CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12553, 15 July 1901, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

FATAL TRIFLES.

Trifles, as the “St James’s Budget” tells us, have, often hd to the gallows. A man has just been

convicted of murder at Agra by a thumbmark, which shows that criminals must be careful where they put their thumbs. A scrap of paper, a blood stain, a casual word, and' a cigarette butt have proved good and sufficient clues for the Sherlock Holmeses of real life. A boy’s lantern!, solved the mystery of the Muswell FW murder, which seemed for so long as if it must bo added to the list of undiscovered crimes. A juvenile relative of the criminals recognised the lantern, and satisfied’ the police that they were on the right track by pointing out an ingenious arrangement introduced to get more light. An envelope was the clue by which a woman was convicted in a case cl murder, and a sheet of blank paper was instrumental in ..securing the arrest of a wife murderer near Birmingham six years ago. The guilt of a murderer in America was established some years since by a few hairs which were found on the clothing of his victim. Investigation showed that the hairs belonged to the mane of the murderer's horse, which the man was known to have ridden at 'the time and near, the place of the murder. American newspapers are fond of inventing the details of smart captures by the police, but a murder case reported a few years ago in Pennsylvania was remarkable enough without the added details. A miner at Wilke sbarre took in another miner as a lodger.; One day the two descended the pit together, and the lodger peached the top alone. He appeared frantic, and reported that* his mate had been killed by firedamp. The story was believed, the body recovered, and the funeral arranged. Before the departure from the house, however, the undertaker chanced to see the heartbroken widow joyously chatting and laughing with the lodger. The smile was fatal. It aroused suspicion, the funeral was postponed, and it transpired that the husband had been the-victim of a murder plot, for which the. culprit was executed on his own confession. Mr Guy Boothby makes a cigarette butt the clue, in his latest mystery, and the case can be paralleled in genuine records in crime, for half a cigarette led to the conviction of a murderer in France a year or two ago.

THE REFORMED PUBLICHOUSE.

State control of the liquor traffic, which in this country seems as distasteful to the prohibitionists as it

is to the brewers and publicans, is finding numbers, of earnest and influential advocates in Great Britain. Unfortunately, the Imperial Government is too closely allied with the traffic itself to think of disturbing the present system, and Lord Salisbury has more than once grown quite eloquent in his defence of the sacred right of the citizen, to get drunk at his pleasure; but the Bishop of Chester, after years. of thankless labour, has succeeded in placing his “People’s Refreshment Houses Association” on a thoroughly sound footing. Last year, with only seven small inns under its control, and less than £SOOO engaged in the business, it earned a net trading profit of £llO7. Encouraged by this result, Earl Grey has come to the assistance of the Bishop with a wider scheme,, and proposes to reform the publichouses on lines which will combine business principles with philanthropic motives. Hb intends to inaugurate Publichouse Trust Companies/for London and the Provinces, the object of the companies being to acquire every new license created, and »s many bid ones as possible, in order to administer the houses for the benefit of the community and not for private profit. The Earl is, in fact,, trying to transplant the Bergen system to British soil. In the houses acquired by the companies the manager will receive no commission on the sale of intoxicants, but will receive a commission, in addition to a fixed salary, on the sale of food and non-intoxicants. The publichouses will be refreshment places rather than drinking bars. The surplus profits, after allowing a sufficient sum for reserve and interest, not exceeding 5 per cent on the invested capital, will be administered by carefully-selected trustees, for the benefit of the community. Com-

panics have been formed in various part# of the Kingdom, and some of them are already in actual operation. Glasgow has started one, with a capital of £25,000, and with men like Sir John Maxwell, Sir James King, Mr G. A. Baird and Dr John IngHs as trustees. Northumberland leads in England, with a Northern Publichouse Trust Company, with £IOO,OOO of share,, capital, and Earl Grey, the Duke of Northumberland, Sir Edward Grey, the Mayor of Newcastle and the President of the Northumberland Miners’ Association among the members of the Council. There are, also, companies, under strong management, in' Hampshire, Essex, Durham, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Notts and Surrey, aa well as in London, Leeds,, Edinburgh and Paisley. Unfortunately, as we have just said, the Government will give the reformers no assistance in their publicspirited efforts, but the success, of their experiment is. practically assured, and it ought to encourage the friends of State control in this country to continue their agitation for the extinction of the proprietary interest in the traffic.

CHILDWORSHIP.

Child-worship is one Of the few unbroken idols which a world grown old has left to us. The cynic has yet to

arise who shall dare to attack the cult of childhood, and should he ever come, his speedy rout is certain, for it will suffice to confront him with the children, and if but one of them should look at him his logic will be loosed and his mental stature fall from him as the body of She shrank to nothingness in the fire of life. “ The Speaker,” returning to a theme which has fascinated poet and philosopher alike, expresses only what has been expressed a hundred times before, when it writes : “The fascination of children lies in this; that with each of them all things are remade, and the universe is put again upon trial. , . . if we could destroy custom at a blow and see the stars as a child sees them, we should need no other Apocalypse.” “ I 'doubt,” further writes the latest childcritic, “ if anyone of tenderness or imagination can see the hand of a child and not bo a little frightened at it. It is awful .no think of the essential human energy moving so tiny a thing. . . We feel the samo kind of obligation to these creatures that a deity might feel if he had created something that he ( could not understand. Their top-heavy dignity is more touching than any humility. Their solemnity gives as more hope for all things than, a thousand carnivals of optimism. Their large and lustrous eyas seem to hold all th& stars in*- astonishment.” This is but a return to the , eternal beginning of things, and our contemporary breaks no new ground until it suggests that we should probably come nearer to the true conception of things if we treated all grown-up persons with the same dark affection and dazed respect which we accord to infantile limitations. A child has a.difficulty in achieving the miracle of speech, consequently, we • find his blunders almost as, marvellous as his accuracy. An adoption of the same attitude towards Premiers and Chancellors of the Exchequer, letting them feel that we realised that they would “ understand when they were older,” would be a wise and tolerant temper, while still a crushing criticism of the weakness of humanity. We forgive children with the same kind of blasphemous gentleness with which Omar Khayyam forgave the Omnipotent. Why not treat our parsons and our politicians, who, after all, are but children of the children, with the same emphatic tolerance?