Echoes of the Week.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 23

Echoes of the Week.

BY SCRUTATOR.

A big Bravo (a capital B here Mr Printer pleaae)for the Rererend Mr Ogg,for having the pluck to stand up and say to hia leas broadminded brethren atthePresbyterianAssembly, « Sink your bigotry, recognise well-doing, recognise truly Christian work wherever you find it, although it be that it is the work of another church. I, at least, will be no party to this bigotry-begotton shriek against the Government grant to the Mount Magdala Asylum.’ That is punctually what Mr Ogg said, but he said it in very noble words, words the meaning of which could not bo mistaken. Upon my word I could go up and smack the old gentleman on the back for his pluck, his readiness to put denominational jealousy on one Bide and to protest against the pettifogging * dog in the manger,’ like spirit shown bv the majority. Once again then, ‘ Bravo Mr Ogg 1' I notice that the Reverend Mr Thompson, a shining light, who honours Palmerston North with his presence, said he ‘would bo ashamed to belong to the church if it held such opinions as those expressed by the who had just sat down.’ He then went on to apply the gentlemanly and truly Christian terms of ‘drivel and humbug’ to Mr Ogg's remarks, the remarks of an old and respected member of the Church, who has been almost as many years in the Colony as Mr Thompson has been weeks. Upon the Moderator, true to his name, calling upon Mr Ihompson to uso more moderate languago, the Palmerstonian substituted the expression,’ the very peculiar and antiquated views.’ Now 1 Scrutator ’ is neither a Roman Catbolicnoryeta Presbyterian,but he has been taught by a book which should be revered by all that one of the greatest of things Christian is charity, and taking charity for his text he would here treat the Rev. Thompson, and those who share the narrow-minded views held by him to a short lay sermon. The Mount Magdala people have instituted and carried out successfully one of the noblest of Christian mission!. No one has dared to say a word against the way the work they have done, no one dare say that such work is not enjoined upon all Christian people by the Gospel, the Gospel of Him who himself practically evinoed his sympathy with wretched fallen womankind. The work needs money to carry it on. The money nsc»Bsary to start the institution is found by a certain church, the money whioh still carries it on is round by that church, but the work is costly, and the financial strain is very great. The Government grant £SOO, £SOO of money contributed'to the State coffers by the people of the Colony, people belonging to all and not one denomination. Then the protests come in, not of course openly avowed as being dictated by a jealousy of the church which started the work, but still made openly and with a great show of indignation. Here just let the question be asked, and it is the all important question: la the expenditure of this £SOO a judicious investment by the State ? To this I would give a loud and decided affirmative. If the State is relieved o'f some of the heavy expense constantly entailed upon it by the presence in our large cities of the degraded class from whom the poor Magdalenes of Mount Magdala are drawn, police expenses, hospital expenses are in part saved, which is no small item. But how about the saving of the State in another and still more Important Way ? Rescuing these poor creatures means the removal—alas, only partial, for the sin of one’s cities is still stupendous and horribly open—from our streets of a plague and an eyesore to all decent people ; it means the removal from our midst of a source of body and soul destruction for our young men; it means a lessening of the perils and pitfalls for our young women, for it is a horrible and well proved fact that the fallen sisterhood, the elder of them more particularly, isek recruits for the shameful army of sin wherever and whenever they can find them, and amongst the old and frivolus young and sex recruits can, alaß, only too easily be found. Surely then it is a good thing for the Stale that Mount Magdala exists, that every now and then a fallen creature is resoued from that human sink of iniquity into which she has drifted, and into which she may tempt others to drift. Should there then be any wretched quibbling over the ‘ thin end of the wedge,’ any ory denomination alone. Out upon such narrow-minded opposition to a really noble institution receiving a Bop from the State, for whose moral and social benefit it is doing such excellent work. If the other denominations could not, would not, start such a work, why should they stand in the way and try to prevent others doing it, and howl and rage against the Government for helping those who are doing that work. There was a great deal too much 1 Church' and too little real Christianity in this ludicrously solemn‘protest ’ of the Assembly, and it is this excess of Church and this minimum of Christianity whioh are the chief faults of half the religious denominations in the Colony. Where, does the Christianity come in, when a Christian Church protests against the government of a so called Christian land assisting Christian Churches in carrying out what cannot be denied is a truly Christian work. As a matter of fact the true Christian protest was that of Mr Ogg against the un Christian conduct of the majority. Mr Thompson’s remarks about * drivel and humbug ’ were extrembly discourteous, and quite out of touch with the spirit whioh ought to, but evidently does not always animate a meeting of Cbfistian gentlemen. He considers Mr Ogg bolds ‘ peculiar and antiquated views.’ As I have proved Above in a manner whioh should

