PASSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11113, 14 May 1898, Page 2

PASSING NOTES.

I agree somewhat with the correspondent in another.column who thinks that the hairraising experiences of Dr Hocken and Dr Colquhoun with Fijian fire-walkers tell U3 little that is new. It is not necessary £o go back to Shadracb, Meshacb, and Abednego. Is there not an authentic story of the Prince of Wales, when visiting a gun factory, plunging his band into a stream of molten metal and taking no harm ? For my own part, since reading the detailed and scientific observations of our Dunedin savants, I shall go back with greater comfort to my "Lives of the Saints." Is it not told therein how St. Francis carried live coals in his cassock and SI. Nolletta in her apron; how St. Catherine of Sienna, being in an ecstasy, sat down upon tb* kitchen fire, and was discovered there unharmed, "the fire of holiness, which blazed in her heart, neutralising the heat of the burning fuel" 1 Did not St. Silvester enter a blazing overi to rescue a baker's shovel? Did not Bfc. Francis of. Paula, entering a lime kiln in full Wash, repair tho chinks in its walls from inside 1 Did not a holy hermit, within the experiance of St. Palajmon, stand unhurt on red-hot Cinders during the whole time of vespers? Dr Hocken and Dr Colquhoun, as witnesses to the marvelous, stand in a very ancient and honourable succession. Since thsy believe, why iday not I? The correspondent in another column seems to me of a rationalising tendency ; in fact, I suspect him to be a mere Thaosopbist. To walk unhurt in, fire is, he thinks, "a minor Capability, latent and potential in all men," by and by to be a " common property," along with " far grander and nobler powers as the evolution of humanity develops " —under the guidance, apparently, of mabatmas and adepts from Thibet. Not at all ;—this will never do! Miracles are too scarce nowadays to be lightly rejected when offered. I prefer to return to Dr Hooken, Dr Colquhoun, and the simple fnith of my childhood. I observe that the Key. Mr Saunders, who nas preached and printed a sermon oh the war, announces therein a doctrine that ought to be very comforting to Americans. It Used to be said, somewhat profanely, that good Americans when they die go to Paris. Mr Saundero modifies this; an American may be either good or bad—that doesn't matterbut if he dies fighting against Spain he goes straight to Paradise. Said the preacher: "He who crowns His Son —the crucified— will also exalt the slain to His right hand. With them it shall be well." Mahomet, it may be remembered, taught a similar doctrine ; but Mahomet, more worldly-wise than Mr Baunders, added a powerful incentive. Thus, of the old pasha's Sons who met; death itt the siege of Ismail:—•

