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[No title]
"The beautiful snow rarely deserve that description in a town least of all towns like Swansea. Neath, and Llanelly, wnere it generally tha-ws during the actual foil, 01 very soon after, and is transformed into ølush which has no beauty or any other agreeable quality. The winter temperature of seas influenced by the Gulf Stream—that huge body of warm or tepid water to which we owe a mildness of weather in violent contrast with that of Can- ada, though geographically on the same level—is higher than that of the atmos- phere capable of producing snow, and hence the infrequency of snowfalls in the area skirting the Bristol Channel and the rapid- ity with which the snow, as a rule, disap- pears. It was nearly Xmas before a suspicion of seasonable conditions was disclosed, and not until the year is nearly out us a real taste given of the winter in snow and frost. We are apt to charge the seasons with incon- etancy because, in the popular mind, there -is a disposition to stint both Spring and Autumn oti their fair share of the year by dividing the latter into Summer and Win- top only. The Iriencii have a more sensible aiangement, which, if observed in this coon- ktry, would provide & fairer test of the sea-  fKmablpl1ess d the weather. For them the ? winter does not begin until December 15th, ?t ends on the same date in March, when Spring arrives; tbe Summer con?iste of June, July, and August, and part of Sep- tember, fo that the Autumn includes Octo- ber, November and part of December. If this reasonable division were accepted by the popular mind it ,N ijitid be better leali-sed that Nature, was following the- appointed course when witholriing extreme cold until WPII into December. Even the most- ardent rt Ckler for sensor*- abie conditions ri apt to become cly satisfied when the snow does fall in West Wales and the frost fastens its hold, for they trying to the patience of even the well-fed and clod, and add appreciably to the hardships of others less fortunate. Tn 1 he rural parts thpfe is pleasure to th« eye in the virgin white coverlets laid upon the fields and in the dainty filagree work with which frost and snow decorate the trees and hedg^o'vs. Snow is beft'jtiful as it appears in th; ]1).5, unrhir bins skiets, overr blue > la'es. and in the, golden gunsihinie. Tt po- pp«=e? an ;n.ddhnoJe charm as seen, a she^t 0; spotkw white, ovoiwpreflding a a pra•.•if; a glittering silver sea. with the vav'? <? if owight and sr?aved in SU8- fended arn??t'on. But in a town witily an *fiber? '?K) !j:m 10 i. ] :'i.t? the con- t.UL'. 't7?'? .?t?w 1'T n'- .v.4 ^w.uOtv. i-.o ht?r t.??omes q;;iddy an unmit¡t-ed J)"isa').'e to th comfortable and the ca.u? c? suS:?- 10 the poor and comfortless.
[No title]
The y?, 1913. despite the generally as- j „ Filmed unlucky combination cf the t?n and the unit?. has been a Lood one for Swan- jsca harbour. It yielded" an increase of nearly 700.000 tons in the aggregate trade, fnd is made noteworthy hy the latter being! earned beyond the seven Million rnai-k. This is good h:nln?-.s. During the three years that the King's Dock has been a factor the inert.?e d trade has exceeded a million tons. rt took t wenty years for the annual aggregate to creep up from one to two mil- j lion tons thirteen years to change two into three millions: five years for the advance from Dhrte to four millions the eame period to get beyond the four, and later to reach the six million- But the seventh million was attained in three years, indicating that the rate of progress has been constantly accelerating. This is a most enconrnsrn-? feature visible to every one who cares to even glance at ihe comparative staust'es. Keasons for discouragement are less mani-¡' fest. They exist nevertheless in the div sion to neighbouring ports of imports which should be landed at Swansea, and in pre- ferences shown for shipments elsewhere of exports which right!v belong tn rnrt. Harbour Trust, Railway Companies. Labour organisations, and even shippers share the ]-espcnsi i lty for the loss of trade at Swan- sea. which, geographically the latter has every reason to eDrct, < nd even the ratify- ing rate of progress maintained should not be permitted to obscure the fact that Swan- sea is only tardily entering into its own as the most western of the great ports of the Bristol C hannel, because of hind,ranees which are removable and should be seriously considered.
