ECHOES OF THE WEEK.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1106, 12 May 1893, Page 27

ECHOES OF THE WEEK.

Fatire's my weapon, but I'm too disereet, To run amuck and tilt at all I meet. Pora.

m SCRUTATOR.

A dotregjforiderlt writes as folloWsj—fn Crifiimon, Ho doubt, with iiittiiy" Others' who enjoyed the drolleries of Mr Lonnen in ' Miss' Esmeralda,' the Sydney slang used by him in that ehaste ditty ' I've chucked up the push for my Donah,' was rather puzzling, and I felt somewhat at sea as to the meaning of many of the terms used. The Jarrikin we all know, but what is a ' push' p,nd what is a 'donah?' As Mr George Fisher ha.s playfully dubbed you 'Controller of the Sun' y«ta may think it beneath your dignity to deal, with smch terrestrial maters as • pushes ' an4' donahs,' but I wish you would unbend for explain.'

Certainly, my deai sirs, As to 'push,' you "have evidently not been in Sydney nor in Melbourne, .espedailjMJje latter place, or you would not display such lamentable ignorance. ' A push' is a gang, a crowd, a mob, a collection, or whatever you may ohooae to call it, of larrikins—expectorating, cursing, unclean malodorous youths, whose self-chosen mission in life is to annoy thepublic, persecute people by rudely jostling, them off the pathway, ejecting filthy tobacco juice over boots or dresses, giving vent the while to volcanic eruptions of the foullest of foul language. The Australian larrikin ' solus ' is a horrid enough creature ; collectively he is still worse. From mere horse play the ' push' proceed to aetual personal violence—not" excessivejy objectionable when applied to to"riva| 1 pushes'—of whioh more anon —but a menace to the safety of property arid hfe when a single individual is the subject of their aggression. Every larrikin in Melbourne belongs to some particular ' push, just as the Heidelberg or Bonn' student roust belong to some particular ' students' corps,' and as the German •students' oorps' rival 6&cH* other 1 ifl the swilling of innumerable giah't pots of beer's, and the carving pf e&ch others' faces with short swords in th,at insanest of insane things, the German students', duel, fib do the ' pushes ' with each other in general blackguardism in strife against respectability and civilization —and incidentally, the police—and in causing the greatest possible annoyance to the general and unoffending public. The 'pushes' have various local origins—thus, Melbourne has its • Collingwood push,' its ' South Melbourne push,' and soon; and Sydney has its 'Butcher's Bay push,' its 'Carrington push,' etc., etc. Between the rival' pushes' there dwells an enmity as undying, and as fierce as that between the Capulets and the Montagues, or between the opposing parties in a Oorsican vendetta. Occasionally there are fights of perfectly Homeric, character, the general public being mainly interested in the number placed hors de combat? and rejoicing over the defeat either side—providing the list of wounded be only full enough—in that both sides are held to be a common fenemy to the public. For a larrikin to have ' chucked up' his own particular ' push' for a ' donah' or anybody else would be an act of self abnegation such as t 6 render him well nigh a hero, for the renegade will be sure to have directed, against him the combined ill will of his old comrades, no laughing matter, so I am assured.

For an ordinary member of the public to incur the evil favour of a 'push' is bad enough, as dwellers in Sydney and Melbourne know full well, but the only course open to the renegade who would have peace and quietude, is to emigrate to some locality far distant from the home of his old 'push,' there to forswear 'pushes' and their delights and sorrows, to eschew eccentric raiment, cultivate an unwonted acquaintance with' soap, and settle down to an un-Bohemian, prosaic, bourgeois, respectably commonplace existence. So much at present for the ' push,'

The 'Donah' of course is a woman, or a ' lidy,* as Mr Lonnen would call her in his Cockney cum Sydney twang— not exactly the real, unadulterated Australian twattg, but wonderfully near it.'

The word is common enough with the East End of London where ' 'Arry' dubs his ' gal' his little'Donah'—sometimes spelt 'doner,' but I fancy it is not widely used by the Australian larrikin. The word comes, no doubt, from the Italian ' Dona,' a lady, but its origin in London dates far back away beyond the Italian ice-cream vendors and organ-men into the metropolis, for it is given, I believe, in Captain Grose's ' Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue' published very early in the ceatury, and appears also in Mr J. C. Hotten's ' Slang Dictionary' published considerably over twenty years ago. The Australian larrikin has terms for his particular ' gal' which are too coarse to set down here in sober print, and although ' donah,' like other Cockney words, may have become acclimatized in Melbourne and Sydney, it has not so pronounced a habitation as' the larrikin' or ' the push.' ...... j

Under the very vague neadirig' Freethought Education,' the following letter appeared the other day in a Wellington evening paper : Sir,—Should not the action of the larrikins at the funeral of the late Hon J. Ballance open the eyes of the legislators to the evils arising from the exclusion of the Bible from our State schools? Was it not also rather a gatiteupoil Mr Ballandeywhd himself introduced Rethought into Wangatitu some 20 years ago, its fruit be'irtg plainly shown at his own fiineral, although iri rathef an unpleasant rHalMer',-4 anl, <fe'c, F. Bkown.