be fairly conclusive to most sensible minded poople that these same ‘peculiar and antiquated views ’ are based upon true Christianity, a generous appreciation of the good work done by another denomination, and a genuine solrit of charity and tolerance, It would be well, I think, if the Palmerston reverend were to hold views of the some nature, instead of being possessed, as he has so unfortunately shown himself to be possessed, of a narrow minded, uncharitable and unChrktianlike spirit, whioh, objectionable in anyone, is doubly so fn a minister of the Gospel, However, Mr Ogg cares little, I should imagine, for the opinions, good, bid or iudifferent, which may be held about him by such a pitifully small souled creature as this Palmerston parson has proved himself to be. I can quite sympathise with much of the earnestness shown by the members of the Prohibition League who met tlio other day. The Drink Demon is a remarkably tough kind of fiend and it requires a great deal of moral strength and pluck to tackle him successfully. I must confess, however, that I most heartily trust that the attempt which it is now proposed to make, viz to compel every member of the League to sign a pledge, binding him down to vote only for a man who will support the- direct veto, will not be successful. The Prohibitionists prate a good deal about freedom, about the liberty of the people to vote for the direot suppression of the liquor traffic if they like, but to bind a man down to vote for whoever may be chosen by the League or by its wire-pullers—which is perhaps n-arer the truth —3cems to. me to smack more of tyranny than of liberty. There can be nothing worse for the State than this proposed system of block voting on some particular fad, or, I will say principle, if the term ‘ fad ’ afflict the sensitive Prohibitionist reader, and bl ndly supporting a candidate who may be totally unfit and unsuitable for the work of legislation, simply because he is willing to pledge himself to be ‘ solid on the Prohibitionist goose.' The regulation, aud, if needs be, the suppression of the drink traffic, arc no doubt matters of some importance to the State, but they are not the only mattors of importance, and there is, as a rule, no greater bore, no greater nuisance in a logisj lativo assembly than these ‘ one subject men. The ideal member is, I take it, a man of sober, respectable habits, a well-educatod man, a man free from any narrow prejudices, a man capable of considering subjects from a truly liberal and broad-minded point of view, a logioally-minded man, and, above all, a man who” is free from any slavishly given pledges to whatever sect, society, or association wnich may proudly parade its so-oalled block vote. If this new-fangled Idea of binding would-be members to vote for some particular principle, and making that his one and solely important plank be carried out, we shall soon see some very curious restrictions and conditions imposed upon candidates at a general election. The anti-tobacco people will insist upon a candidate ‘ swearlug off’ tho divine weed, and vowing himself to a ho’y war inside and outside the houe against the pernioious pipe, the wicked cigar, and the mild, but still sinful cigarette ; the anti crinolinists will have no man whose better half gives way to the threatened revival of the crinoline ; the vegetarians will draw their own particular taboo line against meat eaters, and insist upon the candidate confining himself to a healthy, but perhaps, rather monotonous diet of carrots and cabbages; whilst other leagues will spring into existence warring against bell toppers, making it penal to wink at a pretty girl, compelling everybody to be in bed at ten o’clock at night, to read only Opposition papers, and similar horrible things. As I said before, 1 have much sympathy with the prohibidoaists’ in their well meant efforts to reduce the evils of the drink traffic, but they are going too far when they pass such a resolution as that passed the other night. The prohibitionists would havo my hearty support were they only to advocate that members of Parliament should be ail compelled to be teetotal during the months the house is sitting, for the effect of such a regulation would certainly be greater despatch in the work of the house, and fewer of those violently personal speeohes and disreputable scenes, which have ua so many occasions brought dkoredit on the House. Stop the whisky and certain members would not then so frequently Interrupt and annoy other members when the latter are speaking, and tho Legislature would have a better name with the country, It is well known that more than one scandalous scone which hn oocurred in the House, has had iti first oauso in that famous establishment called Bellamy’s. The Bame thing ocours, but to a much worso exteut, in New South Wales, whore lately there was a most disgraceful fraoas in the Assembly. The Sydney Bulletin put the erse very truthfully when it remarked that 1 new whisky ’ was the cause of the row. Therefore, my prohibitionist friends, if you are anxious to get anything in the way of pledges you might begin by getting members to don the ‘ bit o’ blue ’ for the session at least, or tailing that to see that members water their grog sufficiently. But to insist that the chief and, indeed, sole qualification for a candidate shall be his adherence to the direot veto is going altogether too far. In one thing, at least, Mr Gladstone is staunchly Conservative, and that is In hia strong preference for a quill pen over one made of steel. When about to sign the roll of freemen the other day at Liverpool, on the occasion of his being presented with the freedom of that great city, he was asked whether he would havo a quill or a steel pen, The ‘ Grand Old Man ’ emphatically replied, ‘A quill, please.’ Most people who have much writing to do will agree with Mr Gladstone that a quill Is the prinoe of pens, but the trouble is their coat, for in those busy days one cannot always find time to mend a pen in tho dear old leisurely style of our grandfathers, aud quids are expensive. But for those who are able to afford it there is no pen so pleasant to write with as a good old quill. Iu steel pens nowadays the ‘ J