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——— —-— In eighteen months the centenary of Waterloo will be upon us; but it is probable that onr ancestors of those hard, full- blooded times, when the Prince Regent was one of the most familiar patrons of the ring, whopn Premiers were publicly drunk in the Honse"; Commons, and men tad their arms cut off without, anaesthetics, would have been lees impressed by the news of that victory than bv the intelligence I that a French boxer had beaten, and t beaten ignominiouslv, one of the most [ prominent of English boxers. The news, in- d-eed, would have sounded iner<xh'bb. to the men of 1815. and would have sounded little more probable even so late as 1895, when the current opinion was that bevond la fnvate, an obscure sport, the art of which lies in kicking an opponent below the belt and in the stomach-two things, both anathema to the Englishman—Frenchmen were physically and mentally incatmble of learn- Jug boxing, or even pra«ping the idea of it. | Since then the national reputation for pre- eminence in boxing, in an kinds of sport. 8 {n all kinds of sport. II;] P. f,_111011 like a home of cards, and a. fpw Baner and more reasonable ideas upon ffie 81Ibject of sport are coming to b.. enter- tained. The public, is, however, still a little bewildered It is not to be blamed. A few years ago the Press was filled with Jeremiads announc- 1!'g that excessive absorption in sports would tie the ruin of the country if it did not m- tft.antly forsake the fooilia.ll field for tne t.ecKl- .fcical classroom. When attention had been glv,eli to their warnings, at least to the ex- telt that the country ceased to produce £ "arupions who could hold their own m-ith: "fign rivals, the tune was changed, and phvsical decadence," as illustrated snch exhibitions as t>io?e of the Stock- IolIr1 OJYJ1lpic games that was to be t;])t, c-u SP „F the count,rv going to the dogs, T'-e P<ofepvsion;d sportsman was one voar jeered fi-t and denounced a,s "the flannelled tool .at -okef. and the muddierl oaf at the *n?^- and tho next year, or the next but lie we hg' p the newspapers filled wiiK Peals for £ 100,000 funds to train such men to the highest pitch of proficiency so that they may bring bacK the ashes from the British Olympic games. The public, reading the two sets of con- trary opinions, hardly knows whether it is standing upon its head or upon its heels. But we are gradually rooting out the truth. There has been, and is still, over much "in- terest" in sport in this country of the kind that is confined to looking on at matches and talking about them; but the ardour with which the Continental countries are tak) ng up the very pursuits which our Cas- sandras have been decrying proves that there has been an equally injurious neglect of play by the foreigner. Both British and Continental are movmg towards a saner ap- preciation of the part played by sport, a.nd physical recreation generally, in life. But there are still some things to learn; and amongst them is the truth that the wide diffusion of a moderate skill is preferable to the concentration of superior skill in a few pairs of hands. In this respect in boxing, nobody will deny that there is amongst the British crowd a grasp of the rudiments of boxing, or, at least, the instinct for fighting with the fist, that is not present with the French crowd, notwithstanding Car pen tier and Ledoux. Another thing that it will be of value to have perceived is that the qualities essential for success in sport need not necessarily be exhibited in mere pastimes. Nothing has contributed more to the rehabilitation of the Diench as a great and still virile Power than the prowess of Frenchmen in automobilism and aviation. Both call for the very highest qualities of nerve and physique—a tireless vigilance and alertness, perfect self-posses- sion, lightning rapidity of thought, nerves of steel and a complete fearlessness, coupled to scientific knowledge and mechanical at- tainments of the highest order. The French are.to the fore as drivers of racing automo- biles and of aeroplanes far more conspicu- ously than we are to-day; and they have shown that the complete neglect of sport in the past has had no prejudicial effect in atrophying certain attributes that have be- come essential to the modern nation that desires to maintain a place in the foremost rank. The injury to the race occurs in other spheres, in depreciating the physique of men content to toil for excessive hours in the lack of any desire to obtain recreation, either by playing games or watching them being played. The French seem to have established thiat tihe quailities that we,a--re. accustomed in this country to associate with sport do not need the conjjenial climate provided by an ntmosT phere of &port for theur growth and flourish- ing, and that those in this country who de- fend excessive pre-or. npat.ion with spirts on the ground of the hitter's utilitv for pro- moting hardihood and presence of mind, cannot claim to have dissevered tbe only specific for producing those qualities. What could htiive been claimed a* th« gift of sport country beyond all other*? was the diffusion of the «pirit. that given to the tarrn -vxurtsmaii a wry wide and hcnouir- able ficnificance nnd has made such pharaees ae pkiylng cricket eiki playing the gprne" tentamo-ru't a popular for s'trairhtf,>T-ji-3'r»- ■ wp deaJ- .c, ?  ?woTf-H?T?.?ca J :ng in all activities hn J sp hotres cf life. It must 132 noted that there is more fair- ness and less acrimony in our political dis- cussions than in those of foreigner?., and that a certain rude sense of sportsmanship runs through the better type of our politi- i cal controversy. But it would be presump- tuous to allot even the major portion of the credit for that to the cultivation of games- even in the face of such brilliant instances as the late Mr. Lyttelton, whose-death was universally lamented by political associates and antagonists—and as far as the mass of people who are not .i,c. concerned, it is somewhat rash to claim for sport much value in producing a spirit of temperate- ness and fairness. South Wales is a very good o1. in poidt. it is stating it mildly to assert that for tens of thousands of people here one form of sport is their chief interest in life. But recent football history, with its record of souffles between players and wrangles between clubs and crowds, makes pa-ajfi'l reading. The. wave of indufi- trial Gisputes* that has passed over a district where sport is one of the most discmssed of topics and pre-occupations prov ided excel- lent and many opportunities of noting what moral benefits, if any, have accrued—whether it had imbued its devotees with a spirit. of self-control, .good temper and faiiplay. These are not qualities that have been easy to discover III the industrial records of the last three years—records of anger, vio- lence, excesses. There has been, .indeed, an uncomfortably close parallel between the ir- ritability of football crowds, the read in i of their disposition to attack anybody whose actions do not square with their notions of what is due and proper, and th.e swiftness with which Labour disputes over pounds, shillings and pence of a handful of men have developed ;nto disorder affecting dist:id.s more populous than mme of the Coloni{'g. And to complete the parallel, the referee in football and the umpire in trade d.isputea have fre/u'ently enough found themselves in an analogous position, of authority repu- diated and defied.
