The Aberdare Leader

To Readers and Correspon- dents. All contributions of local interest will be gratefully received at the offices of this paper. Clergymen and Ministers, Secre- taries, and organisers of social functions, political meetings, and all public events are respectfully asked to acquaint us of these events before hand, so that we may secure reports of the proceedings. When a reporter is required, notification should arrive at our office punctually. Our correspondents will oblige us by for- warding their reports at the very earliest convenience. All communications to be addressed I- LEADER" Office, Aberdare.

PERHAPS it will be news to most of our readers to be told that in the golden days of Good Queen Bess Boards of Guardians were authorised to deal with the unemployed problem in a very practical manner. More than that, they were compelled, under a rather severe penalty for negligence, to attend to their duties as employers of labour- or taskmasters, rather. In his recently published pamphlet, which is very stimulative to thought and action, Mr }fnV "H?rdie> M-P-> in dealing with Guardians and their Powers" cites the following mandate issued by the Secretary of State in 1694 Mandate issued in 1694 addressed to the Over- seers of the Poor and to the Church- wardens for the setting to work of all the poor within your parishes. By virtue of the Statute made in the three and fortieth year of the reign of our late Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth for the relief of the Poor These are to will and require you, whose names are here underwritten, that you, together with the Churchwardens of your Parish for the time being, do according to the same Statute, take order from time to time, (for this year to come) for the setting to work all the Poor within your Parish (as well married as unmarried) that are able to work, and have no means to maintain themselves, nor use no ordinary and daily Trade of Life. to get their living by. And also for the placing out as Apprentices all such children within your said Parish as are fit to be put forth, whose parents are not able to keep and maintain them. And also for the raising of a convenient stock of Flax, Hemp, Wool, Thread Iron and other necessary Ware and Stuff in your said Parish for that pur- pose and also for the providing of necessary relief for all such Poor within your said Parish, as are Lame, Old, Blind, Impotent, and unable to work, wherein if you be found negligent, or shall fail to meet once a month to confer together for the purpose afore- said, then you are to forfeit 20s apiece for every month that you shall be*found remiss or careless therein. And there- fore see that you fail not in these pre- mises at your peril." And strange to say, this legal enact- ment is still on the Statute book. Another Act passed in the reign of George III. empowers Guardians to buy 50 acres of land for each parish, and also to establish workshops so as to enable the unemployed to earn a living as honest workmen. Mr Keir Hardie says that the Guardians should be urged; to exercise the powers ex- tended to them under the afore- mentioned Acts. We do not doubt the capability of Guardians to act in the role of employers or supervisors of labour, or the possibility of making the Union a labour bureau for the un- employed, but it would be interesting to know whether in the course of two centuries and a decade any serious attempts have been made to put these laws into operation, and with what results. The fact that the Acts are not administered by a single Union to-day speaks something.

MOUNTAIN AsH National Eisteddfod is not to be abandoned or postponed. The Revival will not injure the Eisteddfod any more than the Eisteddfod will injure the Revival. To materially interfere with the arrangements of the Eisteddfod would be detrimental to all concerned. It would spell disaster to the guarantors and those who are financially interested in the National Festival. Besides, it would be an in- calculable loss to the song, literature and art of Wales. Cambria can no more afford to dispose of its Eisteddfod than Britain can afford to dispense with its Indian Empire or its Shakespeare. To suspend it even for one year would be a national calamity. Far from shunning the National Festival the good people who are so absorbed in the Revival should welcome it. We admit that the Eisteddfod has its faults and foibles. Then all the more reason why it should be reformed and regenerated. Let the revivalists, if they believe in an ethical diwygiad, set about it to purify and purge our national institution of its sins—both of omission and of com- mission. Let them set their faces against the speculation and 'gambling which they condemn-and rightly condemn. If Mountain Ash people will, instead of closing their gates against the Eisteddfod, welcome it and try to elevate it, they will be rendering a national service. We are pleased to note that the various ministers of the town responded so nobly last Sunday to the request of the Eisteddfod com- mittee to exhort their congregations not to allow their hands to wax feeble in support of the Eisteddfod. In continu- ing their rehearsing of ennobling and soul-elevating music the choirs will be doing good service to religion no less than to music.

