DIATRIBES AND DUST-UPS

NZ Truth, Issue 1201, 6 December 1928, Page 8

DIATRIBES AND DUST-UPS

4< Where Ignorpce Is BHis 'tis Folly To Be Wise," or Look For Qptation M^fks ! HARRY ATMORE EXPLAINS A LOT MORE

Pity the poor ignorant— that pitiful majority of humankind which, intent upon its hread and butter, its lingerie, high rents and higher living, knows not the penetrating writings of Colonel B, ' B Harry Atmore, educational colossus and carrier of the political satchel for Nelson says that if you quoteholu^boius from the brain product of any man, there is no need for the employ, inent'of quotation marks-^-that any educated man or woman knows whose work it really is, and only ignorant folk need inverted commas to indicate: quotations.

OVER seven months ago (to *>?- exact," oh 'April 23) ; Atmpre' celebrated the three -hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's birthday by writing a panegyric on the poetdramatistfs life, and there appeared \n the "Nelson Evening Mail"' r.vo and a-half columns of nicely-rounded phrases, which r had fallen from the fluent, fecund pen -of —whom?' : ■ISjeltj.on- va§ profoundly impressed with the drops of inspiration' which apparently had come from the deep -vvoll of • Atmorian thought, and the sum total of Atrnore's erudition was considenihly magnified m the public mind— until the eve of the election. Either by some ghastly mischance (Atm'ore declares the coincidence to be nothing short of maHcipus calculation to danin his 'chances of being returned) -or elsV by . well-timed plan, someone or other discovered on the night before the election ballot-boxes were erected, 'that Atmore's eulogium of- the poet corresponded most faithfully with a similar ; opinion expressed by one Robtirt" : Gre«h' ' Ingersbll, American lecturer arid lawyer of the nineteenth century. " ' '■ : Now if, as Atmore suggests, L.awyer Carroll Harley, a Nelson advocate v?\\o seemingly' delights . in' a thrust-ana-parry campaign with ' the member for the apples 'district, published the damning, epistle m the'- "Ma.il' 1 for no oth•^r i•eagpn ! than that it should sweopingjy discredit" 'Atmore' : m the opinion of local electors, the thrust was by no means the outcome of blunt judgment, even though the warped spirit of personal animus 'may not run altogether parallel with good taste. ; ' Conversely, of course, it may well be that although it took seven months for anyone to make the disturbing . discovery that Harry Atmore's contribution to local literature was a curjously faithful reflection of the sentiments mirrored Some forty or more years previously by Ingersoll, Harley perpetrated "the damaging accident of publishing his denunciatory letter just 24 hours before the electors yyere due to write upon the wall of' political decision. Atmore accredits himself with a prodigious memory, ahd ; 'will ' quote yardsticks of poetry to establish ms claim. But even if this were true {.here is no doubt that he suffers an pverween.ingjpenehant for believing ' th^at mpst-. ! -eojfcated^-folk are, pr^should- be, steeped^ literature; arid that becauae

writers or rhetoricians do not always give page and quotation marks whep they quote an author, their refraining £i om so doing is an implied compliment that the' reader or liatener ; knows full well whence came, the musical sentences. If Atmore is sincere m what he says —that he remembered • faithfully the tortuous, 'cogent phrases' of Ingersoll vei\A some two or three years pr'evious-jy-rhe should have been careful afterwards not to have said that he compiled the article from various 'sources, principally from' commentaries on Shakespeare; or that, even though, he had omitted inverted commas from his work, it was merely because he appreciated the standard of culture to which Nelson had attained. Now, If this "implied : compliment" idea is the true' focal point of ' tft'e argument, it was a grave mischance which prbmpted Atmore to foi'get this sentiment, 'for, after the ' : linotype Spleen, Says Harry operator had traversed almost 26 inches m depth of type, he inert tipned that "IngersoU. the American writer, points out that . . . " Atmore tells "Truth" that the charges of literary piracy" laid against him are nothing more than draughts from the poisoned well sunk by Lawyer Carroll hjarley and others' who have cause, he asserts, . tp look ' with disfavor upon hjs activities m publicjy delivering chastisement to them over various matters with which they were concerned,. " ' •> ■ Atmore linkg other people of substance m Nelson with this sorry business, and says further that since 1924 a little coterie, fortified by the prepence of tiiwyer ' Haiiey, has distinguished itseif by the Venom of its corporate spleen. ■■'■: '"'■ In conformity with its policy of independence, tenipered with the desire to see justice effected to its innermost degree, "N.Z. Truth" asked Atnipre' to explain his declaration that a number of the Nelson citizenry had allowed personal' animus' to overcloud their better judgments. ; ' The reply ' received wag that some time aero; Haiiey made gome public pronouncement concerning the consti-

tution of the Nelson College Board of Governors, : and quoted from the statutes. Atmore (rather tactlessly, some may be inclined to think); burst into print with the statement thai Harley had given quotations from legislation which already was out of date, and superseded by a later act. Mayhap, a more gentle method would have been that of giving Harjey an opportunity skilfully to amend His previous statement, but Atmore precipitately corrected the legal man through the columns of the local newspaper, opening once again the wound of resentment and bitterness, and giving cause for further antipathy. ! Thus it is that this mnemonic prodigy of Appleland says. that Harley, as chairman of the Reform candidates' committee, and certain other malcontents, played their hands very cupningly so "as to bring about the political downfall of a man who had thrown many' shrewd spanners into their machinery. If that was their intention they failed, for Atmore can still write the letters M.Pi after his name. £o there!