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—— We are sure that the Swansea public have no clear idea of what either nartv to the i shop assistants' strike is fighting for. But the more oft,(in the rase for the one side or the other is stated, the clearer emergos I into sight the fact that, with a. little patience. the strike could have been avoided, and that so little in reality divides the dispu- tants that the continuance of the quarrel is without justification. The points raised by a section of the assistants should be oon- sidered not by this or that individual firm, but by all the drapers collectively, so that whatever agreement is made shall be the: result of negotiations between the repi'esen- tatives ot two organised bodies and have a general effect. There does not seem to be a desire on the part of the employers to force the livmg-in system upon adults who prefer to live out, and as to the recognition of the Union." regarding wili(? =o mnch is being said, it oaun >t be any serious obstacle to settlement when Union officials and employers have been freely communi- cating with one another. In any event, the majority of employers in other businesses have lon? before 1913 discovered that if there ar'" disadvantages in 1'eetive bar- gaining, there are also substantial advan- tages wh?.c a Trades T?ron is wisely om. cered and directed in a reasonab le spirit. Mr. Ben Tillett, whose assistance has been invoked, made two or three statements on Saturday better left unsaid. It is no sen- timental gush about morality," which is re- sponsible for the natural and obvious objec- tion to the living out of young girls who, since the shopping hours are what they are, would frequently be released from duty late at night, to find their way to lodgings which might be a considerable distance away. Even if shopkeepers bad so little consideration for their young employees a¡> to be indifferent to the perils of the street in a town like Swansea, it is certain that the parents would insist upon better care being taken of their young daughters, most oi them innocent and inexperienced. It is not. sentimental gush about moraJity," but a. commonsensible and reasonable paren- tal solicitude that requires regular hours, and supervision for young girl assistants away from home influence and control. Even the girl students in our colleges have to submit to these conditions. The police and ex-pohcemen have been "o indulgent and good-tempered in the treat- ment of the pickets—permitting the picket- ting to go to lengths never meant to be sanctioned by the Legislature—that Mr. Ben Tillett's attaok upon them has not a shred of justification. If Swansea dockers were disposed to take his advice seriously to "turn out each with a cudgel as big as a policeman's and use it, if necessary," the in- citement to acts of violence would be un- pardonable. For, if acted upon, there would be misery and suffering for the simple- minded disposed to literally follow ?uch counsel, regardless of the consequences. There would be injured people, some petr haps killed, and the dookers would be the principal sufferers, for, behind the police are the armed forces available to enforce the h w. there would be arreste and trials implying tragedy for poor excitable fellows and their families. The writer recalls the case of a Swansea docker, with a, wrong con- ception of rhetorical lfourishes, who, as he thought, did what was expected of him- threw 6tones at the county police—was aarested, convicted, and sent to prkon, from which he emerged a broken man, repudiated by his fellows, an object of distrust to em- ployers. His subsequent experience, as de- scribed by himself, was a pathetic and solemn warning against yielding to the spirit of lawlessness, by whomsoover encouraged For so long as Constitutional Government persists the man who puts himself against the law is bound to be a loser every time.
[No title]
The great crowd that witnessed the fine match at St.. Helen's on Saturday between the Swansea and Neath teams testified to the vitality of the Rugby game. It did more proof was given of the readiness of the crowd to support the two rival codes impartially. The Swans" were away; the majority of the 11,000 or 12,000 who visited the Vetch FieJd on Friday poured into the Cricket Field to swell an attendance j approach.,ng 20.000. It is becoming as plain as a pikestaff that in towns like Swansea, Cardiff, and Newport the two codes can exist prosperously side by side if the fixture lists are so arranged that in most cases each is given the chance to profit to the uttermost from" star" engagements. But when the unavoidable clash happens the less attrac- tive match suiters pecuniarily. As at Car- diff on Saturday, when the Soccer" Club had its record "gate" of nearly £ 600 be- cause the Rugby Club had nothing better to offer tha-n a game with the Old Merchant Taylors. It is evident that t.W rivaj codes can pro? p er mde by side if ihe nxtm-?s are ca pi r?pr ?,iO- I if 4,, fixtliiw are oopulons centres Elsewhere the cmnmun- ity of limited population, like iMorthyr, i Llanelly. Nea-th, Port Talbot or Bridgend must riak kl, up its mind to support, one or the other cf the two codes. It cannot tain both. For a Rugby ridq entails expense to keep going as yrell as a professional team of Soccer" players, and the two re- quire more gate-money than can be expected from a limited population. Club commit- tees and club manners in South W??)-! are beginning to realse this economic truth.
