Boy or Girl?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 212, 12 September 1904, Page 2

Boy or Girl?

AN EMPIRE AND A LITTLE CHILD, HUSSU EXPECTANT. The man in the train reads his I newspaper, chuckles over the courage ' of Togo, marvels at the brilliance oi Kuruki, and a«ks hinself how much longer tile Russians can i*ndure trie disaster. The mun in thy club, watching: the real armies of Uutulu moving up behiiid th<o raw levies scattered and driven by Kuroki, and seeing Skrydloff appearing here* and disappearing there l'iku a l>o Wet oi the sea, asks himselV what an SWL>l ' live years will give to the question "Wliich ?" And the man in the Chancellories, tho quiet, soi't-voiced man of affairs, looking away from (laming mountain pass, smoking battleships, ami shatter**! port, Uxes his eyes upon the palace oi' the C/.ur, and also asks himself the -question " Which ?" The answer to his question, hawever, will be given, not in four or Jive years/' time, but qjl a lew weeks. Tho answer will be given, not by cann'on and torpedo, not by rifle and siaihre, but by a woman. And upon that answer hangs*, not only the issue of this war, but the destiny of Russia,

WAITING RUSSIA. Wonderful is it to think that all the wealth und power and all the knowledge in the world cannot influence the decision of fate in this matter. The Csuirana, ojl her knees, night and morning, prays God to give her a The Czar goes up to the altar '-and bows himself in prayer, or journeys thousands of miles to consult «. religious' prophet, or .sends thoustuids of miles inlu Europe for a mail of science who has theories on mystery of sox ; and it is all in vain. These greui ones, with weafth that cannot 1m assessed, with power that cannot be giainsraixi, are powerless before the ari.iitramont of fiato in this simple human event—the. birth of a child. Ami- Russia hangs upon the issue. This huge and btarbaric nation, this vast and ingenious people, is waiting for inspiration, waiting f o r impulse, wailing fo»: an emotion. Give Russia an emotioci, and you shall see such patriotism ns the world has not known. Give Ru.ssia. despair, and you shall see horrors .before which the shambles of the French Revolution will soein small and trival. In tluheart of every Russian there is a simplo God and a ternihle dovil. The sax of the O/arina'.s child will exalt ttho one or loose the other, Those who have .studied Russian history and ar« acquainted with the Russian nature know how true it i;, that the fate of its Empire awaits 1 the travail of the Empress. PRINCE OR PRINCESS ? A son. will be l'ike the sound of a I trumixil;, like a :rign iai the heavens, . -'ike the vo-ico of a god. He will be to the millions ol' a remindei .of their past, a prophet of their future. They wiJl ri«>e with a great «h.out and stand nound about their

Uzar -like an ocean of defence. They wall be a people which has put on it; youth and stands .at tJie thrcaholc of its iriestdny. Old Russia—the Russia of douibt and muttering anarchy, the Russia of Decadent Gorki and unpractical Tolstoy—will dio like ar. old fnau trodden under the feet i.. • outhi hastening to its inheritance, llho Kuswia of simple faith, umpiest[oMible loyalty, and fanatic patriot's™ will bo born again, and will put twjlf into the hands of its Czar that may bend with it the earth to !1 i s pleasure., Hut if another Princess comes to - ho Imperial house, then will the old 1 {u!;» aof haitxWiJig philosophy and gruntfbling discontent iatigih into the imco of the young mm ; and despair will blow across the dominions of the 0, a r likjo the wind of death. Then it may bo that the Russia with which Tolstoy has long threatened bureaucracy, the Russia of hunger and nakedness, of mutiny and sedition, of atihvism and anarohy, will »isc up ami strike only for tlie joy of killing. DESTINY. So much, so much and much more, hangs upon tihe sex of a child. With all our knowledge of the human body, wo are us .ignorant ot the determination of sex as we are of the essense of personality. No man can decide how one child is bom of thi:; gender ami imother of that. Tilis is one of the .supreme mysteries of em-tense. l-'or tile life "which at onv time is sexless, neither male nor female, becoming presently the one. assumes a nature and a poise of soul definite wild distinct from the other. Education and every other aid of civilisation will never make wan urel Woman of one likcmss ; Irom Creation they are man and .voiiiiin. the male and the female. Their point of View is dLiferent, the emotions and the sentiments of their hearts are. of a separate order. WHY ? And this marvellous difference in nature takes place at some secret and intangible moment, we know not when ; and for goad or for evil, for happiness- or for misery, pursues its course in the hidden Lite till the houi of its birth, we know not how. The world is reminded of this eleme»tal 'mystery by the crisis) in Russia. Our civilisation calls a halt, we igrow impatient of our veneer and our polite sophistries ; wo are back thousands of years in the history of tho human race, bkijljjariomi in a World of mystery atwi romance, waiting for the birth of a little child.— "11." in Daily Mail.