SILENCE AND SOUND

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 965, 7 May 1930, Page 14

SILENCE AND SOUND

THE teacher said “Silence,” and not a sound was heard. For two minutes the spell was complete; then somebody moved and knocked a book off a desk.

In the far-away days before learning was heard of, Silence reigned supreme in the world. He moved hither and thither on noiseless feet with a finger ever at his lips. Sometimes he would sit on lonely hillsides and glory in the total absence of sound; then things began to happen. Birds found their voices, tree whispered to tree, rivers began singing over the shallows, the wind whistled round unexpected corners, thunder came out of the sky and the rocks gave back answering echoes. In vain did Silence steal hither and thither, his finger at his lips. His reign was over: Sound had invaded his kingdom. Then came Man with his passion for making things, and Silence took cover in the forest depths, but even there his refuge was assailed, for Man had strange implements that rent the air with sound. He took minerals from the earth, he felled the trees that covered the earth, he built screaming railroads and thundering cities. At last Silence sought the mountain peaks where the eternal snows were mute to his footfall, and from there he ponders a ravaged world. But when someone cries “Silence” he remembers his vanquished glory and momentarily places a finger on his lips. REDFEATHER,