[No title]
The recrudescence of "dumping" into this country, particularly of iron an4 steel manu- factures, is a sure indication of coming de- pression in trade. Foreign iron-producing countries have lately been turning out more than their home market can absorb, and are therefore getting rid of their surplus by sending it to the British market and under- selling British manufactures. During the first eleven months of this year iron and steel manufactures to the value of £ 13,764,919 have been imported from ?abroad. Ul increase of £ 2,000, COO over the corresponding period of 1912. We may ex- pect to see these figures of competitive im- ports largely increased in the near future, when the Continental markets begin to feel in a greater degree the effect of the trade slump. A "Free Trade" country such as ours is doubly hit at such a time. It suffers from the decreased demand for manufac- tures which dull times always bring, and also from the increased dumpin,g of foreign-made goods. The employment of our workers is affected by both these causes, whereas in a protected country such as Germany, which safeguards its home market from unfair competition, only the first of these factors is operative. British goods cannot be dumped into Germa.ny to the detriment of the German worker, but we open wide our doors to the surplus production of Germany, thus inevitably throwing many of our. work- ers out of employment. "Ftee Trade," then, intensifies the evils of slack times, while a wisely-constructed tariff mitigates i them. It would be well if our "Free Trade" statesmen, instead of indulging in glowing prophecies and reckless assertions regard- i ing trade prospects, were to follow the ex- ample of the Prussiaji Ministry of Com- i merce and Industry in calmly recognising and admitting the approach of a period of bad trade and preparing to meet it. The Berlin correspondent of the I The Bcrl  ii c(, Slieffield Daily' Telegraph" vItec.xrs- ber 4th), in an interesting communication on this subject, says:—"As long ago as May last (that is, well before the industrial de- pression was a patent fact) one of the best judges of Europe's trade and finance, the Financial councillor Professor Schwarz, de- j clared that Mr. Llovd George's Budget was ill-based, precisely Iteoause it was based on the expectation of good trade. In reality the era of good trad? was at an end." "It is my opinion," added the Professor, "that the crisis when it comes will be sharper, and probably of longer duration, than the crises of 1900 and 1907." Another weighty warn- ing is given by Dr. Brezigar, a well-known auth<t ty. who has just w-ritten a book en- I titled "Premonitions of an Industrial Crisis." In it he eixamines numerous factors of business life, and discovers that in all of them conditions have been reached which are identical with the conditions preceding the trade slumps of 1900 and 1907. Another authority, Herr Fahrer, of Leipzig, eon- firms Dr. Brezigar's calculatloris, and says "If Mr. Lloyd George had consulted our statistics even as long ago as January he would not have predicted good trade." The assertions recently made in the Radi- cal Press regarding the extent of unemploy- ment in Germany are entirely discredited by the official statement made in the Reichstag on December 4th, by Dr. Delbrnck, the Minister of the Interior, who, replying to a question on unemployment, said that the labour market in Gerniavv was far more favourable than jt, was in "Free Trade" England. Moreover, the well-informed Pt-r- I V it lin correspondent ot 7" .^Shrjiield Daily Telegraph" says: "{"roq,o,s unemploy- ment is always very ,,t many trades rormally it is not smallish frac- tion of 1 per cent. 1¡(1 *•> a very slight in- dustrial tuvge an unemployed percentage of, w,y, C.r1 into 0.60, and that id just what is iiapjjsnJoig. To-day the amount ot surplus ktiiUir in Germany is still exceedingly small, hl]t it is much greater t'han the amount in :'T.2, and in the preced- ill1,g fat year- Th-, official figures of un- employment for the first nine months of 1913, as given in th." "Reichs-Arb-eitsi-latt," show an average of AVy 2.7 per cent., with a slight tendency to decrease. There need be no fear of acute industrial depression in Germany Slack times, no doubt, are at hand, hot her fiscal system, whioh reserves the home market of 66.000,000 consumers for home producers, will enable to tide over the troubled waters. -i, she has our open market, into which, through the folly of our states- men, she can enter without paying tax or toll, and dump the surplus output of her factories and workshops at prices which mean ruinatior to British industries and starvation to rritisn workers. We, who can neither protect < ur own market nor un- dersell our rivali in theirs, are bound to feel the effects of the slump, when it comes, much more severely than Germany. Bitter experience will ;hen perhaps, convince our workers that a fiscal system which means low wages in nùrJIW times and unemploy- ment in bad time? which has no claim whatever to their support. )
