RECORD FOOLS.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1924, Page 4

RECORD FOOLS.

TIIM .MANIA K()l{ RFCOKDHIJKA KIND. (.John liltniL in Diiil.v Miiil). All inhabitant of Wellington, New Zealand, Inis just succeeded in playing tile piano eontinuoiisly for Killin'. Idmin. This misguided effort to break :i perfectly futile record reminds me of lhe men who snins eluhs until they ;ire ready to drop or of the couples who dunce continuously until they arc in the last slaves of exhaustion. Why Dimple should want to break records of this description passes le.v understanding, because the whole point of piano-playing club-swinging, or dancing is lost if we overdo it fancy, for instance, listening even to the finest pianist playing tlie piano for 100 hours without a pause!—hut it is typical of the extravagant egotism of this age which wants to shine at any cost and in any manner. FOOLISH FOOT ISM. I have read that criminals sometimes display a perverted pride in their own misdeeds and glorify their own sins, and this, it seems to me, is only another aspect of this very common niodern desire for fame, even if th.e fame only takes the form of notoriety. Now. the desire to le famous is praiseworthy if it sours on to endeavour in proper directions, hut surely if is merely ridiculous if it spurs us on to break records of an inane and an Moving type. Something can lie gained by going to the South Pole or climbing to the summit of Kverest—these are feats of human endurance which nice us a wider knowledge of the world and may he of immense scientific significance; hut what can he gained by playing a

piano for lilt) hours save driving the neighbours mad and satisfying a foolish egotism? Certainlv it would not help one’s piano-playing. Again, as the object of a Iff) yards race is to run as last as you can. there is a definite meaning in trying to break such tin athletic record, hut as the object of playing the piano is to play as well ns you can, there is absolutely no meaning in merely playinn: it for a long time. If people would only realise that every day we are all of us break in. l ' records and that there are many useful methods of testing our endurance, there would perhaps lie fewer of these absurd and nerve-wrecking experiments. Fvery time we go for a walk or have a conversation or hold silent communion with ourselves we are breaking records, because, in the very nature ol t Imp's, there is always some variation. ’ll IF lIAIIDFST TFST. As for endurance tests, a man who does his day’s work properly week in and week out seems to me to have accomplished about the hardest test that can he set him. The passion for cnti'-cio'is! v breakini' records litis been carried ton far. Food in itself—for the spirit of emulation has achieved much for the race it is bein'' overdone. In certain directions it lias become extravagant in others—as in some lines of sport—it has developed into a selfish playing for one’s own hand. lint when we come to the pitch when people start to make and then break fantastically sills records we are really getting into a had way. There is no end to it. and no reason why we should not all announce new records every day in every imaginable ilircct ion.

Let Us light t hi- egotistio desire to shine or, if we have this desire, let it he directed sensibly. Any m.ui who has sufficient determination and endurance to play a piano for l(Jf) hours could surely direct hiH energy into n finer channel. For records in themselves are of no importance; it depends entirely on what, the subject of lbe record I-.'