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or false. Exercise is of the highest importance, and rash mortals who have defied the laws of nature by the acquisition of purely sedentary habits have learnt when it is too late that the penalty must be paid. Taste and pocket, alone or combined, will prescribe the particular form of physical exertion, and shooting, or tennis, or pedalling on the "free wheel," and various other games, will form an agreeable and healthful distraction. There is at present a boom in golf, and golf jaw has taken its place in the list of diseases caused by excessive muscular activity. I envy those who have fallen a victim to its fascination, for to me it is the most irritating, and even asperating, of all sports, and I was very glad when 'The Lancet' uttered some words of much-needed warning to over-tired and worried people, who tire and worry themselves a great deal more in vain efforts to acquire even a moderate proficiency in a game of such elusive and uncertain quality that even the hero of a hundred fights will madden himself and disappoint his backers by some unexpectedly feeble performance on the hundred and first.

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Nothing interferes so much with Parliamentary success as too much addiction to social life. By this I don't mean to say that a man should be an ascetic, and cut himself adrift from rubbing up against his fellow-beings who don't happen to be professional politicians, for it is a good thing to be

seen about, to retain one's friends, and above all, to follow Dr Johnson's advice and keep one's friendships in constant repair. But to any one who wishes to make a real career in politics, it is most important to be in constant attendance in the House, to seize opportunities which sometimes unexpectedly arise of taking part in its proceedings, to impress those in authority that you are a serious worker and anxious to help in various little ways that will soon become obvious. It often happens that when a member is away dining or amusing himself outside he misses an important speech or a critical division, or an amendment he wishes to propose on a Bill in Committee is passed over in his absence. And although eating good food in cheerful society is hygienically beneficial, it may be overdone, and my shrewd old friend George Anderson, member for Glasgow, used to say, "It is not over-work, but dining-out, that kills men."

Above all, don't acquire a platform reputation, for you will find it a most dangerous possession. You will be continually pestered by Whips and fussy wire - pullers to go on the stump at great expense, anxiety, wear and tear, and little compensating advantage to yourself. Gratitude is not kept largely in stock nowadays, and the arid triumphs of provincial meetings will not console you for leaving your comfortable quarters at home, partaking of heavy teetotal menus in Nonconformist houses,

and finding perhaps when you arrive that you are merely one of many others who are to speak, and have to come in at the tail end of the meeting when better known and more forcible people have skimmed the cream off the subject and the attention of the audience. This is my last hint. If you have been a busy man and accustomed to do things for yourself, you will be much depressed at first by the extreme difficulty of catching the eye of the presiding authority (a polite fiction in these days) and getting the innings you think you have a right to expect. The real remedy for this is to throw yourself heartily into committee work. The Committee of Selection, to which I formerly belonged, takes careful note of the qualification of members for that class of business, and especially of their I wish to do it. And what between private bill committees and select committees, and, if you are lucky, the exceptional privilege of a Royal Commission, you can have your time filled up in a most interesting and useful way, and in the fulness of time you will eventually attain to what I consider the most honourable and distinguished position to which a private member can aspire outside the Treasury bench, the right to sit in the chair of one of those important tribunals whose decisions invariably command the respect and concurrence of the public outside.

We may now consider, What

amount of compensation does the member get for all his trouble, worry, and expense? What are the real and tangible advantages of his position? Of course, we all know that the assumption of the magic letters confers no precedence, and the conventional market value of the title is much depreciated by the inferior social position of many who now hold it.

The only tangible advantage we obtain is to have the traffic stopped for us when we cross the road at the corner of Parliament Street, and when the pushful motor and the lordly barouche have to pull up short in obedience to the policeman's imperious upheld hand, the proud member steps proudly across at a pace perhaps unduly retarded to make the most of his opportunity. But the indirect benefits are considerable. When we travel abroad we receive notice and attention, and although "Padget, M.P.," has somewhat discounted our prestige in India, the natives at all events still believe in us and show us deference and respect. In foreign hotels, when we scan the visitors list, we always wish to pick out the members; and at any public function, at home or abroad, they are invariably treated with exceptional consideration. Then if you wish to study anything special, or to follow up any line of social investigation, your name is a passport everywhere, and officials of museums and libraries and hospitals and work

1 'Departmental Ditties,' by R. Kipling.

houses vie with one another in their efforts to give you information and to help you along. And surely it is no mean honour to feel that you are really an active citizen of a great empire, and helping to build up and consolidate its position and to make its history. And whilst it is given to some to design the edifice and to others the task of carrying out the architect's plans, we of the rank and file, who may only be the simple hodman patiently bearing the bricks which are placed in position by more prominent craftsmen, may console ourselves with the reflection that without us the work could not be done at all, and like the organ - blower in the famous story, it is our privilege to use the word "we in connection with it.

