"HE HAD SEEN LIFE PANORAMICALLY."

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 697, 22 August 1914, Page 7

"HE HAD SEEN LIFE PANORAMICALLY."

* MOUNTAINS AND MOLEHILLS GIANTS AND PIGMIES." Bit .by-"bit, Rosa learnt what DereK. DeVenish had been through, the details of the fight for hie own hand. He had a knack of vivid description. He could make her see what ho had seen, and feel what he had felt. If his language was at t'imes racy of a new soil, she liked it the better for that. If he led her into strange places, excitement put .to flight disgust. He had seen life panoramically, mountains and molehills, giants and pigmies. He had learnt what the ordinary Englishman of his class so rarely comprehends—values. The work before the mast—shorten-) ing sail in a furious gale of wind, a fight to a finish with an ironhanded bully of the fo'c'sle, building up sennit when becalmed in the Pacific, washing his own duds, swallowing vilely-cooked food —these experiences had hardened body and mind. The work in Californialoading and unloading timber upon the San Francisco wharves, beachcombing at • Catalina, riding the ranges of a cattle-ranch, picking fruit in the San Jose Valley, logging in British Columbia, noting everywhere the relentless struggle of Man against Nature, facing doggedly . the odds against him, behold-« ing starvation round the corner — '■ these 1 had thrown up in astounding Contrast the smug lives of the Charminster townspeople, their limitatdons, prejudices, and inanities. ''They know just enough to get in out of the wet," he said to Rose—"just enough to secure to themselves a little comfort upon which they set an inordinate! value. That's a universal instinct which thay share with the\ Pdwash Indians and the Diggers. Beyond that—what ? A fat-headed conviction that they're—as Mrs. Walkington puts it —Britannia's sons* and that they rule this world and will have a controlling interest in the world to come."

"Derek, are the people out West — the miners and cowboys and loggers —very wicked ?"' He laughed gaily.

'"Wicked ? What do you mean by ■rcieketL ? Wickedness is relative. Somt of the best men I've met, the bravest, the simcerest, swore like bargees and gnt druak whenever they had the chance. Thoy didn't know the virtue ©f a clean tongue. They grinned at Death twice a day, and cursed Mm to Ms face. Mrs. Easter would have thought them wicked, but the vicar, I fsney, would be more charitable." '" Manners don't count for much, I suppose, in mining-camps ?" "Manners count everywhere, even in the fo'c'sle of a sailing ship. Cowboys have very good manners."— "Cornhill Magazine."