CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12557, 19 July 1901, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

The Rev Dr Washington : Gladden discourses in the “North American Review”' . upon a somewhat threadbare subject when ho re-

the ouxnoon or CHRISTIANITY.

turns to a consideration cf " What are the prospects for the Christian religion?” His answer is based upon a presentation of numerical increases in the numbers qf nominal Christians, and in, therefore, not unnaturally the cheerfully optimistic one that Christianity never bad more hopeful prospects than at the end of the nineteenth century.' He estimates that at the end of the first century there were 5,000,000 nominal Christians in the world, at the end of the fifteenth 100,000,000, at the end of the eighteenth 200,000,000, and at the end of the nineteenth 500,000,000. This, Dr Gladden asserts, is proof conclusive that the last century added to the adherents of Christianity, almost three times as many Christians as were added during the first fifteen centuries. Qf the five hundred millions of Christians 98,000,000 adhere to the Greek Church, 143,000,000 to the Protestant Church, and 230,000,000 to the Roman Catholic Church. In the year 1500 the Roman Catholics ruled over 80,000,000 people, in 1891 over 242,000,000; whilst the Protestants claimed sway over 32,000,000 and 520,000,000 respectively. The figures are instructive as evidencing, perhaps fairly, the proportionate growth of the two great divisions of the Christian Church, but the vital and leavening power of a religion surely depends more upon the spiritual growth of its adherents than upon brute numbers. It seems to be one of those confusions of effect and cause to assign the greatest political power to the sect which is numerically strongest. A case in point lies in the very figures quoted-, for despite the abnormal increase in the number of thpse embracing Protestantism of later years it is questionable whether it still retains with the same live force all the qualities which made it such* a tremendous force in the eta of the Reformation. Numbers are useful in large quantities to a candidate at an election, but as an ethical argument they are fearful prevaricators. 1

> Some interesting reminiscences of the early days of newspapers have been ■collected- and published under

THE POWER OF THE PRESS,

.: tie title, “ The Progress o£ British Newspapers in the Nineteenth Century.” Ip 1828, before tie repeal of the stamp duty, the “Times” had to spend about £I3OO a week on newspaper stamps, advertisement tax and paper duty, but those were days in which the value, andl importance of the daily newspaper were not appreciated, either by people or Governments. Yet, in 1810, Sheridan delivered his famous dictum on the power of a free Press:— , Give me but the 'liberty of the Press, and I will give the Minister a venal House of Peers; I will give him a corrupt and venal House of Commons; I will give him the full swing of the patronage of office; I will give him all the power that place can confer upon him - to purchase submission. and oter-awe resistance; and yet, armed with the liberty of the Press, I will go forth and meet him undismayed. With that mightier engine I will attack %e mighty fabric he has reared; I will strike down from his height corruption, and lay it beneath the ruins of the abuses it was meant to shelter. Sheridan’s expectations may not have been fully realised, but newspapers have made far more advance than Parliaments and Governments in the century. The electric telegraph, cf course, has revolutionised the Press. One of the “sights of London ” in the early days cf Victoria’s reign was the race of newspaper couriers on Derby Day, bringing from Epsom D’owns the result of the great event. Keen rivalry existed, and the “ finish ” , between representatives of the “ Globe,” the “Sun,” and the “ Life,” as they' urged their horses down Waterloo Road was as exciting to the assembled crowds as the great race itself. Placards were posted outside the offices, and roaring, struggling crowds surgedi up, to the windows, to see the result. Each Journal invariably claimed the honour of having first obtained the news, and the methods of the rivals to forestall one another often displayed more enterprise than •honesty.

ALCOHOLIC EUPHEMISMS.

The thirsty humourist very often employs strange terms when calling for hi*

refreshment. A much-tra-velled person, on the road' to the West Coast, 'once asked an American) journalist to “name his poison,” and hazarded the conjecture that such, was the New York phrase for functions of the kind. He was astonished to receive a twangy rebuke to the effect that “in N’York no such l wud was used, any decent follow asked) for whisky.” It is evident, from certain cowboy -cum-poker- ram-revolver tales now enjoying on American vogue, that the colonial humourist and the New York pressman are utterly unacquainted with even the first principles of the unlicensed variety of ' methods of referring to strong drink prevailing in the wild and woolly’.West, The origin of the terms is a" vast ’jqystery, aad

suggests same spontaneous irresponsibility emanating from the land of go-as-you-please. Tho Old Cattleman in “Wolfville” measures tie hours an the method, outlined in such a frequently -occurring -sentence as "It was adjacent to fourth drink rime in the morning.” It is but natural that such an institution should have some scope for description. a As soon as we-alls cofrals our forty drops ’’ is synonymous ■with a remark that “ we-alls tucks our inspiration onder our, belts.” “Four fingers of carnation)” “an adequate sozodtat ” and, similar statements bristle as replies to the invitatsoß of Cherokee Hall or Hoc Peels when he “ allows the drinks is on him,” and ordera the company to “ discourse on the nature of their morning dew.” “ Pink lemonade,” “red liquor” and “hair-restorer” are little efforts not very popular, and such as the Old Cattleman would “deem some jo.case, not to say meagre;” “The sinews of war” and “moss-paint” are obviously carefully thought out appellations, and 1 lack the spontaneity and irrelevance of the other titles. One is struck by the amazing versatility of the Cattleman’s imagination in describing the drinks he consumes, and by the extraordinary readiness with which the “bar-keep” distinguishes 'between the poetic flights of hia customers’ fancy. America, in drinks, as in most things, is “ shore startlin’,” in Doc Peels’ own words.