GOOD-BYE, MR. CAIRNS

Taranaki Daily News, 27 January 1934, Page 19 (Supplement)

GOOD-BYE, MR. CAIRNS

TRIED TO LIVE CHRISTIANITY. A MAN EVERYBODY LOVED. The other day word went round the East End of London that Mr. Cairns had passed on, says the Children’s Magazine. Could any' news have called up more widespread mourning in those gloomy streets and crowded slums ? The whisper spread to the docks and round the ships. Mr. Cairns was dead. Gone was a great friend.and a.wise'counsellor. ; For J. A. R. Cairns was a magistrate in a hundred and a man in a million. Westminster was his court, when hie caught a cold at a football match and influenza cut short his life at - 59; but his ten years at the Thames Police Court ruling-over a little world of black, yellow, and ■ white, \vith a. sprinkling of sailors from every corner of the globe, had caused him to be looked upon as the. East, End’s own magistrate. This witty Irishman was sometimes not altogether approyed of by those who have an eye only for the superficial in life, and whose conception magistrate is an austere, well-dressed, polished gentleman who would deliver judgment with cold . impartiality; i for here was Mr. Cairns sitting on the Bench, almost as poorly dressed as the man in the dock and quite ready to crack a joke with him. Mr. Cairns, cared nothing about superficials; he only looked to essentials. And he was not even impartial, for he was always ready to make allowances for the sinner from the slums. He knew, how hard the fight is there. He knew that there is less crime among; the middle classes only because their conditions are better. , Men and women in trouble -of every kind thronged to his court for and out of his great knowledge he helped them. Of those brought before him by the police it is said that’he saved more than he sentenced. He preferred putting a man on his honour, and it was only when he found a man without honour to appeal to that his kind eyes grew stern. He preached Christianity and did his best to live it When a wretchedly clad man was in court; bemoaning tire theft, of his overcoat' Mr., Cairns made the man a present of- his own. His own pleasures were delightfully simple,. his favourite recreations being making kites and taking long solitary walks; and in: his spare time he wrpte about.the people with whom he worked,, so that he might -win more sympathy and understanding for them. " Goodbye,- Mr. Cairns, and bless you! ' FRIENDS AND HEROES. TWO GLORIOUS OLD FRENCHMEN. . Two great men and great friends have passed away within a few days of one another, Professor Leon Calmette and his pupil Dr. Emil Roux. They saved thousands of lives. ' Pasteur sent Calmette to combat epidemics in Indo-China in 1890, and he established the Saigon research laboratory. . Among other things he. studied snake venom, and produced the polyvalent. antivenine still .employed.. About 25 years of his life were spent working on tuberculosis in r Lille. ' During the war the Germans occupied Lille, and fotund. pigeons at the Pasteur Institute there. They believed them tobe carrier pigeons, and Calmette, was in peril- of his life. Fortunately for him the German in charge decided to test. Calmette’s • statement- that' the pigeons, were under observation because they had tuberculosis. An autopsy- on thp birds was made, and it was proved that Calmette. was in ■ truth a harmless civilian, .. ■ . ■ Dr. Emil Rqux, whom Calmette loved like a son in spite of his 80 years, won the Nobel Prize for work which led-to the - anti-diphtheria serum. He also made vaccines against anthrax. Like Calmette, he had worked- with Pasteur. For- his brilliant- and lifesaving work he was given honours by nearly every country, but strangers smiled when they saw him go by. Winter or' summer, he wore a thick overcoat and a .woollen- muffler, and his clothes were always shabby. It was because he spent all his money and his thoughts on the laboratory. He was not interested enough in himself to say, “Shall I feel hot in this? Shall I look odd?” It was much simpler to put on the same coat every time he went out! , Only doctors know what we owe to these -two glorious old Frenchmen. TOO MANY HEROES. A PROUD THOUGHT. In spite of everything people say about these degenerate times the world seems to be too full of people willing to risk their lives for others. Mr. Ingleby Oddie, the Westminster coroner, was indignant when the Carnegie Hero Fund could make no award to Stanley Gibbs of Streatham, who jumped into the Thames on a dark cold night to save a woman. It was a difficult place to get out of, and the coroner said the young man’s action was “very, very heroic.” After gaiting her out, and applying artificial respiration till the police came, Gibbs slipped modestly away, and went home by Tube in his wet clothes. The coroner applied to the Carnegie Hero Fund for an award, but the trustees replied that they can now only make awards when the hero loses something by his heroism. We suppose that there are too many heroes, and the fund would be bankrupt if it rewarded all. It is a proud thought. NEW FASHION IN STREET NAMES. From the "troublesome Balkans,” as they were called, comes a new fashion in street names, one of those straws that, show which way the wind blows. Europe is used to walking down streets, avenues, and boulevards named after naval and military heroes; now Sofia has named two streets for men who are famous for their life-saving, not for their life-taking, activities. Avenue Nansen and Avenue Carl of Sweden have been named in honour of two men notable for their work in aid of homeless refugees dislocated by those wars, revolutions, and heresy hunts that are the black spots of our age.