THE HUB'S DINNER.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 158, 22 September 1883, Page 14

THE HUB'S DINNER.

She went about with look benign, And hung her clothes upon the ligu, Then called her husband in to dign. He spoke to her in accents rough, He disparaged the garden stough — He was a man of manners grough. He stud she knew he hafcod lamb, Tbe dinn,er was the merest sharnb— "Why didn't she prepare some hanib ? She looked at him and muttered, pugh ! And asked, " What cnn a woman dugh To please a cranky man like yugh ?" Was she a woman to sit dumb, While.be came in with aspect glumb ? She would not stand it, no, by gumb ! His judgment of good food she-doubted, His grounds of criticism scoubted ; Half mad with rage these;woi'ds she shoubted. Then with, a look of pain an&.^worry, The wife arose, and in a greatflorry, Went to her mother's in a horiry. This is the style in which- the Sydney Bulletin refers' to the annexation!* agitation : — j " Pious men, rneek^ missionaries who have devoted their- lives to the saving of heathen souls, start up on a. sudden with boding screeches of ' smite,- and spare noti'v Missionary Jingos — frightful phenomena — rear theitihorrid fronts amidst groves of palm,'-and shriek aljSud for troops and ships of war ! ExetfSreHall echoes wiija' tkeir cry, and, in lieu of bleating out the Gospel of Peace, yells forth forjbldqd and slaughter, and mingles its obscene mouthings with the hoarse bowlings of the t-harlot-habnted music-halls. The mistionai y ; from Madagascar of his wrongs, and, : iolai:fis vea::-;sn-"3. Hits fellow from the New Hebridesiriva'K his i.-imnitatio.:'--and denunciations, and; calls on'ithe Dcvi- of ffnv i:o guarantee' him in possession of iis freehold— <lii-e'io«s though thobargain -cost him hiß>soul. Vv'Vhc etc, r.iissionaries want withtfreebolds fcjjjught from the nati^GK whose souls— not whose lands-^wicy profess to ma'ste their only.care ? Are trategicalb^situated i.-.iets, dominating greatharbours,t.be things they .vt-w forth, to save ? Surely the age wants no enthu-.-;; "..stic friaj*a. v:>k> go forth vaitnting that + hey carry th«ir lives in their hands, yet whoshi'iek forarmies;to save them lyhenevor a hair of their hendsis endangered, and naoke a national imbroglio of it if any man places his foot on their 'property' in the savage lands where they professed to seek only a grave I"

The above are two sweet things m designs which onr artist presents, with, his compliments, to the members of the Board of Education, as suggestions for regulation dresses of female teachers. Our artist says he is not absolutely wedded to these designs— he is very much married already, if we mistate.not, and has no. leanings to Mormonisin— but is prepared, to accept any reasonable modifications which would-iibt impair the original classic grace, freedom, and ssthetic beauty of the fine flowing lines. How many grey headed old sinners must have envied our.lot'the other day, when the Doric was at the wharf ! We succeded in eluding,the stern official with a Germanic accent, who guarded the gangway like a Cerberus, by getting smuggled on board in tlie bonnet of a Hallelujah Lass. We got mixed up with, the representatives of the local Press, the reporter for the Wallahaloo Watchman, the Wellington. Slaiigio7«xng_e>\the Gisborne Gohanna, and Mr Leydon, the enterprising literary auctioneer. We penetrated into the most sacred recesses of the big ship in search of those measles, but found nary a spot. Mr Owen, the gentlemanly and diplomatic purser, had too much, respect for our health to allow us to undergo any foolish risks. But avast there ! we are going a little too fast. He exposed the Press men to more risks than if "we had to run the gauntlet of a battery of hundred-ton guns. In the course of our peregrinations we got down in the forecabin, just in the nick of time to observe the lady-libe matron drafting out— that's the term — her girls. It forcibly recalled the old days when we had to lend a hand in drafting out Jmnbuks in Australian sheep-pens. Tho passage was narrow and encumbered by luggage, and it was just a trifle too warm for anything. There was such a collection of squeezing and struggling youth and beauty as would have made even a Barnum vote his own Beauty Show a failure, and turn pale with envy. The process was something like this :— " I must get my girls out— take care of that box— mind your legs, girla —one, two, three— move along there," etc., and all the time we stood jammed up in, a corner with all that youth and beauty brushing "past. One grey-headed Journalist forgot all about the meaalqa, and would have lingered there to the last, had notiiis friends, vrh,p had escaped to the upppr regions, gdne'to tßo'reseue, aud dragged him out by main force.

