NEWS AND VIEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2651, 4 January 1905, Page 49

NEWS AND VIEWS.

■ ■*> The writer of the article, " The Religion of the Respectable Poor," in the Contemporary, is "M. Loane, superintendent of district nurses,"' who says that by " respeotable poor " she means the '" people who keep home together." But the- homes she refers to are those in the slums of the great cities of England. The people cf the slum homes are not churchgoers. Trie writer was in one district for several months, during which she saw only once anyone going to church or chapel, and then it was a little ballet girl from Drury lane ; but she declares that «he has rarely entered a room in which religion was not *to be found. The fear of death, she remarks, is very rare among the poor. It is rather the certain hope of death that makes life Tolerable to them, both in its bitterest moments and in its long-drawn-out struggles against weakness, poverty, illhealth, and sin. Often what is called sheer callousness at the sight of death should rather be traced to envy of those who are dead and at peace. Have they shed few tears? For themselves the-y wish none to fall. As for the dogmas of religion, about which men quarrel, ''my patients and their friends are not so much indifferent to them as unconscious of their existence. On the lips of all who are seriously ill -I heat but one name, and. notwithstanding th« strong influence that one would imagine to be exercised on this point by Salvationists' revival meetings and popular hymns, that name is the First Person of -the Trinity. So far is it from being possible to detect the special teaching of this or that sect, that the phrases they utter might come with equal propriety from Jew, Mohammedan, Christian, or Hindu." Experience teaches the writer that a deep and true religion is common among these people, the chief tenets of which are ." the existence of a Suprenie Being, intimately concerned with the life of man, and best served by loving submission and faithfulness to the homeliest duties, the spiritual efficacy of prayer, and triumphant faith inthe immortality of the soul." One drawback attached to the increase of technical universities in Germany — viz., the overproduction of trained engineers — is already causing much alarm in the profession. The competition has become so keen that fully-qualified engineers, equipped with the finest training the best technical universities of modern times can give them, are glad to acc&pt appointments with a salary of £5 to £7 a month. This is ad-, vantageous to the country^ at large, as it enables industrialists to compete more 'easily against foreigners, who have to pay their skilled engineers much higher salaries, but in the profession itself the situation is felt to be becoming impossible. The e'ngi- • peers .consider, moreover, that they are' being sacrificed in order to swell the dividends of limited liability companies, and methods of self-preservation are being eagerly dis_cussed. The, latest proposal is that all uni-versity-trained /engineers should organise, and by united' action .make" sure of "at least a minimum " liVing wage.'^ : Lord Brsinpton (Sir Henry Hawkins), in his " Reminiscences," mentions "a matter • •which is new<jn ; regard to a famous Lord Chancellor of bygone days. "Sir -Richard Bethell (afterwards "Lord.. Westbuty) and I .were benchers, .at the. .same iime, and consequently often anet.. . .Westbury was- a great man, but. his disposition could not b& ' said by his dearest -friends to have been . one of great amiability. If he wounded you with his wit the sore seldom heaied. He was a good hater, and hated Campbell with his whole heart: 'Jook,' it seemed, had stolen a march on him, -and got to the woolsack first* • 'I was Solicitor-general,' said/ Westbury, ' and while I was engaged in getting my Divorce Bill through the Commons the" Lord Chancellorship fell vacant, and Jock' promised' if I let him have it he would vacate in my favour, which ho afterwards refused to do, remarking that he was very comfortable, and would not change for the warrld.' Then ■ Bethell damned Jook -Campbell with all his might. ■• ' Had - 1 known he would not resign,' said he, ' when I wanted him to, I'll be d —^ if old Jock should have been .Chancellor at all!'" It would he-interest^' ing to know whether, in these days, any understanding exists as to Lord Halsbury and Sir Robert Fmlay, who was kept wait> ing for his" turn an unconscionably long time. Lord" Halsbury, now verging on 30, has been Lord Chancellor for 18 years, the longest time on record. Unless Sir Robert Finlay (Attorney-general) gets'* his chaneo before the ensuing general election, it may never come' to him. ," The pilgrimage .to Rome./ undertaken by the Prince and.. Princess. Frederick of SchoenburgiWaldenburg will surely rank as the most picturesque performance of many a year. They are walking from Berlin to Rome to do penance for their sin in obtaining a civil divorce in spite of the fact that they were indissolubly united by the holy sacrament of the Church. The penance is ordered by the Pope himself, who married the couple, and takes a peculiar interest in. the oase. The Prince and Princess are wearing a penitential dress, consisting of rough brown clothes of similar material to the gowns worn by the mendicant friars. They wear no linen. They go barefooted and bareheaded. They 'must wear no jewellery. Every day of their journey they must pray for pardon and give alms at the shrine of a saint, provided they are ablc> to reach one, and rarely if ever will it happen that they cannot do so. They &re stopping at the humblest inns and engaging the poorest lodgings at them. "I think we are about fche most overexamined people on the face of the earth," was one of the statements which Professor Occasionally realism is carried too far on the Spanish stage. On all Souls' Day afc every theatre in Spain '" Don Juan " was played. Accidents occurred at two of the performances. At Sollen the pistol shot fired at the commandante killed an. actor, the wad of the cartridge going into his eye. He fell backwards suddenly, and the audience applauded frantically, but soon discovering the reality of the tragedy the theatre was soon empty. At Muchmayor the actors taking the parts of Don Juan and Megia- inflamed themselves to such an extent in the sham duel- that both felt badly injured. They died lingering deaths in great agony at Seville Hospital. The famous actor Delgado orea-ted the part of Don Juan, and paved Its way to unex- , ampled success. The drama is always I played to crowded house* ift Spaxui'V 'heatres.