Ido not know who or what' F. Brown' may be, but he has managed to show a vast amount of silly ignorance in a remarkably few lines. I happened to attend the funeral of the late Premier, and in the course of the duty which fell upon ine of having to write a report which appeared 'in another place,' I was standing immediately .behind the chief mourners when the incident (' the action of the larrikins') referred to by Mr Brown, took place. The - first volley when there afdse sdrn-Ririong the trees some loud 'hoorays;',which were, repeated after the'second volley,.,.The.'hoorays' came from sundry small boys (very small most of them) who had climbed up the trees to get a better-view of the wonderful pageant. They were not 'larrikins '-as,l understand the word; they were simply thoughtless' youngsters of from nine to twelve years of :50,.0f age. No doubt their 'hooraying' was rather unseemly, but 'boys will be boys' all the world over, and seeing that the ceremony was well-nigh concluded, and that on ordinary occasions it is almost impossible for a.-lively lad to restrain the temptation to cry ' hooray' after a volley, there was no great harm done. But even admitting that their conduct was not in the best of taste, Mr.. F. Brown's arguments remain the quintessence of folly. He argues that it was owing to the Bible being excluded from our schools that the boys w§re ill-behaved enough to throw decofum to the winds and indulge in an outburst of excitement quite natural from a boy's unthinking point of view; and, further, that this was the ' fruit 'of the freethought, which, so this correspondent alleges, Mr Ballance ' introduced into Wanganui 20 years .ago.' But would Mr Brown 'bo surprised to heatV to quote an expression much in vogue at the Tichborne trial, that Bible-reading in schools, does not prevent boys from doing far worse things than thoughtlessly ' hooraying' after a volley fired at a-.military funeral. A friend of mine lives almost exactly opposite the entrance to a well-known city Sunday school, and on more than one occasion I have seen the children coming out on a Sunday afternoon. Now, in spite of the Bible-reading of which they had no doubt had a goodly dose during the afternoon, a few of those boys manage to indulge in actions and language more fitted to a race of yahoos than to Christian, civilised people. Filthy expressions were, unfortunately,, by no means rare, and the general tone of the youngsters was larrikiniish in the extreme. ■ The irrepressible excitement of the "Wanganui lads who bawled out; 'Hooray' after a'-volley is perhaps excusable, but the bad -language which can be heard Outside only-too many Sunday schools in the cities is'certainly otherwise. For this. Mr Brown to contend that the appalling crime of shouting .' hooray' after a volley is a direct fruit of the freethought teaching of Mr Ballance is alike an insult to the late Premier's memory and to the intelligence of Mr Brown's readers. It is not owing to Mr Ballarice's freethought that the Bible is not read in the Wanganui or any other State schools, neither will Biblereading, however good and laudable a thing in its way, ever prevent thoughtless lads from behaving badly. It is to the lack of proper parental influence and home training that our colonial lads do not know hoW to properly behave themselves on occasions when the greatest reverence should be shown, and all the Biblereading in the world will riot save lads from larrikinism if the parents do not do their duty and if a good moral tone be not preserved in the home. If the enemies of the present free, secular, and compulsory education cannot bring better arguments against it than the unspeakably foolish ones adduced by this MiBrown, their cause is indeed weak.