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**• I The Chrristma£t.id4; of 1S13 reflected the I abounding prosperity of the year, in crowded shops and marker? the packed places of amusement, and the iavish outlay of money upon every hand. Vt&fTed only to a certain extent by weather a ndiuLons overhead and underfoot that wer-J occasionally disagree- able, there was rp r» the other hand the satisfaction of the k 'wledge that upon few modem occasions 1 > the general prosper- ity and well-beiug qten more widely dif- fused. At 8wan.-e<i benevolence of the public, through the l&yor a Fund, had en- sured seafou?ble cY- "r in a multitude of hom<?, and the jnr jeedenbed number and variety of (nterte.inr nts enabled people to make the fullest uw of the holidavs at the close of the year. ie secular observances of the day greatly redominated over the religious; and this J.a'astide testified again to the nearly all-pe. /ng spirit of pleasure making which so marked a feature of the last decade. &"1 so far as it diffuses a general air of joy. usnoss a.nd goodwill it is wholly commend^ 5 we no longer take our pleasures sadly, oven if we take them undeT conditions frf neatly of extreme dis- I oomfort. I
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.( > » There is, perhaps, wo much feasting and I drinking to-day, in .ixineict ion with what is primarily a religious ••.ssfcival; but of all the changes which h.i v occurred in modeim times one of the UK gratifying is in 'the habits or the pefpL Evary pleasure exacts its price, and none nrv *<? so than over-indulg- I I afc the t-'bb. thnra IPSS of it i nowadays than in v ret. past, when it was J regarded as quite t-ie proper thing to get intoxicated. We hould now regard as 1 coarse and sensual hose persons who in- j dulged their appetit s on "mightiest ale," 1 or amazing oompouii of food, until they were helpless. Thc-ihas been a growth of i sobriety among all 'asses, and a drunken man in the stroet-s n on-a days a compara- j tively rare sight. A JJll:" old customs, how- over, still linger in the present. We still j decorate the ahureb'-s with holly and ivy, j and carol singing, iongh decadent, is not .%nd Pai,,o l s mging, dead. But the Yule Jeg has departed along with medi.'eva! mum' and the ridiculous j ai tics of the Lord 4 Misrule and his fol- • j I lowers. j Some people say hat the old fashioned j Christmas was a mv h, invented by C'harl€S !Dieken&, and fostelo by interested trades- men and others wh, -lave a large pecuniary interest in the sear: u. Even tlic, weatlier, they say, was often s n vt far- removed from the conventional CJè" stmas card represenla- ■ g pa g 4E?l-i-it of ice i tian, with its gjittei aig pa-geant of ice ;1 snow under red suns tsor frosty stars. Cer- tainly the Christra.' i numbois—which are now stale and forgoc' n by the time the -a- son arrivre rno/ -i faithful to this time- honoured tradition the festival itself. But there is one chan./e we may speak about with certainty, for it i-i £ occurred within the memory of most of is. Up to about ten jears ago Christmas ^as essentially a family festival. Wide circhs ofs-cattered rehti.-es. were then reunited. The whol? family re- asaembled under th? paternal roof to enjoy the roast beef and phim pudding. To a cer- tain extent the gene al public continues to' observe this pleas i custom; but every year sees a larger nu mber of people journey- ing to Switzerland to participate i,n the win- ter sports, or spending the holidays at the seaside or health rc?.. >rts, or joining in par- ties at the iashiona1 Ie hotels and restaur- ants. The pleasure- "jng spirit is ousting the family reunion. Happily ther? in (. 'e feature of the &&a?.on which re.m?ins um hanged. Whether reli- gious observance ia getting less, and the pleasure-seeking element greater, is a moot point, but it is undeniable that the spirit of goodwill is not dj c inishUlg. For- evidence of this we have c>.>'■ to look at the ever- increasing fS'Qi'ts oi the compassionate to ensure a happy thr .> for thj sick, the af- dieted, the needy, :jiiJ the outcast. In pub- lie institutions, in philanthropic homes, and in private agencies very much is done to bring a ray of happiness into the lives of others. Even the hearts of veritable Scrooges are thawed by the genial, cheerful iiirhicwco of Christmastide. The family re- latioasnip which binÓ, human beings to each i other by thicker ov thinner ties is not for- gotten at this gracit time, which com mem oi ates t he jubilant ti ->ssage, Peace on earth and goodwiil towar.-s men." Such acts of kindness not only g;v? delight to tne recip- ients but deepen the .r'y of the fef.thal and give a greater reality to the old-fashioned but none the less sincei salutation with which j we greet each other, "A Christmas and a Happy New Year
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Just outside Nu.ro'ii. in BritiAh East Africa, a Welfthmari named TIarries eetablished himself as a farmer. He is a native of Carmarthe .hire. and his wife is from I;1 anKendeirne. near Kidwelly. His farm covers eighteen wiles of oountry. and includes a coffee plantation and groves of lemon trees. He als < owns a large herd of buffaloes, and few years ago Mr. iRooeovelt stayed wi h Mr. and Mrs. Har- ries at this farm hi i shot a buffalo. Mr. Cherry Kearton, the dodd's greatest wild animal photographs!. has been a guest at the farm quite lately: a.nd has taken nn- ny [cinematograph pho.c^raphs 0n "the fai-m." I Mr. and Mrs. Uai, always speak Welsh at home, and they have a little boy who; can speak Welsh and Swahili, the native language, and he often mixes the two languages in a funny way. He has taught I one of the black boys, a native, a let of Welsh, and he calls this hoy Jones."
