The Letters of Annabel Lee

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 47, 8 June 1928, Page 6

The Letters of Annabel Lee

ied dear Elisabeth: Many people are sad because of the death of an eminent jurist, who won so notable a place in the world of affairs and in the affection of his fellow-men. With an extensive knowledge of humanity in all its varying aspects, a catholicity of taste in literature, tolerant balanced vision coupled with an able and gracious personality, Sir John Hosking held the love of his wide coterie of friends and the regard and confidence of the wider community beyond. NOTHER great figure in the life and literature of the British Colonies, thovgh not of this Dominion, also has lately passed from this world to the next. The eldest of the witty and well-known Fitchett trio of brothers, each extremely brilliant in words and works, he was an inspiring’ preacher in his own Australia, a scintillating litterateur, and as scholar and thinker won high honour and recognition in many fields of achievement. We, so far from the Homeland, may well take pride in prestige conferred on these islands by such names on the roll of our country. EW and short the Moiseiwitsch concerts, but very pleasant the season, when it was possible to drop in at the Town Hall at the tired end of the skirling day, and for a space steep our souls in music that made one dream dreams, through the spell cast by this pianist, whose aloof personality is strangely at veriance with interpretative fire. Many ancient classics he gave us, something also of modern composers: "The Lit- ; tle White Donkey," a tripping, champ- | ing, galloping measure being much to the conglomerate taste, and the | challenging, clanging "Rush Hour at Tong-Kong" very interesting, and approximating in sound to those excit- | ing blobs of paint so characteristic of the younger school of painting. We | were cventually lulled by "Liche- | — PREDTAREAEUERREGEQERRBECABBEGSRRCERRRAD RORGREGTERERE

straume" into acquiescence with the waywardness of the world, and next morning attacked life with fresh zest like giants refreshed "in quite a nice way,’ as one dear acquaintance explanatorily refers to her son’s uncanny appeal to all sorts and conditions of females. HE Return of the Beloved to a world from which he has been snatched by death holds signal fascination to many minds, as witnessed by held breath and clasped hands at silly seances, pathetic and futile for the most part, where paltry, demisemi revelations of doubifully spiritual origin are listened to by the faithful. ‘Thunder in the Air," a play now running in London, treats of the come-back of a young soldier who perished in the Great War, after being disrated for misdemeanour, and its reactions upon those who held him dear. To his mother he seemed again the joyous laddie of childish days; to the girl he jilted, bitter after-days forgotten, he was again careless, debonair lover and loved; to the parson whose wife he seduced, a waster and a rotter; and his father found him an unshriven shatterer of high hopes and disgrace to his name. All human and interesting; but Barrie has set so high a standard that others are apt to fall short; uniting with his sure and tender touch en intuitive clarity 6f vision that brin‘:s an element of wistful hope to these who send long thourhts to the Unknown Land of heart’s desire. SUBMERGED in the doubt and distraction of moving in to new quarters, immersed in domesticity have I been for the past seven days, contriving to turn cheap and nasty rooms into surroundings that attain a similitude of atmosphere and colour. Some jugglery is required for this, but after obduracy of gas cooker to do more than feebly flicker, refusal of electric light to do even as

much, leaving myself in darkness for one long night, gruesome discovery of a ceiling that leaks and disreputable cat with penchant for brightest and best cushions, at this long last I begin to see daylight. Literally, for I find myself for the moment in a room with a view, and can, without effort, watch the sun rise daily, which is a pleasant beginning of the day. Of what a blank ugliness, by the way, are houses which offer reluctant hospitality, for a consideration, to hundreds of women workers. What a halo would sparkle around the head of some wise man who invested superfluous shekels in skyseraper’ service flat. This kindly pillar of prosperity, I am convinced, would get good interest on his outlay; besides being bepedestalled and enshrincd by plucky pilgrims who meantime laboriously seek elusive bourne. Miss Helen Gardner, graceful anil gifted entertainer, returns to our shores, and once more we welcome her vivacious talent, which, it is interesting to hear, was appreciated by so good and great a judge as the British Broadeasting Association. Recently I met her with a Dunedin amateur tragedienne, and felt hopeful that soon we shall have some more of those delightful shows formerly organised for the artistic publi¢ by these two clever New Zealand girls, Both have travelled much in far fields of the wider world, and obviously found much to say to each other. It would seem that, however far one goes roaming in the gloaming, ’tis the light of home that calls at last, a place in the sun that shines on the old trail, and The men that were boys when I was a boy Yalking along with me, Your

ANNABEL

LEE