The Ellesmere Guardian. SATURDAY, DCECMBER 10. 1892 Notes by the Way.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XI, Issue 1104, 10 December 1892, Page 2

The Ellesmere Guardian. SATURDAY, DCECMBER 10. 1892 Notes by the Way.

«. The heavy th ad of the big-bootei con 3t«bli will no longer me heard m the quiet and 6ecludel streets of London. It is not that the metropolitan police are not to bo reduced m numb r or their beats restriceJ But they are to have new boots, so as to noiselessly patrol the streets an J prevent the ever-wakeful lurglar from hearing their former familiar and measured tread. The new boots are to be fitted with soles and heels of indiarubber So far, it seems, the idea has bsen much appreciated, and m those districts most liable to burgiavious visitations which were naturally the districts selected for ascertaining the sense of the public— -the innovation has been welcomed by all concerned. The householders feel that they can re' ire to rest with an additional sense of securi'y, en 1 the police know that they are now on something more like terras of equality with the mpn whose machinations it is their bnainess to defeat. Ak Auck'and father has jnst caused his only son to ba arrested for the theft of £27, whioh th° o'd man had set apart for burial purposes. The thoughtful old gentleo.an had asked his boy io go to the cemetery with him to choose a suitable allotment, and the pair together weufc and tUale a careful selection. Instead of banking the £27, however, the prodigal son went to the theatre an! saw life In Court the old genteman offered to j withdraw the charge if the prodigal would come home early c| nights and occasionally drink a cap of tea with his parents. The feature of the case however, was thp righteous indignation of counsel, who said m the whole course of his professional career, he had never heard such an attempt at compounding a felony. Writing on tbe effect of the half holiday ' Civis' says; — To-day (Wednesday) is the Festival at St Andrew the Apostle* Scotland's patron Saint, though what St Andrew ihe Apostle had to do with Scot'and I hare never Iwen able to learn. Anyhow this is his day, and yet m Dun edin, chief city of the Scotland of the South, the shops are open an 1 doing business. Why is this thus ? Has it been thus m former years ? This, I fancy, must be a stroke of revenge by the Dunedin shopkeeper for the enforced Saturday half^holiday. Our Government of wiseacres have decreed that he shall pay six days' wages for five an a- half days' work, anl six days' rent for fire and ahalf days' use of the premises. He is bound to get even somehow and the sec ularising of St. Andrew's Day is a first attempt m that direction. Understand, I hare no personal aversion to a weekly half-holiday, nor even to receiving six days' pay for five and a half days' work — not m the least. For the matter of that, I give ray cordial approval to the social and economic changes announced by the worthy Jack Cade— a reformer born before the times *vere ripe, who ought to have delayed his coming into the world until he could be made a mem ber of the Ballance Ministry : ' There shall bo m England seven half-penny loaves for a penny : the three hooped pot shall have 10 hoops ; and I will make it felony to drink small beer.' A noble programme 1 Who coal) object to it ? There would be practical difficulties m carrying it out, owing to the ingrained cussedness of things m a world where two and two make only four, and can't be constrained by Act of Parliament, to make five — but refuse to admire it and desire it if you can't. Same frith the Shop Hours' Bill. I give it my moral approval, whilst calmly waiting until it exaßperates everybody whom it was meant to benefit into clamouring for its repeal .