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The "Four Ionclons" furnish Empire pftrons with a. most thrilling performance this week. < < >- X ? With the very first ad vent of real wintry weather, the only two shipping mishaps re- corded on Monday are, of course, to Swan- sea-bound traders. It. took the Swansea scaxemging depart- ment some hours to realise that there had been an overnight snowfall. The sweeping of High-street began in the afternoon on Monday. "Edw:a.rd Patrick? I thought, you said Edward Partridge. I suppose our mind runs on that at this time of the year."—Mr. Henry Thompson at the police court. "Living in or out" is a question that j ought to be settled very quickly this cold, wear her. Put it to the test by sleeping in a cosy bed one nig/nt and the next on the Round Top 1 Judging by the coal carte held up" at the foot of Mount Pleasant this froety wea- ther one wouders that some enterprising mercSiant has not gone in for a motor coat lorry. There's money in it. "The Leeds street-cleaner has behind him the power of the workers of the Swansea Valley," says "Llais Llafur." All the same, Swansea Vaiey notwithstanding, the Leeds strike appears to have missed fire some- how. "You all met together after chapel-at the coming, out.—some people think it's the pleasantest time." Mr. Henry Thompson to aw affiliation case witness at Swansea. Depends on the length of the sermon. Mr. Highain, the new controller of the Mondite journal at SwanfVa. takes over the responsibilities of the position after those are relinquished by his predecessor on the 31st December. We wish him A Happy New Year." "She's a liaK* -gested Mr. Thompson to a police court witness oi Monday. "Yes, sir," retorted witness. "And t? ether wit- A i ness wa?A liar?" "Yes, sir.-i,? ?"ery- body's a liar bnt yourself?" "Yes, sir!" That settled it! "This a frivolous age," comments the "Gowertonian "look how popular Lark- i?) ha? become The ame bright little bqs 'btcoriie!" The ,-?arre bn,ht. little the heat from the sun "the sea boils ønoe every blue moon." 4'- ? >-< $ '-< > Mr. Evan Williams, the chairman of the with W aleo Coalowners' Aoscwiation, is probably the youngest coalowner to have attained that position. Mr. Williams, who wiU astjist Mr. R. A. S. Redmyne, C.B., H.M. Chief Inspect.or of Mines, at the St3ng. henydd inquiry this week, is an M.A. of Camhridge. "On behalf of all connected with the school, we heartily congratulate Oswald Jenkins" (says the "Gowertonian"), "who by distinguishing himself has brought dis- tinction to the school. We hope that his 'Blue' will saoii be supp] omen ted by his Welsh 'cap' And so say all of us. The police court charge sheet never de- scribes a man as a plain drunk. There is always some qualifying circumstance-—drunk and "incapable," or drunk and dis- orderly," or drunk "in charge of a hor^e i and cart." Were it not for "the quairi ra- tion there would have been, not three Xmas drunks up at the police court, but some- thing nearer three hundred. 3..4 Pigs were left starviaig for three r- jy. in the Corporation Slaughter-house. Such was the evidence in a nwo at iSeath re- cently. Because of -a inisunderetnr.diiig between the vendor and the purchaser, it; was apparently no one's duty to feed them. The Markets Committee shovld frame a re- gillation to prevent a recurrence of such cruelty. «•»»»» Writes a cynical Swansea correspondent The old saw referred to at the Swansea shop assistants' meeting that shop assistants had the swank of a duke with the pay of a dustman appears to have originated in the iact. that, shop assistants cultivated a sense ] ol decency and self-rejpect on £ 1 a week that was loftily ignored bv the superior souls who, despite twice the pay, appar- ently nnd the price of a cake of soap prohibi- e.ittly flid the pr,Ice of a, cake of soap prohibi- A good many really respectable people went through same mvoluntary acrobatics on Monday morning at. P^it Talbot. The ,r- ulld was. as a matter of fact, very con- ducive to egile moveiment. "Pile omlv thing that resembled anything like .-tasTa.tion was the police court. there beinrr only five oases. Sev«ra.l Port Talliot ^"ntlemen have not been known to take such "'('nuQ'\lB exercise ior ->-< -<{> ITie" mixing up in our loa; contemporary of one. of the objectionable sexual advertise- mants—which no reputable journal in the Kingdom will accept—with that of a high- clatj fire assurance company, hao brought solicitors into the picture. An inexplicable to publish an explanation or offer an apology, even after the serious nature of the- blunder had been pointed out.. has not ten,ded to better the situation, I The oM-time scenes at St. Helen's on Sat- urday afternoon—overflowing stand crowd- ed banks; again the deep-throated shouts from the cheap side as, with the Swansea I forwards sticking grimly to their work, the light White backs cleverly and gamely re- fused to be awed by the avalanche-like rushes of Neath 's "terrible eight." It was glorious; and now we "hull not see the Whites play at home again for four weeks. The pity of it.—("Prospero.") An interesting story of the Rev..Morris I Morgan, the temperance stalwart, was told I at the presentation function on Monday. The rev. gentleiiian was addressing an au- dienoe Jroill a soup-box on the mountainside in the Rfirondda Valley when his precarious platform collapsed to the delight of the members of the opposition present. Mr. Morgan, who was opposing the renewal of a certain license at, the time. neat-Jv turned the tables by retorting that he hoped tho pub would fall in the same way. Ma-ny people would like to be li"Ssng-ia just now. j .♦ » «> «>->»> ■ More popular than Tango, in the snow— the errand boy's "glide. Toboganning down Mount Pleasant is aluiost rivaling ditto in Switzerland. We said "almost." The Whites, in Rugby football at any rate, are conhrnred Homo Rulers, as the London Irian testify. "TlaAf-gate" P,t Treharris would not have covered the train lares. The ground was bad and the atte- werse. Where is the man who groused about "this rainy On the next corner, again grouping—-about the cold. "Father?"