Why Gird at Your Own Times?

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17973, 19 March 1930, Page 14

Why Gird at Your Own Times?

An interesting address by Mr Harold • Bellman, delivered at tho Central Hall, Westminster, on “The Good Old Days,” is worth reprinting: — “Wo all know,” said Mr Bellman, “the man who constantly be-

moans the passing of the good old days. Woll, what about those good old days? Were they really better than these? Do we inquire wisely concerning them or have we not taken rather too much for granted? There is another tag which is used almost as much as 'The good old days’ ‘Distance lends enchantment to the view.’ The two need to bo taken together. "When we look back upon the vista of our own years it is not always easy to see events in their true perspective. Already our younger days have become slightly legendary and, wreathed about in the mists of the past, are clothing themselves with a romance they never really possessed. Sentiment has a curious way of decorating many recollections with a totally undeserved halo; old scenes pull at our heart-strings, old voices awaken distant echoes, old tunes softly vibrate tho chords of memory. ‘Time consecrates,’ as Coleridge says, ‘and what is grey with age becomes religion.’ "Old books, old songs, and old friends delight us. Ido not know what your experience is, but I submit that one reason why so many men spend much of their leisure in the garden is because it is the one place they can wear their most disreputable garments without fear of challenge. "Much as we may plead guilty to a love of old friends, old scenes, old books, old clothes, there is still a very considerable number of us who for some reason or other reserve a special affection for the legendary good old days. It is not long after we become parents that we drop a frequent hint to our young hopefuls that things have gone from bad to worse since we were boys, but from the other side of the hearth our fathers regard us in turn with patriarchal patronage, as if our good old days could ever hold a candle to theirs, forsoothl "They were the days, they told ns, of growlers and ginghams, of antimacassars and aspidistras, when a man might cut a great figure wdth his flowered waistcoat and a prodigious display of whisker, and ladies knew how to "faint on the slightest provocation. In those good old days women did not evolve those very extravagant notions about their rights and listened in public instead of talking; when tho ‘Something, in the City’ had golden sovereigns in his pocket, and after writing his business letters in longhand instead of using the new-fangled typewriter, had them copied with a lavish use of water and oil sheet so as to render them well-nigh unintelligible. ‘Those were tho days,’ wo are told, and oven the glories of tho lato Victorian era rolated by our fathers pale into insignificance by comparison with the more spocious reminiscences of our grandfathers. "This is tho circle, vicious and virtuous, which probably induced Oliver Goldsmith to .write: " ‘0 memory! thou fond doeeiver Still importunate and vain.’

"Perhaps it is just as well for our peace of mind that tho mists of antiquity often mercifully blur the starker outlines of those days and soften many crudities which to-day it is pleasant to forget. "There is light and shade probably in every age, but of this epoch in which we are more particularly interested it has to be remembered that shadows lay deep and heavy over the poorer classes, and before we speak lightly of these a ? eood old dava. let

A Pertinent Remindler ®S W©r§© ©ays. „ . «

the mind run back to the conditions then prevailing. John Bright once referred to Parliament as ‘a club of landowners, legislating for landowners,’ and when it is remembered that amongst the first tilings the Government did after peace with Prance in 1815 was to pass the Corn Laws Act and at the same time remove the Income Tax, measures which resulted in appalling hardship and an increase of indirect taxation upon the essential commodities of life, the justice of the great Quaker’s charge becomes apparent.