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We have now considered how to get into the House, and what to do when you are there, and the next question is, How to get out of it? At first sight nothing would seem more simple. Resign and retire into private life. Not a bit of it. By some strange and unexplained anomaly you are not allowed to do that, but you must go through the hollow farce of accepting an office of profit under the Crown, which is well known to invalidate a seat, a purely bogus qualification or disqualification called the stewardship of the Chiltern

Hundreds, a payment of a few shillings which used to be given to the bailiffs appointed to protect the inhabitants of the Chiltern Hills from the depredations of wolves and robbers infesting the adjoining woods, and which applied for by the retiring member renders him incompetent to continue in Parliament. If he prefers

some other arrangement he may become a Peer or a bankrupt or a lunatic, or may be expelled for misconduct or unseated for bribery. But although some of these methods may be forced upon you, they are not what we should specially select, and the official plan is swift, sure, and effective. During my first session a most unfortunate thing happened, when my poor friend Middleton, worried out of his senses by the anxieties and exactions of his seat, lost them entirely and was placed in a lunatic asylum, in which, unhappily, he acquired fixity of tenure; and as he could not personally apply for the Chiltern Hundreds, and as there was no other means for enabling him to retire, the great constituency of Glasgow was disfranchised till his regretted death. Legal steps have now been taken to remedy such serious inconvenience.

And so our member is now out of the House, and the curtain rings down on the last act of his Parliamentary career. Requiescat in pace !

THE SISTER OF GOLF.

BY ANDREW LANG.

PASSING of late, like Thack- lève is in fact an iron spoon, eray, through

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a dingy court Place of Israelite resort,"

I caught a glimpse of a pretty piece of colour within the window of a frame - maker's shop. I turned to look at the picture and fell in love with the subject, a very young damsel,-her years may have been ten or twelve,-a blonde blue-eyed child with pearls in her hair, wearing a necklet of pearls, and attired in in the the simple dress of 1640 1650. The portrait is a half-length. Pleasing as is the girl and agreeable as is the scheme of colour, what most attracted me was an implement carried by the little lady. At the end of a slim wooden shaft was something like a long, deep, narrow, square - tipped iron spoon !

How many people must have passed and looked at the picture without guessing the name and nature of the implement. If I am right (the objections will be stated later), the thing is la lève, "the lofter" or "lofting iron," used in the old French game, le jeu de mail, our pall-mall. In one form of jeu de mail they did not putt the ball into the hole in the green, as at golf, but lofted it with the iron-headed lève or spoon through the passe, an archet or hoop of iron. The

with the head fastened straight in continuation of the line of the shaft, but how the stroke of passe, our holing out, was executed is a puzzle.

After admiring the picture I entered the shop, and found that the portrait of the child was signed F. Archiard, d'après Flinck, Now Flinck (born at Clèves, 1615, died 1660) was a pupil of Rembrandt and an esteemed painter of portraits, while in other lines of art he bears a good reputation. This portrait of his is in the Louvre, and, as photographed, precisely resembles Archiard's excellent copy.

It may seem odd that Flinck put an iron lofter into the hands of such a very young girl, but in 1601 an earlier Flemish artist dignified a girl of eight years old with a predecessor of the latest patent in golfing lofting irons, so contrived that it may be used with either the right or the left hand. That this club was in fashion at the date is proved by a woodcut in which a sturdy Fleming is using it in golf on the ice, where instead of putting at a hole, they putt at an erect conical stone, the pierre de touche of the jeu de mail

as it is played at Montpelier, in Southern France.

The little lady with her necklet of pearls and her emerald jewel became my

property at a very moderate

ransom.

Now we may explain as far as we can the nature of the gane in which, two hundred and sixty years ago, she had been taking part. In most respects it is surprisingly like golf. I take the account of it from the first volume of 'La Plus Nouvelle Académie Universelle des Jeux' (Amsterdam, 1752). The Dutch editor has lifted his materials from an older book, 'Le Jeu de Mail' of Lauthier (Paris 1717). I have seen but one copy of this rare little volume. Mr Quaritch won it from me long ago at a sale by auction, and my friend, the late Mr H. S. C. Everard, afterwards bought it from Mr Quaritch. It is admirably bound in red morocco, in the style of Padeloup. Mr Everard (whose loss to golf and the history of the game, as well as to the friends who admired his wide and curious reading, ancient and modern, and his manly and amiable character, is irreparable) was engaged on a translation of Lauthier's volume. He had mastered many difficulties, but his task, like his translation of 'Quintus Smyrnæus,' remains a fragment.1

As for Lauthier himself, the researches of the Marquis d'Eguilles, who retains the friendship for Scotland of his ancestor, the French military attaché to Prince Charles in 1745, have discovered that he held a small place in the Court of Louis XV.

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enthusiasts "It is the

Lauthier praises the jeu de mail exactly as now praise golf. most pleasant and healthy of games; it is not violent; at jeu de mail you can play, talk, and walk in good company," as Madame de Sévigné writes to M. de Grignan that she had just been doing on June 13, 1685. The true golfer, however, does not now talk as he plays: in solemn silence all pursue the migratory ball. Jeu de mail, played in fine weather, cures or prevents rheumatism," says my author, and is suited to all ages from childhood to old age: mere swiping is not the only object, though the perfect player is he who drives sure and far. As for the attitude, you should imitate the best players, stand easily, neither too near your ball nor too far from it; the knees neither slack nor rigid ; the body not erect, yet not too much bowed, and you must drive with a swing, turning the body and head from the waist, "but always keep your eye on the ball." Driving in this way, your club makes a wide circle. "Slow back!" The wrists must be thrown into the stroke; the pose of the body, arms, and legs must not be disturbed, so as to preserve the harmony of action, and the adjustment taken at the first glance in relation to the ball. This seems very good advice for the golfer, who has to resist the constant tendency to alter the adjustment of his body,

1 Mr Everard wrote 'A History of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club' (Blackwood), 1907.

VOL. CLXXXVI.—NO. MCXXVIII.

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