—" Yes, Willie."—"Why do they speak of Swansea beating Neath by tHe bare try ?"—" Because it is the 'naked truth,' my. son."—" Got him this time, mother How many wives did Henry the Eighth hawe?" was one of the pose-i,6 lired at us this Ohrritmasfcide over the 'phone. We cannot cay off hand, except th.t Henry had had more than were good for him. The Swa-ns found things desperately quiet at Tr-eharris on Saturday. Playing before a crowd of three hundred unentnusiasfcic spectators is quite a oliange after facing 10.000 perfervid Abeaijawe supporters at the Vetch Field. >4" Some of' the posters on our hoardings are not exactly Royal Academy productions, but by common consent those advertising "The Woman that Conquers," at the Royal this week ,a.re certainly mi lee a,head. of the usual coat of thing. The most forlorn wanderer in Swansea streets on Saturday night was he with the concertina, who had come across from Neath to play the triumphant All Blacks back into town after defeating the discomfited All Whites at St. Helen's. ■» -m It would be interesting to have the opinion of Mr. Bliss's staff on the" livirg- in agita' ) after the bill distributors had passed through Victoria Park on Saturday afternoon. Chucinng-o»+- Yvoukl figure in it ior certain (writes "Prospero.") In the Swansea y. Treharris match on Sat- urday the player., found time to indulge in pleasant little arguments regarding the off- side rule. Mr. Neale, of however, generally demonstrated that he was abso- lutely rignt iu his interpretation of this diffi- cult rule. The Swans' Cup season conimances in earner licit Satuirday. They then meet C,"I,ez,ar in the third "tind of the Welsh Cup, a.rid%t.he following weeds. op,Kt» Mer- '?f i;: the first- round of tiie Eu?I'.? Cup. A? t.he end of the month thcv contest the second rotmd of the South Wales Oup with Gaea-ph.i''y. Our cont.pvnpora.rv, with its usual tact < ivi K-i-etri'v.-n* c;>.pac ;f v pnitkig its foot into it" with rbd'cwu paort:are,wšè>c' tention to tlie fact that the 7-Ilerting boxts at the Liberal Club for its Santa Claus Fund contained the impressive sum of one a.nd twopence, whilst at the Young Liberal institution the sum thus donated was NIL. Ha!" said the breezy person as he strode vigorously along Oxford-street on .\i.mday morning; "this is something like j; makes you feel you're alive." And then he got on to a piece of frozen snow, oscil- lated and thudded, and the Corporation roadman wtro had come on with the bear's head temper brightened up wonderfully, and said that the language was a credit to a full-grown man. Proposed by Prospero," seconded by Public Opinion, and supported by the Swan- sea Football Committee, and with them Mr. F. E. Perkins, "that the best thanks of fol- lowers of Rugby football be accorded to Mr. Harry Creber, Mr. John Tucker, and the ground staff at St. Helen's, for restoring to that historic ground its reputation of being the finest playing pitch in the coiintrv. All in favour say Aye. The ayes have it Mr. Ben Tillett was rather effective in his Swansea speech when he described the "fluffy old lady" who had walked from her carriage into the shop and flopped herself down in the nearest chair to give her orders. Ben, suiting the action to the word, sat down and pretended to be out of breath and fan himself. "The logic of it is," he added, "that if the lady hau to sit down to give her orders, then the shop assistants ought to be allowed to sit down when taking them. It is little wonder that our Bombardiers make a positively ignominous show against the modern Gaul. The old fighting spirit i of the breed seems to be dying out. On Boxing IMigbt there was a most anynated i scene at the lower end of Wind-street. For one moment it looked as if there would be a junior scrap between a couple of pais who had fallen out. But alas like 99 out of every 100 of such brawls, it all died away in a loud exchange of choice language. Nobody :r ern.-i to have grit enough to start a dog fight nowadays. Swansea^ as I confidently expected they wouia. have niaae all excellent recovery, and the team as at present constituted will go far. if the Welsh Union authorities fol- low the example of the All Whites and keep their iheada, ignoring the panic-mongers, w ho are as ready to believe that geese are swarns or vice versa, according to whether they win or lose, then a very capable team, indeed, will be pitted against England at Twickenham next month."—(" The Bard," in the "Daalv News and Leader.") $ $0. They had been enjoying themselves early morning, and espied a taxi waiting with the chauffeur temporarily absent. "I wouldn't mind," said one, puffing a black clay, "get- ting into that and driving it on the beach to the Mumbles." "But." said his friend. j with a hiccough, "yoo can't drive ¡, much less that." What's it matter." was the reply; "are you game?" Yes, I'm game, and we could give Bill a look up. And so they rambled on enjoying their dar- ing. But there was nothing doing, and vvhen the taxi had been driven awav thevi st'/od still talking what they would do-- with another. The en d of the Ledisnx v. Bcynon match The .end of t'he L('dolX Y. Beynon makh left the crowd sm-echiess. In en"h round_ except perhaps the 5th—the T-'i-'bu-h lad had been a scorer through- lit. Tumultuous cheers had attested o-^n^-al belief that 1, W"iq an rrsv TW M* the beginning of tl1,p 1'1,+' it vqc,,i -nmr-se that Beynon wng a non-starter, and tli,-f the award t-o V-erv- j' body war puznled. "fbe xnlination that' Beynon, whoop '•ves ^ave D*?ger Str>r<l<»Y ■ the victory in t-be second c-'m+e-d. 11,0")1 practically b!iiid_d in t-he frsy, h:f the crowd of his supporters only half convinced. A piano case in an Uplands garden sug- gasts that a Christmas box worth having i:&d come along! E,en the Press" and "Empire" teama at the annual match Christmas Day played 'Soccer." or tried to. r-.rr_ The statement that a spectator was turned out of the Vetch Field on Boxing Day for whistling ";>->span Facti" i& a vile Rugby fabrication. When the f, isiiguatd express passed through Lian^ly one night tii-s week, the engine was api^hed with blood, having run into a bullock on the line. It is the gentry,' opinion that the town could do with a smaucr number of police than at present ^yR a Llanelly organ). There waa a time v-hen Lia,nelly thought otherwise. One can get too much vf politics. Mr. J. W. Nicholas, writing in ales." states.