A correspondent sends me no less than five closely-written pages of foolscap on the subject of some American evangelists who have recently commenced a mission in this city. He waxes very wrath on ' American quackery,' and indulges in some very ' warm' language generally. After a careful perusal of his fearfully and wonderfully-written, communication (which, by the way, he calmly asks should be printed in ' well-displayed' type —oh, personified ingenuousness) I manage to glean the chief fact that he denounces the evangelists in question because ' they are merely Seventh Day Adventists in disguise.' Why on this account they should be ' avoided by all real Christians '—it is curious that each and every sect nowadays is the only real and genuine article—l cannot see. I had the opportunity of studying some ' Seventh Day Adventists' in Napier for a couple of years or so, and found them decent, law-abiding people, who paid their way, spoke no ill of their neighbours—albeit they are a trifle Pharasaical —and seemed to me to be perfectly harmless. True, one of their elders moved some of the public to mirth by publicly denouncing the use of' pepper and all other

korn-di-ments,'andthemembersgenerallywere given to bombarding the local editors with column-long' le'tfer'sf, teeming with Biblical quotations, and advocasri# the' o'bstervation of Saturday, not Sunday, as the flrsf day' of ttte week—the said letters --moving, I fear",- tfh'e editors and sub-editors to occasional bad language. But these little peculiarities do not partake of the nature of a crime, and although the promulgation of the doctrines of of the Seventh Day Adventists may personally grieve the soul of my correspondent, that is no reason Why he should have the free use of these columns to publicly ventilate his woe.- The manager of the UaUi Would no doubt be willing to quote a fair r'aite fof the insertion of the letter in the advertising columns, and to him I would counsel my correspondent to apply. As for the Seventh Day Adventists, they have just as much right to try and spread their thdriries as have all the other sects, for this is a free cotiriiry, and if a man likes to preach Mormonism*, Mahomedanisrii, the study ofJMahatmas or anything else, he is' at perfect liberty to do do so. As to the Saturday v. Sunday question, I have personally no objection to our having two Sabbaths a week—especially if the papers do not come out—and the poor pressman's weekly allowance of the filthy but highly necessary lucre be not cut down. But of sectarian strife I will have none in ' Echoes of the Week.'

Kindly-hearted a man as he was', Mr' Dallance had a pretty taste for satire at times, as some of his political enemies must well remember, and he often indulged in a sly dig at an opponent. A friend recalls an incident which took place at Wanganui some years ago, when the Wonderful Woodntffe was round the Colony with his glass-blowirig materials and that beautiful glass engine which so many admired. During the course of his Wanganui season he offered prizes for the best and the worst conundrums on the subject of his engine. Mr Ballance won the prize for the best conundrum, handing in the following:—'Why is the Wellington Provincial Conncil like Mr Woodruffe's. engine?' ' Because it displays the geniUs of a Watt' Mr W. H. Watt—' Willie Watt* as he was always known in Wanganui—was then, as he was for years, the late Premier's most bitter localpolitical opponent, and as his worst enemy could not acciise hiin df being brilliant, either in the Council or out of it, the reference to the ' genius 'he displayed was' rote sarkastik/ and vastly amused the Wanganuites at the time. Mr Ballance had a quiet way of ' rubbing it into' an opponent, and in the early days of the Herald his satiric touch was much feared by his foes. His satire, however, merely inflicted a momentary sting; it was impossible for the man to write anything which would permanently embitter the minds of those opposed to hittl.

A good many Colonial preosmen have entertained at times the idea that a 'good thing' awaits one of their number who will go home to London and make a speciality of contributing articles and paragraphs on Colonial topics, to the leading papers. I confess I personally shared that aimable delusion as 'to the ' good things' to be made, until the other day I saw a letter received by a Wellington journalist from a gentleman in London (a well known special correspondent of New Zealand papers). The London journalist (an ex-New Zealander, by the way) had been asked by his Wellington friend as to the prospects of success which awaited the specialist in Colonial subjects in London. The answer, I must say, was not very encouraging but as it throws some light upon the miserable remuneration given by really first class Home papers to writers outside their regular staff, a quotation may possess some general interest. The Londoner writes: — ' I fear it is not much use your sending correspondence home. Liners like H n, M.P., seize the files directly they come and ' mop up the little Colonial matter the dailies will take. P—— M , with considerable labour, manages to knock about two guineas a week out of the Daily Chronicle, which poses as the Anglo-Colonial organ. They print about a fifth of what he sends in. H n, M.P., gets 2s 6d a' par' from the Westminster Gazette and the Star for accepted copy. If you Gan do an interview or article on a sensational or political subject you might send it to the Westminster. For example, a good interview giving Schnadhorst's ideas on your special legislation, etc., etc., might perhaps draw a guinea.'' Verily Grub street still exists, and its unfortunate denizens are still ill enough off. Colonial journalism is poorly paid in all conscience, but the Colonial journalist who would bustle around to get a good interview with Schnadhorst' on your special legislation' and send it all the way home to London on the chance of earning the magnificent sum of a guinea is, I am pleased to imagine, not easy to find. Evidently the idea as to the ' good thing ' to be made in London by the specialist on Colonial subjects is far from being based upon truth. The real fact of the matter is that, despite all the cackle in the London papers about the stupendous interest their readers take in Colonial questions there is very little interest at all taken in such matters.

