WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 26, 25 October 1921, Page 4

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM (By T.D.H.) It is tha absent who are always ia lhe wrong! Tlie activities of tho Communists appear to ,be divided between getting themselves into gaol and agitating to get their friends out of gaol. Tho world is divided into two groups: those trying to get thin, and those trying to get fat! MORE MOTTOES. The Parvenue’t motto: Cut your friends according to your cheque book. The Actor’s motto: While the author’* away—we write tho play! The Landlord’s motto: Welcome the coming; bleed the parting guest. The Meat Trust’s motto: One man’s canned meat is another man’s poison. The Motorist’s motto: A switch in time saves a fine. Before the war it used to be possible to take a gun and get a good bag of rabbits in half a dozen different directions around Wellington. Nowadays one can walk over the same hills all afternoon and see not a single bunny. I don’t , know whether tho influenza epidemic got them, whether the farmers have teen ’inore active in their war of extermination, or whether the rabbits have left for fields and pastures new, but whatever the reason they are gone. In his new book Mr. Thomson tells us that several of the early efforts to introduce the rabbits into the South Island were unsuccessful, so when one comes to look at it it seems as if the acclimatisation of the rabbit is another of those striking examples of what can he accomplished by persistence and application. Mr. Telford, of Clifton, in 1864, brought in some rabbits, and reared them in hutches until he had fifty lively and well-constitutioned animals, but they nil died out a short time after liberation. Undeterred by this failure, Mr. Clapcott liberated some at Clinton, but their fate was tho same. Other unsuccessful efforts are also believed to have been made in* the south, but details are lacking.* ‘Pho successful irftroduecr is generally understood to have teen Dr. Menzies, the first Superintendent of Southland, but he never took any steps te establish his claim te the honour. Tn fadt.Mr. Thomson’s labours seerm maiofly to have resulted in tho discovery of tlie persons whose rabbits all died without issue, and have therefore no connection whatsoever with the present rabbit population.

For the crisp courtesies of common, everyday life travel on the trams. Yesterday folks stood on the open cars as a solution of tho seat trouble, white the rain sheeted in heavy veils, and moved an Imperturbable conductor to remark: "I think I’ll chuck the Tramway Employees’ Union and join the watersiders.” A complaint from an acquaintance that the weather had spoilt his intention of having a day’s fishing, brought from tho humorist the comment: "Don’t miss your c-port, mate; you can troll from behind if you vo got your line.” Tie capped the lot when® a very haughty and dignified lady laboriously boarded the car at the next stop, and protested: "Oh, conductor, steps aro so high.” "Yes, ma’am, came the apt response, "Me build cm for high steppers.” In view of the climatic conditions that man deserves promotion.

' "I suppose every man is disappointed in his wife at some time or other,” says the Marquis Imari in “The Geisha.’ As a general thing the wife never suspects anything of the kind. Sho is 100 busily occupied in discovering how disappointed she is in her husband.

"Forasmuch as all battles should bear the name of the nearest fortress this battle shall now and forever te called ‘Tho Battle of Agincourt.’ ’’ —So said King Henry V in Flanders five hundred and six years ago to-day.

Agincourt, anyway you look at it, was a famous victory. Military experts say it was a most convincing display of the superiority of line formation over column foniiation. King Henry, of glorious the last flash in the pan of medievial chivalry, had about 900 men-at-arms and 5000 bowmen as the effective force'-at his disposal. Tho French had at the very lowest estimate at least three times this force, and possibly no fewer t'han 50,000 men. They advanced down a. defile at the end of which the British met them. The end of the day showed at lelst 4000 French slain, including three dukes, five counts, 90 barons and bannerets, and 1500 knights. Some chroniclers put the total as high Os 10.000. or double the number in tho English army. The English loss was about ICO all told. Besides 'the French loss in killed, King Henry captured also 1600 of them lhe irony of tho situation was that before the battle he offered to surrender liarfleur and all his French prisoners in this the only town he held in France it the French would give him clear pa-teaga to Calais. But for the fact that the too haughty French spurned this offer there would have been ho battle of Agincourt.

The old chroniclers tell picturesquely of the way the battle began. The King waited on the French to attack his small force, but they did not stir. He asked what the hour was, and was told "Prime”—the hour of early morning service in the monasteries. “Now is good time,” he said, "for all England prayeth, for us; let us therefore be of good cheer and go to our journey.” The King then cried aloud: “In the name of Almighty God and St. Goprge, Avaunt Banner in \ the best time of the year, and St. George this day be our. help!” Old Sir Thomas Erpingham then threw his warder in tho air. as a signal to advance. Every man immediately stooped and kissed tho ground as a sign of his reconciliation to God, and rose with a ringing cheer. 11ns army then advanced, and the archers planted stakes in front of the positions they took up, as a protection from the French horsemen, the clarions sounded, and the. English cheered again, “Hurrah hurrah! St. George and Merry England.” And so begun the last great battle of medieval chivalry for a lost cause and out-of-date ideas. But a very fine battle all tho same, "and our King fought like a man with his hands.

It is only stray chroniclers like me with a column to fill who remember gallant Prince Hal and his deeds in these days, but fewer people remember or celebrate the feast of Crispin and Cnspinian, the patron saints of shoemakers, whose festival to-day used Io be held in high honour five "liunilrcd years back., If Henry V did actually use these wortth that Shakespeare put into his mouth they are just what ho would have said, and in keeping with all lie said and did; And Crispian Crispin shall ne’er go by. From this day until tho ending of the world, But wo in it shall te remembered: Wo few., we happy few, we band of bio-, there; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me. Shall be my brother; te ho ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen of England, now a-bed. Shall .'think themselves aecurs’d they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap while any sneaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.