The eldest was a true and tameless Tartar) As great a scorner of the Nazsrene As e'er Mahomet picked out for a martyr; He only uaw the black-eyed girls in green* Who make the beds of those who won't take qusrtar On earth, in Paradise; and when once seen) Those hourifi, like all other pretty creatures, Do juat whate'er they please, by dint of featured. Lacking this attraction — " the black-eyed girls in green "^-Mr Saunders's new plan of salvation strikes me as incomplete. Mereover, it fails to provide for tha Spaniards; though, of course, we can draw an inference. If the American killed go to Heaven, the Spanish killed must no doubt go—elsswhsre, Views somewhat Bimilar to these appear to prevail in high quarters at Berlin. Kaisar j William—who, in his own way, is, like the Eev. Mr Saunders, a bit of a theologian—has been exhorting his soldiers and subjects to "work for the Empifa go as to meet God and the old Emperor with a clear conscience." What God fend the old Emperor—who in tha other world appear to be coordinate authorities—require of Gertoans is doubtlsa?, first) faith—in the gospel of the present Emperor's eonseefataa person; and, next, wofkg—done chiefly with ■ the mailed fist. .Mr Saunders and the Kaiser can't very well exohange pnlpits; as an expression of mutual esteem they ought at lease to exohange sermons. It is generally understood that modern , warfare is engaged in chiefly for the benefit :of the war. correspondent, and.as no conflict batwesn'two nations was ever more palpably the result of newspaper influence than the one now going on between Spain and America, it seams unfair that these enterprising gentlemen are finding little or no opportunity for displaying their talents. We know, of course, that the Yankee press depends mainly on its imagination for its facts, but even under thsse circumstances it is necessary to have some foundation, however Blight, to work upon. The truth is that when the bulk of the fighting takes the form of naval battles the war correspondent is, paradoxical as it may seem, entirely at sea. There is no chance of outstripping-the representative of a rival journal by riding hundreds o£ miles and securing the services of the nearest telegraph statiom Then, again, the incessant rocking of the sad sea waves must have the effect of rendering useless the most brilliant brain and the most fertile pen, to say nothing of the chance of the possessor of thorn beiDg hit by a stray shot, although this would be probably infinitesimal if be were attached to the American fleet. Altogether it is easy to see that the war correspondent is at a distinct disadvantage in the present struggle, and that American newspaper enterprise will ba sorely taxed to provide material for its readers. There it, however, a soul of goodness in this evil thing. As a man of peaceful add sedentary habits, I am naturally opposed to war ; and as the anthoritiea tell us that tba battles of the future are to ba fodght out en the ocean, the occupation of the special correspondent, like that of Othello, will be gone, and as this gentleman is mainly responsible for any hostilities that may break out, bis abolition would usher in a reign of perennial peace.

The latest news irom our own particular iront in what will probably be known to posterity as the great dog tax campaign is eminently satisfactory. Colonel Newall, who was in Command of Hie forces, has received the cocgratulations of bis old comrades in the Maori war on his successful imitation of that Duke of York who "marched his army up the hill and inarched it down again." The soldiers themselves are, howaver, experiencing some of the hardships oil war, inasmuch as they are compelled for a timß to live on tinned meats and hard biscuita; bnfc Mr Soddon will no doubt sot generously towards them, and probably when peaca is ratified a'rattdal will be struck in commemoration of so important an event. In the meantime the prisoners appear to be having a good time, so joying themselves in their own peculiar wsy by sieging hymns and praying daily. It would not be possible to imagine a more innocent amusement than this, and it is evident that the mere sight of the Mazim and Nordenfeldt guns has had a great moral effect. A captious critic might ask what particular credit is due to the commander of an expedition which meets with absolutely no opposition; but the mere fact that the spirit of true jingoism has been proved to exist in the colony, and that neither men nor money are to be spared when the occasion arises should be sufficient answer to any objection of that sort. It is enough for us to know that had the Maoris really shown fight the forca led by Colonel Newall were ready to annihilate them, but the rapidity with which the Natives surrendered is apparently evidence that they were never in earnest over the matter. As things have tamed out, the settlers have had their little excitement, the Maoris will probably not evade the payment of the dog tax, and the commander of the expedition has received the congratulations ot the colony, so that everybody bat the Maoris concerned should be satisfied. As to the expense, we know on the authority of the Premier that that is no object, as there is plenty of money in the Treasury coffers at present. The French General Elections, May B—to which English editors were looking as likely to give the decisive word on the question of peaca or war with England about the West African hinterlands —are reported curtly in a line or two without any accompanying hint of what they signify. Perhaps nobody as yet can tell. One French Parliament is pretty much as another; if the next is no better than the last it will be the army and the Paris mob, I fancy, that will have moat to B&y on thiß or any other question, domestic or foreign. From a late Paris paper I take j the following sketch of a parliamentary ■ Fcene during discussions on the affair Drey- | fas. The translation I have entrusted to Civis, junr., who has a school reputation for his neat and accurate appreciation of French idioms ;—

