A WONDERFUL OLD MAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 March 1917, Page 5

A WONDERFUL OLD MAN.

"I WOULD LIKE TO BE A SOASOT • FOR A CHANGE.'! Sir George Bird\yood, doyen Of 'delightful letter-writers, philosopher and' . optimist, entered cheerily upon his 85th ' year recently (says the London Dally' !»• Mail). "I am spending the evening of my lifd full of hope and assurances of a Jinppy. issue—a victorious issue—of the Allien in Armageddon," he said to a Daily Mail representative recently.. ".1 am an optimist still. Of course I gee, the difficulties; in the summer I had fond hopea that Christmas Day would see the end. If that cannot be now, we have at least the consolation of knowing that the last few days have flashed a bright ray <>f hep? athwart the nation. And I know that Jlr. Lloyd George, with his new find enormous responsibilities, is the very ■ man for the position he has now found V himself in. With such a magnetic and masterful figure at the head of aflaira ' now I have every confidence in the re» '• construction, provided it has the full support of the nation." Turning for a brief moment to his own affairs, Sir George arose from the sofa upon which lie was reclining, wrapped his furred dressing-gown around his sparse, small figure, executed a courtly bow, ant) said, with a smile; ''Behold me now—a saint! To-day X have reached the figure of ago mightily cherished by the wise Hindu. It i» called by him 'chaurasi,' which means 'the eightv-four-er'—being the sacred number obtained by multiplying tho' signs of the Zodiac by the number pf ' the planets. When a man is chaurasi—such as I—be is totally exempt frqm all punishments, celestial or mundane. He may become as big a scamp as he ; pleases; and I feel, as the true chaurasi of Killing, that I should very much like to bo a scamp, for a change. My spirit is willing, but my legs arc weak! lam chaurasi—but I'm eighty-four! So I suppose I shall liavc to go on in the old way, but with new and strange" -things to meditate over.' , "The -war lias overwhelmed me and mine. Twenty-nine members of my family are in it, and four bearing my 1 name have already paid tho great sacrifice. One, truly, lias so far borne a charmed life. He is my nephew—General Birdwood, the bright star of the Anzaes. Thus, you can understand my close iptimacy with the great tumult which has engulfed us all. It ha«> strengthened me, I believe, for another . year's watching and waiting—always hoping and always optimistic. I shall see the end, I am convinced. Come and se»> me again on my birthday next year, and we'll crack a bottle for remem, brance!"