THE POWER OF PERSONALITY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10034, 3 May 1910, Page 4

THE POWER OF PERSONALITY.

A striking illustration of the power of personality was witnessed in the German Reichstag the other day. The House was discussing, in a spirit of weary apathy, the vote for the Chancellor's Department, and the actual question momentarily under debate was the interval between the vacation of a seat and a by-election. Dr von tfethmann-Hollwug and two or three State Secretaries mechanically signed social papers. A couple of dozen members wrote lefccers or discussed the weather and their health with sympathising colleagues. Others dozed in their seats, lulled by the monotonous hum of conversation which filled the Chamber. No one seemed to be paying any attention to what was being ssid from the tribune. Suddenly there was a hush. The President had called out the name of Herr Bebel, and the veteran Socialist leader had risen in his place. Only tre other day he celebrated his 70th biaih3ay*. Age and a

heart affection have begun to tell j I upon him. His figure is bowed and a \', long illness bas given his features j an expression of suffering. Undex ] compulsion of doctor's orders he bad made no speech for many months past; his intervention in a debate was always an event, and now it has become a rare one. Word that he was on his feet flashed through the lobbies and smoking-rooms in an instant. All the doors were opened, and members trooped in by scores, walking on tiptoe so as to catch every word of the | old agitator. The Ministers laid down their pens and listened with clcse attention. The Government seats were filled to overflowing. Apart irom the words of the speaker, not a sound was to be heard. Indifference and ennui bad been changed in a moment into concentrated interest.

And yet the subject was a dry one, and even Herr Bebel bad nothing very exciting to say about it. He only spoke for a few minutes, and as

soon as he had finished the house

gradually relapsed into its previous apatuetic state.