NIBBLES FROM THE REVIEWS.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 13, 11 June 1920, Page 11

NIBBLES FROM THE REVIEWS.

THAT WILL BE NICE. Under the Covenant of the League o i Nations we can mind other people's business. — President Wilson in the "National Review." ENGLAND'S GREATNESS. England contains more of the gouty, more of the rheumatic, and more of the dyspeptic to the square mile than any other country in Europe. — E. Brown in the "National Review." TOO EASY. Popular dislike of prophets has taught the averaige newspaper writer to b'e profoundly wise after the event. — Stephen Black in the "English Review." THE ARAB'S LIMITATIONS. Tlie Arab is incapable of governing a modern civilised State as it should be go\ erned. and to en trust such a State to him would be a measure of the most callous political cynicism. — Major Lindsay Bashford in the "Fortnightly Review." UNANIMITY. One must always be a little distrustful of the unanimous. In the world of action, to be sure, nnanimity is strength. But in the world of thought, of opinion, of taste, unanimity may be weakness. — A. B. Walkley in the "Cornhill." ALAS, POOR TEACHERS! The Kent Urban District Council recently advertised for an official rat-catcher at a salary of £250 per annum. The Kent Education Committee pays its teachers £240 a year after twenty years' service. And this is why teachers would strike if they dare. — Member of the N.U.T. in the "English Review." VULGARITY. Vulgai'ity in life is one thing, and vul- ! garity, in art is another. Du Mauricr (irew a typically vnlgar person in Sir Gorgius Midas, but his drawings were the reverse of vulgar. A bollet girl may be in real life a very vulgar person, but never in a picture by Degas. Thackeray's snobs were quintessentially vulgar in themselves, but Thackeray's "Snob Papers" ar.e not vulgar literature. The late Dan Leno presented a whole gallery oi' vulgar types, but his art, was distinction ittelf. So with Geor.ge Robey to-day. — A B. WalkLey in the "Gorrihill.'' NEMESIS. Sir Charles Parsons, in his arresting Presidential Address to the British Association, reminded his hearers tliat the British coalfields are not inexhaustible, an 1 ai sorne, pei'haps remote, era may be j worked out. The era is less distant than the great i 'v-entcr, looking at the question -from the scientific side, assumes. It may even be near at hand. Our colHeries rnay not be exhausted, but they w'.'l cease to be worth working when coal can no longer be extracted from them ata profit. Seeihg tliat American coal can already be put down at Cardiff cheaper than Welsh coal, we are obviously not far from that stage.— Sir Sidney Low in the "Fortnightly review." YE KEN JOHN PEEL ! PeeTs hunting was carried on for fiftyfive years .with very little support frorrl outsiders. His pack was distributed amon.gst his friends in the district, many , of whom were regular followers of-the hourids. {n the early part of the season they hunled liares, giving their attention to foxes from Christmas-time onwards, His one and only illness which laid him low, was due to an injury caused by the pommel of his saddle while riding, so he literally w,ent- from the hunting-field to hij grave. As his funeral procession passed the kennels the hounds are said to have set up a lugubrious howilng, which continued till (he mourners were out of hearing, — R. B. Lattimer, in the "Cornhill. ' YPRES. Ypres and its desolation cannot be set dcwti in words. It is destmction made manifest. The few gaunt ruins that remain of the famous Cloth Hall, once the pride and glory of the country, are the measure by which you can eount the cost which Ypres is asked to pay for an imperishable narne.. You have no standards be which you may measure the punishme'nt inflicted upon the town and upon the.. country about B. Of the few shreds and patches that are left to it, none has a;.y resemblance to life.' Everything is distorted, out of shape, out of colour, out of resemblance. The roads- which lea-d to Ypres are not like roads. They ar,e patched with sVepers, and the holes, which break thejfi in pieces, are hastily filled. — Charles Whibley in "Blackwood 's."