The following advertisement struck my eye the other night in the Post:—' A very superior person, just out from Home, would be glad of

a position as housekeeper where these aire one or more servants kept; hotel not objected to. Address—Evening Post.' Ido sincerely hope that we are not to see that very objectionable term 'person,' as applied to a woman, become a'ccltafcsiised out here in New Zealand, for" hf contains- in itself all the elements of that Bfiifefe snobbery which is the very last thing which WC should import from the Old Country. Call a vtottk&i » woman, or if you like it better, a lady, but for heaven's sake don't call her a ' person.' The Use &i the word implies, not; that independence and in' dividuality to which we are accustomed in the colonies, but an odious servility which is first cousin to flunkeyism. Oddly, and at the same time consistently enough, the advertisement appeared in the columns of that very snobbish thing the 'Superior Person.' How the ' Superior Person' could haVe allowed such an advertisement to escape his presumably ' eagle' eye, and, to pass into his eolumns, thus tacitly admitting the existane'd of a person ' superior' even to himself, is to me a Most incomprehensible thing. I wish the lady who advertised for a situation every success, but I do trust she will cease to allude to herself as a 'person,' whether ♦superior' or 'very superior,'or not'superior' at all. The word 'person,' as applied to a woman, is as snobbish and hateful a thing as the Cockney adjective ' genteel,' an odious expression rapidly being banished from the English language. '■?■■?.

The Post the other night began an article likening the Hon. W. P. Beeves to a ' cur of low degree,' and ended it. with a dismal whine about the ' scurrility and personalities' of the New Zealand Times as applied it its own ' superior person.' Isn't there a saying somewhere as the folly of stone-throwing by thdse" Who live in glass houses ? I think so. The ' SdjteTioY- Person' should look it up and make a note at ifa

The Catholic Times has lost the seMmoi that very brilliant writer, Mr Evison and last week's issue is -unmistakeably under new editorship. The scorching satire, the pitiles s Scathing sarcasm of .old, is'absent from its pages, bdt there is evident what has hitherto been missing from its pages, namely a spirit of tolerance, a kindly, genial tone, an inclinato view publio men and public matters through less dark tinted spectacles. The introductory leader ' Ourselves' is excellent in tone. I make a brief quotation :—' We say to our brother pressmen, come along and give us the grip of friendship; wo are neither afraid nor ashamed. Ours is the noblest calling under the sun. We brothers of the goose quill, knights of the merry quip, the grave rebuff, the Burleigh nod of the head (in ink), are the salt of the age. We eat not in luxury, and are satisfied with small ale, but we make the paunchy writhe, and dance to our music when they offend public taste, exact usurious interest, or sneer at the worthy poor. The press has put a more watchful conscience into many men than ever their neglect of all moral obligations would have enabled them otherwise to maintain. To our friends in particular, and the_ public iri general, we say in the vernacular J give us a show' We are children at this undertaking, but with a little encouragement shall proceed in our editorial work.'

As far as Scrutator is concerned, he willingly tenders the asked for 'grip of friendship,' and wishes the Catholic Times under its new control every possible prosperity, with the one reservation—that the C. T. shall in future act strictly up to the sentiments laid down in the first sentence of the introductory article : ' Ours shall be the manly course. We shall only strike where necessary and never below the belt. We prefer sweet goodwill and joyous friendship.' Long may the C.T. display in deeds as well as in words, this chastened and hitherto unwonted attitude. The bludgeon and tomahawk period of its existence is I hope for ever closed.

I am always glad to welcome The Wellingtonian and The Wanganui Collegian, the two excellent school magazines issued every three months or so in connection with the two great secondary schools of the North Island. The Wellingtonian is young, but already shows signs of great improvementThe School Notes are full and interesting, and the Cricket and Athletic Notes generally are very complete. It is, however, lacking in the light and humorous touch which so enlivens the columns of its Wanganui confrere. Evidently at the Wanganui School the lighter side of life is not neglected, and it is held no high crime or misdemeanour for the editorial staff to indulge in a little feeling. The Collegian, which appears in a new dress —a vast improvement on its old dingy yellowcoloured garb—is an excellent number. There is a capital account of a sham fight, in which the cadet corps engaged, entitled ' The Battle of Balgownie,' and the Cricket, Football and School Notes are all well up to date, and readable. But it is the Odds and Ends department which is the speciality of this excellent little publication, and I heartily congratulate the editor upon having provided so much amusement for his readers. Curious answers to examination questions are many, and really humorous, and I cannot help quoting a few:—" Connected with the study of Church History during the reign of the Jlmporor Nero are several terms of a

more or less puzzling nature. In order that, future historians may benefit by the labours. and erudition of the past, we reprint helow a few explanations and descriptions recently given."

