WAR JOTTINGS

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 167, 19 March 1915, Page 3

WAR JOTTINGS

THE SOLDIER'S NIGHTMARE. DREAMS OF ENDLESS TRENCHES. The dreams find nightmare ci wcundcd soldliers at the from have beui studied by a ocrre.-ujonriem. on ihc "Lancet, 11 who is in charge t-f. an J 3 lis object was ''to enquire into the j psychical consequences of the emo--Liens inseparable from sctiv-3 .ighting as shown in dreams and other subconscious mnnjifesiatiens." "Neurotic subjects, as one would expect, react in a most striking- fashion to the shock of explosions in their immediate vicinjity," he says. "Some develop a tendency to somnambulism, and are met wandering 3bout the premises with terror and anxiety depicted on their faces in anxious search of thejir regiments. '•Short of somnambulism, the dread of losing contact with their fellows seems to be felt with extreme frequency, and horror of isolation censti- \ tua'jfs Hihe riigihtmar© idf :r.en in the first fighting line. "They dream that t'hav are wandering through endless trenches as com- ■ : dka.ied a-; an artificial maze, or are 1 picking thiair way through lonesome ■ [crests whence all but they ha.- r e fled., "The slightest noise' during' sleep ■rails uo "isiens ci' exploiting shells or ■the tramp of armed men, throwing them into a frenzy of shouting terroi*, j to the indignation of their resting fel- ■ lows. Oddly enough, these men are as bfKVe as the rest in race cf real dan gar. "Liv.s shells naturally occupy a large share of subconscious! attention, and an exasperating nightmare i s the discovery in ode's bed of a shell ready and willing to burst, associated with the usual itightmare incapacity to execute the accessary movements to get rid of it. ' RED SEA ENGINEERING. The luteal: wires from the Australasian contingents in -Egypt report plenty of js dials and no Turks worth mentioning. England is L wait.'ng to hear whether the TTnspeakaJde will carry out his threat to cement thv.* Suez Canal. If the feat Is ever attempted it may lead to the building of a Jjew crossing over the Red Sea. The -crossing will consist of 20,000 cement T/ag<?; each containing a dead Turk, with a bucket of sand and an ounce of lead; added to each Turk. It is so be hoped that the member for the Red Sea Road and Bridges Council will take note of these suggestions. They have been arrived at after many hours of mental .■ju-jitsu. Three thousand yards of crossing, at 4/(5 per Turk,, ought to prove a cheap and profitable undertaking for the local council. AUSTRALIAN ART IN ENGLAND. The war has brought one Australian cartoonist into the limelight. His name is Bill Dyson. For six: years Bill has been striving to make the people of' this country love and apmvciate rBulletin type of fat man v.'ho appears in all his cartoons. Lately, Dyson has had the nous to adopt, the German militarist, and the change bids fair to ILft him into the lonely altitudes of p aniP. The drawing of monsters as applied to the enemy suits his art very well. According to The Times, a quieter irony in caricature hits the capitalist harder,, but nothing is too extravagant for thej military eality. It is sheer madness that he draws, and he daws the madness as no other artist eould. Norman Lindsay, of the Bulletin, will now be known as the brother-in-law of Bill Dyson. Lindsay came to London about four years ago, bringing with him the illustrations of a Casanova book. Somehow they missed fire, and "Lindsay fail- I ed to negotiate a publisher. The gift- j ed young artist returned to Sydney feeling that British art was in a rotton and decadent condition.