The Letters of Annabel Lee

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 51, 6 July 1928, Page 6

The Letters of Annabel Lee

MY dear Elisabeth: With a candour and enthusiasm worthy of England’s "gloomy Dean" himself, the Anglican Primate’ of New Zealand recently had something to say concerning nmianners and morals in this Dominion. True the words, and scathing the indictment that devastated smug self-satisfac-tion of many mediocrities. ‘To see ourselves as ithers see us" is an edifying and salutary experience, designed for our chastening; and the outspoken Archbishop delivered himself of caustic criticism and plain words of rebuke, thereby winning admiration from those who admire sineerity in high places. Apart from moral aspects, tiresome indeed are those parochial people who flaunt wearisome ego to the ennui of their world; being convinced that they. walk better, talk better, know better than anyone else, and scorn all interests outside their own narrow horizon, their trumpery cabbagepatch, and, protagonists of mediocrity flourish a foolish banner of criticism on all they cannot understand or appreciate, HE pursuit of the daily crust, that poetic and elusivé loaf of bread and jug of wine, encourages the adoption of unattractive callings. This morning, digging in my garden, which at the moment is anything but "a. lovesome plot, God wot ?’ I found myself accosted by a confident stranger, with calculating eye and ingratiating smile. "How is your breadwinner ?" he asked intimately. "Is his health good? Wouldn’t he like to insure his life?" I made a dissenting murmur, "But surely hubby can’t be left uninsured !" in tones of horror. Unwillingly I disclaimed matrimonial implication. "A widow now, that’s what you are ! in triumphant assertion. "Not even a grass one," came an aside from Joan, whose timely appearance saved me VEUEDESUUELESEDSEEDERERREEESEORERRODSEED GPEERERDERTS |

from depressing chat concerning thriftless and unfinancial old looming in the offing. LAD in kasha of wine-red hue and excellent cut, with cunning inerustations of stone-colour, Joan was radiant, having secured the garment with much dexterity and little cash, together with small hat that matched ‘exactly, at the cheapest of cheap ‘sales in the south. Full of chat was she, telling of a student friend, who, after winning a scholarship, is now at Columbia University, and having met joint authors of the book on Economics ably criticised by him, has been entertained by one of them, who incidentally is one of the Four Million. Five hundred miles. from New York is the country cottage of this millionaire, and in its luxury of detail, its palatial bathrooms, warmed by blazing log fires, opening out of each bedroom, has proved a revelation of delight, a fairytale of ease and beauty, to the brilliant, simple student from New Zealand, accustomed to our sometimes plain living and occasional high thinking. LSO, Joan described to me dignified tablet in the Dunedin Angli‘can Cathedral, to the memory of Bishop Nevill, and placed below that Nicholl window with its blowing poppies that some of us remember in old St. Paul’s. Of grey granite, this tablet, its austere lettering fianked by alabaster angels of graceful beauty. "Never before have I met an angel in alabaster," finished Joan fiippantly," although I know several in plus fours |"? . x Sat om " age show in London. Blooming in beauty side by side in waxen perfection, are fascinating figures of the present and the past, priests and politicians jostling one another, mondaine and murderer, kings, queens and knaves, the whole pack, in fact, with a few . NE is glad to hear of the resuscitation of Madame Tussaud’s great

jokers thrown in. Benign and beneficent beams Mr. Baldwin, fair and fat is Mr. Churchill; and ovr own dear King and Queen smile discreetly upon their flock, Mary the Goce in elegant pearl-encrusted gown of that long lerf%th she loyally loves. Attached are kinema and restaurant, where may. be obtained a sustaining diet vastly acceptable to a spirit surfeited with supping en hor ror upon horror of opium den and midnight marauder. ORSAKING complexity for saner conception and execution, it is interesting to hear of the success of a gifted girleen, Miss Joan ManningSanders, who, without aid or instruction, has won distinction by her pieture of three strongly-drawn fishermen, which is hung on the line of this year’s Academy. To have discovered and achieved so much in fourteen short years of life is a remarkable feat, even in this age when youth is youth indeed, and must be served, WHICH reminds one of a decade ago | when glad girls were snubbed on principle. Mr, Heughan tells a story of the time when, a diffident boy, he approached his father with a request to have his voice cultivated. "Sing ! Who do you suppose would: ever pay gocd money to hear you sing ?" asked "the quelling Scottish parent of the quiet youth with the glorious voice, and the makings of an artist. It was the way in those days. They meant no harm. I remember a curly-haired maiden, with no vanity at all, but turning to life as a flower to the sun. "When I’m married," she said one day, "I’ll have a house in the hills and a garden of forget-me-nots." (It was a sentimental era.) "Marry ! You! Nobody will ever marry you!’ stormed stern relative, turning a scornful eye. And nohody ever did! Your

ANNABEL

LEE