"Question I.—Who was Gallio? The bestinformed appear to be unanimous in considering Gallio to have been Pro-Consul of Achaia and brother of Seneca, but this is; too common-place for the gentleman who is under the impression that Gallio was a ' V-shaped thing to punish slaves:' while another is very sure that Gallio was a ' town on the west coast of Turkey.' (Please note the careM and geographical accuracy of ' west.'

"Question 2.—What and where was Machasrus ? Here again authorities differ widely. The common opinion is that Machrcrus was a fortress on the Dead Sea, but there exists, or did a short time ago exist, a scholar who imagined that Machferus was ' a philosopher who preached transubstantiation of souls..* His discourses must have been very interesting."

"The pathos of the following descriptions will be felt by the hardest heart. Writing of the Neronian persecutions, it is said that 'the sufferers had a steak put under their chins to keep their heads up.' This is an obvious miss-stake. ' The old hero went to his place of execution turning a hair.' The cause of this apparently useless action on the part of the:oM hero is not mentioned. 'The man was horribly torchered.'"

The effect Of Max O'Bell's visit to Wanganui is seen in the following capital skit (I trust the editor has sent a copy to Monsieur Blouet):

—"lt is a pity that Max O'Bell did not look in upon our French forms during his visit here ; had he done so, he would have taken home with him an amusing example of the elasticity of the French language. We present him with the following extract from the debate that he would have heard in the sixth form :

Mvß. (a*-late promotion; interrupts the opener) I He's 1 not talking sense you know, Sir! (Fined a penny.) The Or-ENER (piously) i II ne comprends pas l'Anglais, m'sieur. M.B. (with a withering glance): O'est—kelker chose--Jbetween ourselves—mershoor—ce n'est pas—meant—pour le common herd—mershoor. (Fined another penny.) The Ofbner:'M. le President, qu'il est. pakeha Francaisy celui-la, n'est-ce pas ? M.B. (twopence to the bad): Je pakehcraL vous apres.l' ecole. (In a subdued voice to the world in general) Punch the Ettle beggar's head! (Fineda third penny). '• Can the above mentioned gentleman be the same individual who astonished the meeting; by cries of ' Ici! Ici!' and who, when remonstrated with, was found to be under tha delusion that he was saying 'Hear! Hear!' in Parisian French!

The gullible people who bought ' Tyson's cure for drunkenness' at five guineas a bottle, the commercial value of the thing being but; the moderate snm of two shillings, must have read the report of- the Government analyst with very mingled feelings. To attempt to destroy the effects of one poison by the use of another is rather unsatisfactory work, especially when the ' curative' agent is retailed at suoh an enormous advance upon its commercial value. Of course the so-called * cure for drunkenness' is all so much stuff and nonsense, and the charlatans who ' run' the ' Tyson cure' are fully aware of the fact. It would be in the interests of the public were the prosecution under the 'Poisons Act' to be followed by one under the statute which deals with the obtaining of money under false pretences, but it seems to me that quacks and charlatans of every kind can ply their roguish calling in these colonies with the greatest impunity. Now that the ' Tyson Cure' has been proved to consist mainly of a deadly poison—to wit, strychnine (a tablespoonful of it enough to kill an adult), it might be as well were the Government of the various colonies to order an investigation to be made into the component parts of the ' Silver," Bronze,' and other metallic ' remedies' now being widely advertised. Some of these are ' run' by extemperance lecturers, (who are, we know, of course, the most and purely disiterested of mortals), Who exploit them solely and wholly, of course; out of a wish to further the great cause of tptal abstinence. Nevertheless it would relieve the public mind a little were it publicly known of what these remedies actually consist. Meanwhile it may be stated for the benefit of those who cannot use fermented liquors in moderation, that |m the opinion of the most eminent English authorities, there is no definite and thoroughly satisfactory cure for drunkenness other than the carrying out in all its integrity of the 'knocking-off' process. The evil effects of drink on the system may, I believe, be modified by the use of certain drugs,-but this is merely trilling with the enemy—' touch not at all' is the only real safeguard for him or her upon whom the diseased taste has got too firm a hold.