is all the fashioD, but when carelessly used ! St makes very unintelligible writing, aud in this connection I must say it is wonderful , how many people write bad hands. It falls j to the lot of Scrutator to see two or threo score letters a week, and quite thirty per ceut are almost impossible to decipher, so vilely are they written. Now, if you unearth from some old box a bundle of letters written, say twenty or thirty years ago, you would find writing of a very muoh bettor class. How is this? There must be something radically wrong in the present system of teaching writing. The youngsters cannot be properly taught this important subject. The great ambition nowadays with teachers is apparently to get the children to write as thinly and faintly as possible, a thick down stroke being a thing accursed. The great aim seoms to be* tho production of a miserably attenuated, washed-out style of caligrapby. At any rate, whatever be the reason, the writing of the present day is far inferior to that of thirty or forty years ago ; and legible writing is certainly notas common as it ought to be in the e days, when the sohoohnastsr is abroad, and ail over the land. The typewriter is to kill the pens say some. Perhaps so, in time, but at the present price of those extremely useful instruments, the steel pen at about a shilling a hundred need not fear immediate extinottan.

An amusing pen portrait is given by the London correspondent of the Australasian of the late Earl of Portarlington. The deceased Earl was, says the correspondent, also a guardsman of the Crimean period, one of tho contingent of splendidly haudsome and thoroughbred looking men who, for various reasons, have no successors. Evan now, in London, one somstimes meets these relics of Crimean days, growing very old, colourless, aud wrinkled; preserving the fashion of thirty or forty years ago, long hair, and tarn down collars, men of ereat oarriago and lithe figure. There are two or three of them who never seem to alter, ‘ Hippy ’ Darner, as the lato Earl was called, used to represent the Irish family borough of Portarlington before the Reform Act of 1867. There were just 18 electors on the Portarlington register in those days.’ Forty years ago the vice of drunkenness was looked upon with a more lenient eye than it Is nowadays, and lucky it wa3 eo for ‘Hippy’ Darner, aa tho Earl was then called, for, says the correspondent, he had more than onoe to be led out of the House of Commons in a maudlin condition. It waß not so much that he was given to strong drink; his fault was that he never remembered to keop sober. The story is told that when the Queen bowed to Lord Portarlington at a Marlborough House garden party he went up to Her Majesty in hia absent-mindedly maudlin way, and offered to shake hands, saying, ‘I am very pleased to see you. Your face is quite familiar to me, but for the life of me I cannot remember your name.’ It is oheering news to those who like to see women attired decently and sensibly that the great ‘man milliner,’ M. Worth, of Paris, has deolared against the resurreotion of that most idiotio of things, the crinoline. But some of the minor officials round tho shrine of the groat god Fashion, do not share M. Worth’s viswa on the matter. Mr Redfern, for instance, almost as powerful a despot in the world of fashion in London as is M. Worth in Paris, says the crinoline is coming in again. The other day a representative of the New York World called on Mrßodfern,and a most significant conversation is alleged to have taken plaoe. * Is it true,’ the World woman asked him imploringly, ‘is it true that crinolines are coming back!’ ‘ Yes, the style will be practically the same thing.’ ‘You don’t mean that we must give up these straight, clinging skirts?’ * Why, certainly.’ ‘ Why) you know,’ he went on, ‘ you could not walk along the street with a skirt five and a half yards wide clinging to you.’ ‘I don’t want a skirt that wide.’ ‘ But you must have it 1’ 1 Five and a half yards! Nobody would have a skirt as wide as that!’ ' Yes, but they do. We are making them right now. Short skirts to clear the ground, and they are five and a half yards wide !’ ‘ What kind of stuff?’ asked the reporter, ‘ Some kind of thin gauze, all plaited into nothing ?' * No, indeed ! All materials—light and heavy. Naturally, they must be held out from the feet, or you couldn’t walk, It is the style of 1860 and 1839 revived.’ ‘And,’ said the reporter, faintly, ‘must we wear hats like thoy had then? Those old droopy bonnets of a weeping willow style of architecture ?’ ‘ Certainly.’ ‘And must we let our shoulders slip down to our elbows ?’ 1 Of course.’ I have read out the above to Mrs Sorutator. She oontemptuoußly sniffed at it at first, and then delivered herself of a long and fiery denunciation againßt ‘thoso stupid crinolines ' and ‘those lunatics ’ who are responsible for their re introduction. But I kuow tho sex and its weakness, and I can estimate Mrs S.’a indignation at its proper value. Alas, 1 know only too well that so surely as the first crinoline appears in all its hideousness on the Q iny she will be hankering with an unholy covetousness after the possession of a similar garment or machine, or whatever you may term it. In the interests of everybody the Government should at once put a prohibitive duty on these abominably ugly and absolutely imbecile articles of attire. Who will help me to start au anti crinoline league iu' Wellington ? It is not generally known that there is another member in the British House of Commons besides Mr Gladstone who oan justly olaim to be considered the Grand Old Man of tho assembly. This is Mr Villiers, who is generally called the ‘ Father of the House of Commons.’ Mr Villiers ia the member for Wolverhampton, and entered on his ninety-second year in the firet days of 1893. For something like fifty-seven years the electors of Wolverhampton have re* mained faithful to Mr Villiers, an inatanoe of prolonged trust in a momber which is, I believe) unparalleled in the history of the

British Parliament. One of his oldest friends and warmest admirers says that this wonderfal fidelity of the Wolverhampton people to their representative is dm to his great urbanity, his fidelity to true Liberalism, hia love of independence, and his unimpeachable character. In this connection a fairly good story has been resuscitated : During his first canvass Mr Villiers and two friends entered a small shop at Willenhall that had been left in charge of a young girl. On learning their business, the damsel shouted upstairs, ‘ Mother, here's a gentleman as is come for father’s vote for member of Parliament.’ To this a voica from above made auswer, ‘Tell ’itn to chalk his name on the counter and your father shall ask his character.’ ‘Thank you, ma'am,’ shouted the candidate ; after which, turning to his companions, he said, * Book that for me; I am as certain of it as if it were already given.’