“I wonder if there is a labourer anywhere who seriously thinks of that age as the good old days. Had he been working then, his pay might have averaged from 8/- to 9/- a week. If he possessed a family and desired to retain his job, ho need not have concerned .himself about a 44-hour week. “I came across a reference a little while ago which lifts the curtain on this page of history and records how the head of one such household had to placo a definite mark on the family loaf before leaving home each morning as a safeguard against the hungry children taking more than their allotted portion. Prevented by those measures from satisfying their hunger, however, the children stole swedes and turnips from the fields and ate them raw. “Are there any vodunteers for a return of the good old days? If there are any young fellows here to-day who are commencing to carve out a career for themselves in a modern office or workshop, I wonder how they would like an experience similar to that which I heard the late Dr. Clifford describe as an instance in his own childhood. When he was about ten years of age it was necossary for him to be awakened at four o’clock each morning to be ready for work in the factory. His 3'ather, coming to call him at this hour, would lift the delicato lad out of a warm bed and place him on tho cold plaster floor, well away from the strip of carpet at tho side of tho bed literally a rude awakening. "There is on record a somewhat satirical picture of pious women attending demonstrations over slavery and becoming hysterical over the description of tho sufferings of black men over five thousand miles away, yet insisting for tho sake of their furnituro that their chimneys at home should be swept by white boys who risked death from suffocation every time they were driven into the fluo. It was only the frequent deaths of youngsters engaged in this filthy task becoming bo noticeable that in 1875 the public conscience was aroused and demanded the abolition of the practice. "There are probably those amongst you who have often expressed grave dissatisfaction with modern housing conditions. It has to be admitted that we have adequate cause for severe criticism when wo remember the numbers of our people to-day who live in slumdom, but lot us be fair and confess that some solid progress has been made towards the healthier housing of the nation since theso ‘good old days.’ "The housing conditions of the Victorian era were little to boast about. As recently as 1860 tho drainage of this great Metropolis was based upon legislation and methods dating from the reign of Henry VIII. The sewers that existed emptied themselves into tho Thames at low water, their contents being driven back, of course, at every rise of thq tide!

“Some of the sewers were actually so constructed that to be any use at all the contents would have had to flow uphill; but, bad as this was, the sewers in question were by no means the only drainage evils. In the earlier years of Victoria’s reign there were, for instance, over 270,000 houses in London with cesspools actually underneath them. Such a condition reminds us of the story of the would-be holiday-maker who, noticing an odour at his new lodgings exclaimed to the landlady, ‘lt must be the drains.’ ‘lndeed it isn’t,’ said the landlady, ‘there aren’t any I ’ “In the early years of the Victorian era ono person in every eleven was reckoned to be a pauper, and at least one person in every five hundred was committed for trial on one count or another. It is indeed fortunate that the severe punishments which were common in the good old days of our fatners do not now obtain. “If you need any encWWagement to forsake your allegiance to the good old days, think of the wonderful strides which science, the handmaid of man, has made in these days. Think of the revolutions in the medical and surgical world, of t.ho inventions which have brought health, progress, and prosperity to mankind; the wonder of aeronautics and electrical power, the important discoveries made in physiology, bacteriology, and kindred sciences. “I want to suggest to you that we should forget our slogan of the good old days and adopt as a more appropriate substitute Browning’s phrase, ‘The best is yet to be,’ and labour gloriously in that belief. The progress which has made life more tolerable to-day has been achieved, beyond doubt, because hero and there throughout the centuries men have seen a vision of a new age ‘standing as yet half built against the sky,’ and under the impetus of divine guidance and their idealism have denounced the errors and injustices of their times and have striven, without hope of personal gain, often at the cost of much sacrifice, to make things easier for those who follow after. “This is one of the unchanging lessons of history, and needs reiteration to-day. We still havo to go forward, and we cannot mark time. Even if wo do admit that we are now living in the best of all possible ages, we cannot remain deaf to the call which comes to all men of good feeling and goodwill to enlist with the progressive forces and fight for the future. “ ‘Good Better Best’ is the inspiration of history. The outlook is hopeful. There are problems of great magnitude confronting our generation, but thero are brave hearts and quick brains to grapple with them. Progress judged for a year appears terribly slow, but over the retrospect of a decade it is substantial and impressive.

"Contemplate for a moment all the obstacles that have had to bo surmounted, the selfishness and greed, arrogance and superstition, the vested interests. To-day there is a new spirit of enterprise and fellowship. The nations aro debating peace with an earnestness as never before. Tho thinking man today thinks not imperially but internationally. The old barriers are proving ineffective. A new light is streaming through the chinks. Hands are grasped where fists were clenched. "To us the other nations still look for direction. Let us see to it that tho lead we give shall be for the building up of a better race, tho dawning of a better age, a day when the Father hood of God and the Brotherhood of Man shall be a glorious reality instead of a phrase of meaningless repetition.

" ‘"Who would sit down and sigh for a lost age of gold While the Lord of all ages is here? True hearts will leap up at the trumpet of God, And those who can suffer can dare. Each old age of gold was an iron age too, And the meekest of saints may find stern work to do In tbe day of the Lord at hand-’AA