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NOTES FROM ABER AYRON.

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NOTES FROM ABER AYRON. THE END OF A YEAR. The Cambrian News" for this week will be issued on the last day but one of the year. The end of a year is a summit from which the past may be surveyed. A mind that is not blind is compelled to look back. The beginning of a new year, which is a tumulus on the same elevation, is one, no sooner one's foot is upon it than he looks the other way, forward into the mists of the unknown. The County School has brought a new force into our life, our corporate life. You Mr FJditor, have said that one school for Cardiganshire would be more to the mark than five. In one sense, yes. In another sense, a county school moulds the thought and shapes the out- look of life of the district which it serves. Of course, a creative headmastei is re- quired to give a powerful composite per- sonality to the institution. A man of high university culture is not alone enough to achieve this. There are Cambridge and Oxford experts who-are cranky, effemin- ate, and limp. A man from those centres of education, with a masculine mental and physical frame, with a cosmopolitan sym- pathy, and with an intense dedication to the interest of his pupils, seems to make the ideal. An ancient university man without the silly futilities which so many bring with them from those seats ot learning is worth having. But five, six, or more graduates of what cult soevei, working among eighty boys and girls, is a corporation that must be a formative influence to mould character. It also tinges the community in which it works with its own distinctive hues. That community may be unconscious of the operation that is being carried on, for it is a subtle and painless operation. It is like the xorce of spring in the earth—it bursts out bye and bye, everywhere. every how. j. At the annual meeting for the distri- bution of prizes, this general unconscious disregard was very evident. The clergy and professional classes were theie aip- lomatically so to speak. That is to say, a fair representative sprink- ling of them. The other classes were hardly represented. There were parents and brothers and sisters of the prize winners and of the other pupils galore. Hut, how imperceptibly far and "eneral do the tentacles of these relation- ships reach and grip? From New Quay to Silian; from Llanon to Llwyndatydd; from Talgarreg to Cross Inn, Llanbad- arn Trefeglwys, drawing Toother into" or- ganic existence "a new heaven and a new earth." The evidence of this new crea- tion could be discerned on re-union night. There the pupils of fourteen years ago and after were seen to be men and women from all parts of England and Wales. There were doctors, solicitors, engineers, bankers, teachers, farmers, tradesmen, craftsmen. Dr Garfield Evans was there and sur- prised everyone in his new character of a fine baritone singer. He will at an early date undertake the responsible duties of his profession as a medical officer on board one of the P. and O. Indian Boats. Although not exactly a County School boy, but an Aberayron boy nevertheless, one noticed among the happy company Mr W. Williams, of Albert-street, Aber- ayron, who, as a result of a competitive examination, has been appointed engineer inspector under the Board of Trade and who undertook duty during Christmas week at Glasgow. More yet will be heard of him. Thus does the zone of puissant energy spread till it may thread the globe. Wales has the stain ot a skit to live dowÙ. Forty or more years ago "Punch" wrote— "Taffy is a Welshman, Taffy is a thief." Puncn" meant is as a joke, one may say. Just so, but sometimes a joke cuts deeper than a satire. There is never a cari- cature without something of the original features. Prison life engenders subter- fuge and simulation and deceit. Wales was manacled and tortured for centuries. We may have become cute and dodgy. The strain may have impregnated our life. In our religion, our common deal- ings, our censures and flatteries, our pleasures and examinations, this element of elusion may have entered. We have to live it down. And we will. The Railway again is a factor that will vastly change the complexion of the com- munity. In this great undertaking the forces that are at work are not recog- nizable. Things are not what they seem. People are fighting for this and against that without knowing who is friend or foe. There was some talk that the station for Ciliau and district would be at Troedy- rhiw and not at Neuaddu. There has been a great change in the opinion of some people since then. And it is no wonder whatsoever. "To know all is to forgive all." If people had all the facts before them they would arrive at quite opposite conclusions to those they have espoused on more points than one. When con- troversies are ended, and when the facts are laid bare, after the actors are off the stage, then pepole will see how mistaken they were. But apart from the local and other controversies, there is the rail- way all but finished, and, like a telephone for messages, it connects us with the vast welter of the commerce of the world outside whose din has „hjit indistinctly reached us till now.

ABERAYRON.

MACHYNLLETH.

PENNAL.

NEW QUAY.

LLANDYSSUL.

TOWYN.

BALA.

LLANDDEWI BREFI.

PONTHRYDFENDIGAID.

TREGARON.

DOLGELLEY.

LLANUWCHLLYN.

TALSARNAU.

MONTGOMERY ELECTION SEQUEL.

EDITORIAL NOTES.