- "I am bored by the Asqiu.nian periods; but give me Towyn on opiun unrl I am in the seventh heaven of delight.' Here is a chance for record searcher*. On Xmas Day, playing against ale Wat- sonians, the Whites fielded as a three- quarter line three schoolmasters an] one embroyo lawyer—leaders of thought HI. Did the managers of indoor placesyf amusement weep hitter tears over th vicious rain storm which swept through Swansea streets on Boxing Day, just as the early doors were being opened up? We don't thillk- ..œ. The London Irish played Maesteg on Christmas Day, and after various vicissi- tudes reached headquarters at l the Hotel Cameron, Swansea, for their Christmas din- ner. They now say that, so far as transit is concerned, a fixture in the Balkans would have no terrors for them. In order to comply with the Ipgal require- ments, a special meeting of Swansea Council will have to be convened to give effect to Wednesday's unanimous approval of the re- commendation that the Freedom of the Bor- ough should be conferred on Sir John Llew- elyn, Mr. David Da vies, M.P., Mr. Roger Beck, anJ Mr, John Dyer. A -rvv irGfZE«i* ity, but necessary all inC Same. We have heard a deal concerning the Wells and CarpenLer and the Langford and Jeaunette mills. But for a whole- hearted "sürp commend us to what hap- pened when a small boy tried to annex another small boy's place in the queue formed up for one of the Xmas ticket  Mr. Dan Thomas, of t.h Three Lamps bicws-out. h onias, uf ?' T hi?ee Lamps Hotel, with a thou?htfulness for a very de- serving class, has made a seasonable gift of a nice warm scarf to each of the Swansea ■ newsboys. One hundred scarves were distri- I liiited at the two locui offices, and they cost Mr. Thomas over E5. Netdless to say, the gifi. was received with hilarious dslight. | The Llanelly polio-, .lave.esned a warn- itig to tradesmen in the town to examine money received from customer? and when giving change over the counter. Recently several shonkeepers have been victimised by a fashionably-dressed woman, who ins p;i»sed off sixpences gilded as half-sovereigns, i We thought Lianeily peopie were smarter than that. j <> They decided that to go home to bed on Xmas Eve would be a silly thing to do. So they raised their voices in song. Knowing no cards of ancient days, they burst forth into the modern qbstitnte, However, an enraged household r. with the aid of a jug of cold water, per laded them that they were not going to "W it for the Robert E. Lee" on his doorstep, uiyhow lr. T. L. James, in an article on "Welsh- men in America," declares that Major- General Miles, who figured in the Civil War, was the descendant of a Nilies who reached New England from Swansea in. 1664. Jeff- erson Davies, the President of the Con- federate States (a man of Welsh lineage), was fittingly captured at the close of the war by Gencrais Powell and Pritchard, both Cymric in their origin. Mr. T. J. Thomas (Sarnicol), lecturing be- fore the Manchester Welsh National Society, said that a peculiar feature of eJsh music was that the majority of Welsh tunes and songs were in ( e minor key, but notwithstanding this the Welsh- man could sing in a minor key and still re- tain his sense of mirth- He seldom thoroughly enjoyed a picnic unless he was given the opportunity of singing. One of the most ridiculous songs in Wales was "Y Sospap Fach," and this was usually sung as if it were a funeral dirge. Nothing is so likely to check the flow of support to professional "Soccer" than the introduction of foul play. There are fouls (improperly named) which are innocent, ac- cidental, and unavoidable. It is the inten- tional "foul" that should be watched for and sternly repressed by club directors. The customary excuse, "The other side began it, and our "fellows, being human, only retali- ated," is put forward for the home team everywhere, but is only special pleading. Bettor to lose matches thaji lose public re- spect. Referees should be encouraged to act with courage. The building trade in Swansea district seems to be on the "take it easy plan in some places. A correspondent vouches for the truth that there is a group of three houses be!ing built in one spot which were started eighteen months ago and are still in the course of completion—in fact, the carpen- ters have not arrived yet. The correspon- dent well remembers the first excavations being made at the time of a colliery explo- sion in 1912. In other places they start the foundation in the morning and are evict- ing the tenants for arrears of rent by night- fall I Keir Hardie tells a good story at his own expense. He was motoring from Cwinavon to Swansea during the railway strike, when the machine cast cne of :t8 wheels. There was nothing for it but to wait until another had been 'phoned -up for to Swansea, and M». Hardie and his friends visited a quaint, old-world inn at Briton Ferry, where they had some bread and cheese to while away the time. One of the company was an en- thusiastic young Welsii devotee, wh:> thought to impress the buxom votzig land- lady, fresh from Staffordshire, with the honour of the occasion You would be very proud," he said, in his ichcst Cymric accent, "did you know whom you are sery. ing." The host<?-is smiled, but said nothing. c. Did you ever hear of Keir Hardie Slia looked puzzled, arid said, I beg your par- ch n?" Keir Hardie, sa:d the ent husiast, and the ,/iy came nrompt and sharp: No, 1 dozi't spex,'Lc Wetsh