WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 44, 16 November 1926, Page 8

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

Australia’s Labour Party considers: the six State Governors in that country superfluous.—Still they cost a little less than the 537 members of the State Parliaments.

It looks almost as if the ancient noble Roman may not have been such a prodigious liar as he has been written down. In the news this morning a highly respectable missionary bishop and an Indian clergyman vouch for two children having been found living in a wolves’ den at Midnapore, Bengal. Roman history, as is well known, records that exactly the same thing now reported in Bengal in A.D. 1926 occurred in Italy in 753 B.C. Two little boys, Romulus and Remus by name, were at that remote date placed in a trough and cast into the Tiber by their grand-uncle, evidently an old gentleman of a rusty disposition.

This trough grounded in the marshes on which the city of Rome afterwards arose, coming to rest under a wild fig tree long held sacred in after generations. The two babes, for they were no more, were suckled by a she-wolf, exactly as the Midnapore babes have been, but they went one better, for a woodpecker came and fed them as well. It may be, of course, that the missionaries at Midnapore did not notice the woodpecker there as it would obviously have to be away a good part of the day collecting the flies or betties, or whatever delicacies it provided for the infants, and ti is thus premature to say that there was no woodpecker in the 1926 wolf-suckling case. Romulus and his brother were not discovered by missionaries, but by Acco Larentia, the wife of a, shepherd named Faustulus, and there now appears every reason to think that the scholars of Europe have done her a great wrong in doubting this good lady’s little story as to where the children came from.

Romulus and Remus did not suffer any permanent harm from their early misadventures, for as soon as they attained the age of discretion they went into the real estate business, and decided to cut up the farm of their foster parents, the shepherd and his wife, into building allotments. This enterprise flourished from the start, for a large number of people who had been kicked out of the cities elsewhere were looking for somewhere to settle where no questions would be asked. The town lots were going well, when an unfortunate dispute occurred in the partners’ private office. Romulus and Remus were twins, and they began arguing as to which was the senior. The argument became so willing that in the end the subsequent proceedings interested Remus no more, and it was found necessary by Romulus to add a cemetery to the city reserves.

The new city was named Rome, in Honour of its far-sighted founder, and it has borne that name for something over 2400 vears, though it looks as if it may be 're-named Mussoliniville any day now. Despite the fact that in Crete the child Miletus, son of Apollo and a daughter* of Minos, was also suckled by a she-wolf, the whole learned clan of Europe’s professors has rejected the story of Romulus and the wolf as a baseless invention. Wolves, these learned men declared, don’t suckle children, and anyone who said they did was a liar unworthy of credence. However, the Romans have stuck to the story, and there are plenty of excellent statues of the infant Romulus drawing his rations.

Talking of the founding of Rome’s first cemetery reminds one that New York is embarking on the construction of a super-cemetery, a new de luxe burial ground calculated wholly to do away with that dreadful fear of death so much deplored by Sir Oliver Lodge. So far as can be learned, even the most timid persons, when it has come to the point, have managed to rake up courage enough to die, and the cases of individuals who have failed hopelessly to pull off the event for lack of nerve are few and far between. Nevertheless, there seems no reason when everything else is being improved why dying should not be made genuinely attractive. To make it so is the objective of the Fernchff Cemetery Mausoleum Company, Inc., of New York. This enterprising corporation is being floated to create what is announced in full page advertisements in the New York papers as “The Eighth Wonder of the World.” w *

"It is the intention of the directors and trustees,” we are told, “to make Femcliff Cemetery the most select and magnificent burial place in the world with its grand multi-crypts, private tombs, cloisters, obelisks, gardens, statuary, etc.” To persons of fastidious tastes the idea of being buried with the mob in a common cemetery has always been abhorrent, but the Ferncliff corporation is admitting into its tombs only the most eligible clientele. “Do not delay,” says the advertisement, “act to-day.”

A large number of “good reasons why the mausoleum will appeal to vou” are set out. The view, to begin with, is unsurpassable. “From this spot,” says the corporation, “one mav see the Orange Mountains, Palisades of New Jersey, and Ovster Bay, Long Island, in the distance.” Furthermore, “families and friends may he side by side in a snow white compartment, high and dry above the ground ’ and although not specifically set out, one takes it that .the equipment includes all modern conveniences, central heating, hot and cold water, telephone, sun all day, and home to lunch. The one thing that troubles us is bow on earth, if the Ferncliff Cemetery Mausoleum Company, Inc., makes its clients so extremely comfortable, will they ever be induced to turn out to blow trumpets and deliver messages at spiritualist seances?

Lady: "I want a nice book for an invalid.” , <.— Bookseller: “Yes,. Madam. Something religious?” La - dy . “Er-no-no—er— lie’s convalescent!” He: “Are you willing to make pies like mother used to make ?” She. “Are vou willing to have dyspepsia like your father used to have?" LIFE. Numberless ingredients, Bitter drops and sweet. Troublesome expedients, Enmity, deceit, Discontent, prosperity Harmony and strife, Friendship, insincerity, Fill the cup of life. Wanton, gay, or serious, Rudderless we set Sail on seas mysterious, Wanderers, but yet, Welcome joy and merriment, Bravelv watch them fade; Life is but experiment. Luck a heartless jade. Gaze upon Eternity W’ide-eved; unafraid, Claim with God fraternity, Render Man your aid, Destiny unravelling, Sure whate’er its trend, Life is only travelling, Love the journey’s end. —Frank Maynel in the