STRANGE STORIES.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3095, 7 January 1871, Page 2

STRANGE STORIES.

Thebe is bufc one opinion as fo fche charaoter and moral status of any person . who becomes noted aB a- distributer of unfounded rumors, extraordinary stories, or fabrications generally. A touch of quaintness, or humor, or even their very extravagance, m<_y help to circulate them, or obtain for their author a little notoriety. This very stimulus ultimately brings the story-teller to • grief. The good-natured reception that his stories meet with at firat aot as condiments to a depraved appetite, and he at once begins to gluttonise. Half-accepted afc first;, fche cooked morsels come fco be altogether discredited when served up so often. The Btory-teller misses the approbative laugh he was once greeted with, and thinks he has been too sparing of the seasoning. He forthwith alters his style of cookery, fancying that hie former success can only be maintained by a larger admixture of tbe ourry and cayenne ; but he is again foiled, and his old patrons utterly disgusted. From being listened to wifch suspicion, he is at length regarded with fear and aversion. This is the ultimate fate of the professional story-teller, who rarely indulges in bis dangerous art without in the end becoming a perrenial fountain of falsehood, a " whispering tongue thafc poisons truth." On reading fche following paragraph in the "Evening Post" on Thursday evening, and recollecting many others of a like nature that had appeared in fche same columns lately, we could not help thinking thafc he .exhibited fche strongest symptoms of a journalistic Varioloid of this sort of moral small- pox: — "A story has got abroad as to the source from whence Mr Yogel derived his great financial scheme. After the close of the session of 1869, and before Mr Stafford went to Timaru, some of that gentleman's parfcy used to - meet in Nelson to discuss political affairs, and to discuss political affairs, and to them Mr Stafford | unfolded his idea of a colonisation scheme, and sketched a plan for their future campaign. These meetings were supposed fco be private, but some traitor got in and divulged what passed ; parti- , culars were telegraphed to Welhngton hy a friend of Mr Yogel, and on the hints thus given he contrived, by adopting an exaggerated version of his enemies, tactics to turn fcheir own weapons of war against them. The opposition party must have been sadly disgusted when, in Mr Vogel's statement, they recognised their own distorted scheme. Their feelings must; have, been similar fco those of fche fcwo brothers, described by Keats, when peering into their sister's basil-pot : — " ' The thing was vilo, with green and livid spots, And yefc they knew ifc was Lorenzo's face.' " From his recent achievements in thia direction, we not unnaturally indulge in fche supposition that a considerable portion of our contemporary's able and numerous staff must be constantly kept as pacing Paul Pries in fcho corridors of Government House, and as Peeping Toms at the keyholes of Ministerial officers. It is impossible to account in any other way for his accurate. (?) information regarding departmental matters and Cabinet secrets. But the fine skill of this eavesdropping corps is completely eclipsed by. fche inimitable dexterity of the prowlers at large who never fail to strand any stray " rumor afloat," or capture any " story abroad." But we willingly bear witness to the active humanity of our contemporary in rescuing those illegitimate existences from their turbid life, and for hia ready and reokless benevolence iv assuming fche risky sponsorial duties of godfather for those waifs of 6oandal ; though ifc is hard to cay whether the feeling of regret or amusement is strongest in us. ' If this ia the superior enterprise he is so fond of vaunting — fchis strange faculty of finding canards without an owner — wo admit fche claim without a word. Bufc while doing so we are struck with the remarkable resemblance between fchis kind of journalistic enterprise and. that of tho "New York Herald" reporter who surreptitiously ahstraoted a sermon from a minister's hat. The rev. gentleman unfortunately made a fiasco, as h f e memory was like fchafc of bad liars — not very good, and delivered a wrefcohed sermon in consequence ; but it is to be hoped thafc those who were afterwards benefited by it offered up a prayer for fche saorilgious if enterprising reporter, as a verbatim report of the sermon as ifc was not delivered was presented fche nexfc morning in the columns of fche " Herald" to a much greater congregation than it was originally intended for, thereby furnishing a striking exemplification of the saying — "Out of evil comefch good." We hope no one — wo are certain we will not; — dispute fchafc our contemporary is in this respect a leading journal, and we will nofc in derision vjuofce or query fche words; he is welcome to be proud "of the pre-eminence. We areiain to admit that we have but an insignificant; modicum of this imaginative ingredient. We confess fchafc ifc is a system of shorthand we have nofc learned j suoh remarkable reports are the result of some new-fangled phonographic hoous-poous, and by none of the legitimate aids in the dissemination of news are we enabled to discover gunpowder plots that never existed, or find. out stolen telegrams that were bought und paid for, or quarrelling and consternation in Sunday Cabinets, or crude schemes of the astute Stafford thafc like the Promethean figure received life and animation from stolen fire (no doubfc the vulture of fche " Post" is by this fcime deepinto fche rascal's liver). Taking ifc chemically, wo should say such rare bits of rubbish could only ' be fche result of affinity and the law of attraction. We are rather confirmed in this belief, as nd other journal in fche colony, nor in any of the colonies, seems to possess the peculiar enterprise of the "Post" in this particular line— even the "News of the World" with its wonderful telegrams must. ..,; bide its humbled head. We hope that none of ;, j onr contemporaries, on perusing fchis friendly ad- ■'* vertisemenfc _of the unri-ralled powers of the "Post" as a story-teller, will at onoe starpra.ah emulative searoh for fche secret j butif they do; so: \ and be lucky enough to piok it up in aoine.-r^frev. : V quenfced by-way, we hope at leasfc thati be will not publish ifc wifch the addendum often Sfen^afflixed;^ to obituary and marriage noticea-^pUase;^ : —•as the temptation mighfc be tod ifrohg|;eyeßf fpir -■-',:■■ leading journals. ' -V.'. "''-.\ .;'-'>■ -.''■ \ y\\