M. Jaures complained that in the proceedings! against M. Zola nothing sticks out (se relei'e) bat equivocations, He 3, and villanies. M. de Beirriis.—You are without doubt the l advocate of the syndicate ? M. Jaures.—M. do Bernis, yon are a pconndrel and & coward (un miserable et v,n Idche) ! The tumult is fffroydblc. H. Gerault Richard traverses the bemicycle id running and precipitates himself upon Mi de Bernis, and strikes bini with a stroke of the fist in full face (en plein visage). Several deputies deacend from the benches of the extreme left, of the right, aud of the centre, and tbere engages itself a veritable and inde- , scriptible melee. I They fight (on se hat) in the passage of tho right, they fight in the hemicyole at the foot of tho tribune where M. Jaures has remaiDPd. All at a stroke M. de Bernis escalades the Steps of the tfibiiH6 and buffets (soiifflttUyiA. Jaurcs. At that view several deputies of the extreme left precipitate themselves from the side opposite and joign themselves in the tribune itself with other deputise l'uti ffom the extreme right. All the world (tout h mondA fighting, pushing, falls do*Jn (s'tcr'milt) pGle-mele With the ushers miugied in the affray, and joins itself to thn combatants remaiuiug in the hemicyi!l<i. At this moment thfly make to evacuate thq publid tribhbes. Already M. Btisson and the nieaibers of the Government (liU Bureau) Bad gone out. - The Sdaace having bii&l teiSecl. the ushers hive made' to evacuate tHa hall and all the tribunes. The affray between depubies has recommenced in the pas*»ges. It is thus that M. Deville; espying (avisant) M. de Bernis in the hall Casimer-Perier, has addressed him in a lively manner (I'a vivement apostrophe); then seizing an inkstand has flung it to him at the head ; the inkstand ia broken against the wall without to attain M. de Bernis, who has been however all dyed with ink: By special request (Stir I'ordre dcs questeurs) the soldiers hare entered without!' arms ioto the passages interior «f the palace, but some deputies nave protested with vivaoity, tod the soldiers have not delayed to retire themselves. It is Bofc for me to praise this performance—the translation, 1 mean. I content myself with quoting the B&ge remark of its aUthftr: " What can you eJtpecfc Of ft pfeople that write in sttch a ratten sbyle as this 2" A week or two since I referred to tho fact that a paper by Miss Ethel Benjamin was refused by the National Council of Women then holding a conference in Wellington, and drew the inference that the rejection was due to sensitiveness to criticism on the part of the ladies. Tha paper itself has since been published, and it Would appear to most people that there wan nothing particularly objectionable in it—that; is, judging it frdrn the standard of some of the contributions to the council. I notice from a Wellington' paper,. however, that the bon> secretary of this eccentric association Mrs Sievwright, has written a letter, in which she says that the suppression of the paper was owing to a regard for Mies Benjamin's own feelings, as she was not present to defend tbe views she expressed. It would be a rasher man than Myself who would give an opinion on ladies' logic, but there can be no doubt about,the quality of tbeir invective when fairly roused to anger. Here, for example, is what Mrs Sievwright says of the lady lawyer:—

With regard to her strictures on the "economic liiiHependeiice of married womeoy" I cun obiy ask, Does the poor child folly Understand what she talks aboub so "glibly"? The "political infants "—those of them,1 at least, who have taken a pr6miiidHt pat;!; id the discussion—are grey-haired women, who fofa quarteiM>f a century or more (before Miss BeUjamin was born) have been working for the emancipation of woman, and, through them, of tneti: t " We rise or fall together, bond or free; | If she be small, slight-natured, miserable, | . How Shall mell grow"?" 1 Tho relevance of the poetical quotation is nob very apparent, but that is a small matter. The cdMous point ia the letter is the fact that Miss Betijamin is taunted with her youth, a • quality thai it has always been considered the oldest of women were desirous of appropriating. If my memory serves me rightly, Mrs Sievwright Is the lady who read a' paper at the conference which not only brought the bluish to th 6 cheek of the modest' young parson, but also caused the older members to haog their heads. If tbis ia the case, her rebuking of. Miss Bebjamin comes with a peculiarly bad gracß. \&m ■■ ■ .■■.■ .. ;.;.. ,'.-,.;■■ Civis.l