SCRAPS. [BY THE SCRIBE.] The following story appears in the South Wales Daily News Welsh Gossip. It has been handed down from father to son, and was recently related by an old Aberdarian, to whom it was told by an Aberdare centen- arian named Richard Thomas. -:0:- Major Matthew, of Blaengwawr, a well- known Royalist, raised a number of men in the Aberdare Valley in 1648, and took them down to Llandaff, Cromwell's army being at Cardiff. Mrs Matthew, anxious to hear from her son, the major, sent a well-known local character, khow as Will Bach,' with a message. He found the major at Llan- daff, and Will refused to go back when he heard that there was going to be a fight. During the battle which followed Will Bach saved his master's life by coming to his aid when he was attacked by three of the Par- liament's soldiers. Some years after, in 1661, Will Bach was playing ball in Aber- dare Churchyard during the Mab Sant. He had a fight with another local character, one Twm y gof Bach, and in the fight Twm was killed. AVill was arrested and sent to Cardiff gaol, but on the way he met his old friend the major, who at once went off post haste to London and brought back a pardon from the King for poor Will Bach." -:0:- The unemployed problem is getting more and more acute. The ranks of the out-of- work are now being swelled by the minis- ters and policemen owing to the revival, and by the teachers owing to epidemics. -:0:- In one of the reports of H.M. Inspector of Schools in the Aberdare district which were read at the last Education Committee it was stated that the infants were getting on well under "the motherly care of the headmistress. If this mistress is a maiden lady I hardly think she will re- gard that as a flattering compliment. Where are you from ?" was the question put to one of the inmates of the House who was ushered into the august presence of the Merthyr Guardians on Saturday. Breconshire way" was the reply. Good county that," remarked one of the guardians. Yes replied the Rector of Dowlais When some people are out of it." Whether he alluded to the inmate or the Guardian, or both I am unable to say. -:0:- A lay preacher in a pulpit in the Aberdare Valley last Sunday made a striking and rather happy hit when he referred to Moses as marching out of Egypt at the head of the largest army of brick-makers the world ever saw. Was it at this period m its itinerant career-its brick age-that the Israelite race acquired its hatred of manual labour ? e—: o :— Scene A snow-bound street corner in Aberdare. Some young ladies commence snow-balling a policeman. Deeming parti- cipation the more discreet part of valour he begins pelting his assailants. He fares badly at the hands of a female who knocks his helmet into the snow. His superior officer appears on the scene. Tableaux! -:0:- Merthyr's charter is again menaced, and by enemies within its gates this time, to wit, Treharris people. Last Saturday the Merthyr Guardians protested against this. Some Aberdare Guardians were evidently in sympathy with the enemy. Were they re- taliating because Merthyr objected to Aber. dare's Home Rule not long ago ? -:0:- Last winter and this winter we have had practically no skating on the Aberdare Park Pond. Just when the thermometer reaches skating point it begins to thaw, and it never thaws but it floods in Aberdare. -:0:- After the many rehearsals we shall pro- bably have before long a display of fisticuffs at both the Aberystwyth Town Council and the Aberdare District Council Education Committee, Could we not arrange an inter- Council tournament or assault-at-arms between the two ? It could be held at the Aberdare Market Hall during the winter, and if necessary a return match could be played at Aberystwyth in the sum- mer on the historic Castle grounds. Messrs Stanton and Gibson will, I dare say, act as. M.C.'s. J

TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS. AN OLD READER.-Yes, THE PUBLIC HALL, TRECYNON. SiR, In your last issue I noticed a, letter written under the above heading by someone entitled Gweithiwr." Where has he been until now ? Is he one of the family they call seven sleepers ? Looking around to see what happened. during his absence, he notices the hall erected by the workmen of Nantmelyn and Bwllfa Collieries. He asks, "What is going on in this hall at present ? Is it engaged ?" "Oh yes, by the 'splits. Well, well, I thought this was erected as a public hall, and not for the special use of splits," Dear friend, I know it was; but are they not reckoned as part of the public, and have they not paid towards the hall the same as others, and are they not also pay. ing at present according to the demand of the Committee ? I should like to know when have the workmen of Nantmelyn and Bwllfa decided to subscribe, where do they pay, and how much in the C. I have not heard a word to that effect, although an old workman at the above-named collieries. I thought always that the hall was under the control of a Committee elected by the workmen and let according to their arrange- ment. The caretaker has nothing to do but to carry out his work as directed by them. If I understand his letter, he is aiming at disqualifying the work of the Committee in letting the hall for the use of the splits to worship their God.—I am, LOVER OF PEACE.

RELIGION AND BLACK ART. SIR,- With the exception of two or three points in Layman's" letter, we are in perfect agreement. After admitting the despicable habit of praying for people by name-which prevails in the present reli- gious panic-my friend should have sur- veyed the ground more thoroughly in regard to the indictment of Black Magic. There is the true ring of a genuine soul in the letter; but I regret that he has over- stepped himself in a few instances. He says that the practice is confined to a few zealots. Now, it seems that Layman" has under-rated the extent of the cruel persecution. I know of people of unim- peachable character blackened as sinners by members of their own family, upright tradesmen branded as being'depraved before the Lord by converts who owed them money. I know of good and cultured gentlemen who were informed by a bewil- dered young minister that the Spirit would be haunting them, and that they would be bound to give in. This is Nonconformity in the 20th century! And, by the way, my friend declares that I have hatred of Chris- tianity. If the above is necessary to pro- pagate it, then I have; but they are no part of the beautiful teachings of its Founder. Though a Nonconformist, I don't want to be ticketed according to a fashion prevalent in Wales. We want to value men and women irrespective of labels. As to my words that the witches were burnt, I am under the impression that the last witch to be burnt in this country was in the Land of the Covenanters. I desire to be corrected if this is not true. This is what urged me to point out the anomaly- that Nonconformists applied means they so harshly treated. Layman strains a point in reference- to praying men." He should have quoted the words; but I shall repeat them I have never known a great praying man a great worker in any department of life," Will my friend read those words again ?' No doubt the names he refers to were those of praying men but they were unosten- tatious in regard to that. They did not pray on the housetops. Certainly let our life be a life of prayer, but let us not shout- about it.—I am, TRUTH.