We remember a rather peculiar dictum pronounced several years ago by Mr Justice Johnston from the Bench. It was to this effect :— Tb'at it wag not th<*dnty of a policeman to arrest an intoxicated man, ivaj?:^t that man was in such a state as to endanger life or P?jMj!j£ perty, no matter whother his own or belonging toi^ others, and was committing a breach of- the peace £,- and, moreover, that if the man was going in the direction of his home, it was rather the duty of the policeman* to assist him. This dicfcnm. excited .much comment in. the Press at the time, but. was generally admitted to be* sound law. We repeat it now because we believe it is■still among- the " Things not generally knojyn," even to-_ policemen. They have rather o bias in the I ' direction off supposing that it is their duty, in tliefijtfst; , place, to* v " run in " somebody, in order to keep up^heir reputation and the Court revenue ; in fact, that theirchances of promotion depend npon the number of? arrests they can make. The other day, Mr Dennis^ Lynch fell into the hnnds of one of this, class of:' Philistines. The facts, as we' heard them, are? these:— Mr Lynch had paid a visit ,to a relative, and had proceeded theneo to the- house 1 ' ofv his brother. At both places the rites of - hospitalityhad been freely enjoyed, but there was n©»drunkenness. 'Mr Lynch then went 1 fin. the direction of his own home. On his way dowiu Queen - street he accidentally bumped against' „a-. policeman, who was perambulating the footpath'T-tjher monarch of all he surveyed.' The policeman's feelings* were ruffled and his dignity .hurt by contact, witlfe. common clay. He eyed Lynch with a stern official air*, and rebuked him for not keeping a wider berth. Lynchreceived his castigation in good humour, and resumed.. the even tenor of his way until- he reached his own* doorstep, where he sat down to finish his cigar., ..Bute here his meditations were suddenly and rudely interrupted by a rough hand being laid on his shoulder. , Itr,. was the paw of thot policeman, who had followed.uptlie--quarry in the hope of making a case. Deaf tq all reason^ or remonstrance, he arrested Lynch on his own doorstep, and triumphantly marched him off to the lock-up-The prisoner offered bail, and. begged to be permittedto communicate with his friends; but, in spite of hiss-, entreaties, was clapped into a cell, left thero all night,, taken out in the morning, and drafted into a room> reeking with smells worse than those which Coleridgedescribed at Cologne, paraded before the Bench, ancL fined 53 and costs. This is one.method of administering* justice and raising revenue, but, nevertheless, it is ai shocking infringement of personal liberty. If a policeman can do these things with impunity, no man will be safe. Ifc will be in the power of a brutal and f,ussy bobby to "run in" anybody on whom he maj'havo'a "Qofen,"" or who may happen to come between the' wind' and- his^ dignity. But for the better gnidance' of su'cn J6fficioti&--officials, whose zeal outruns their discretion, we should like to republish that dictum pi Judge.Johnston.!s,, T an<i. would be glad , if any of our readers could supply, us-i---with the full text. It is said that when\Mr.^Superintendent. Thomson heard all the facts, his hair'aynosfc stood on end. However strict in the perfQrmxincp.of: duty,, he is no friend of tyranny arid .<b\undering;ofiiciousness. .. ■ s', '. .