better than when one is travelling in a holiday train. I came down from the i Midlands by a weary contrivance which stopped at each place where there was likely to lie a man and a dog. Every woman in those parts seemed to be visiting her friends. Each traveler had four parcels and a baby, and the average journey appeared to be about twelve miles. Oh. but it was weary and <1 reary'and long, that trip. T bore with it down to Rugby, and decided to wait foi over an hour for a faster train. I dape say not one Englishman iii those thrice-crowded carriages had any thought of complaint. One even preached the unbearable doctrine of compensiitions to me, saying that high fares at lpnst kept many at home, and guaranteed a. measure of comfort in travelling. I him if he were Mr. Mark Tapley. He said: "No, but I knew a man of that name in Chorley. Perhaps he might lie n f rel.il.ive." Just then we reached Rugby. I was clad of that, lis laughing in"-nrdly nlwnys hurts me. There, is something sturdy and lovable About this nntiennc of the Englishman. It.marks him off from the rest'of us very clearly. It- tillows him to see foi himself whenever be is in tho presence of outland men. He watches them, v,\ pour ond fume and fret; and in tho end is served long before them, even though they hnd places higher in the. queue. Their nerve has broken and ttiev havo gone away. The Englishman is thero to the end. It is trnditional with him that eventually the needs of his case will lie recognised. He has faith in himself and in his cause. What he wants ho will get . . . presently. Why, then, should he worry? So far he has been, patient with me, insolent jn my vulgar praise of his most obvioiiß, most negative virtue. Naturally I should havo liked more to talk of positive excellencies; but I lack ability to "praise him to his faco, with a courtly foreign grace." Presently, when I am very far away, I shall write about him again, praising his kindness to strangers? his ability to suffor fools gladly, and his aiiiofc answering of what must seem to him absurd, irrelevant, and unnecessary, questions. I'll havo moro time then to deal with these things as they deserve. I shall not bo kopt waiting in so many places..