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CARMARTHEN UNDER THE ! SEARCH-LIGHT.

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CARMARTHEN UNDER THE SEARCH-LIGHT. Come, come, and sit you down you shall not buuge You shall aofc go, till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of you." SHAKESPEARE. An old salt, who has sailed.many seas, looked admiringly at the frail coracles of the Carmarthen men breastillg, the angry waves at Ferryside on Friday. "That's giand," he exclaimed, a reminiscent light stealing into his eyes. It just reminds me of the war-canoes in the South Seas." I retail the remark as I heard i-t where the resemblance came in I don't know. The ugliest animal seen at the Carmar- Show was the ferocious beast whose likeness adorned the poster. But there is nothing like sending out the strongest as a sample, whether k be in dogs or in wines. The fair on Friday was worse even than the asual run of such institutions celebrated in Carmarthen. The morning was frightfully hot; the smells were frightfully vile the language was frightfully lurid and the com binatioll of all three suggested a certain locality which used to form the staple of old-fashioned sermons. We are going to have a aew fair- ground, of course. But that is only for cattle. We are having that because the Board of Agriculture compelled our reactionary rulers under the direst com- pulsion to provide it. But the horses can go ahead, paancing in solid pkalanxes to the imminent danger of the lives of the lieges. If you are on business you will have to wait for half-an-hour to get over a crossing, and even then the task is fraught with as grave risk as it was to take part in the charge of the Six Hundred. But this periodical exhibition of a degrading savagery is defended on the ground that it is good fer trade." By being good for trade in this connection, people mean good for the trade." If these disgraceful scenes were only good for the Church, or good for the Press, or good for the Democracy, th-sy wottld have been swept away years ago. In this enlightened age, we are not to be dictated to by the Church, the Press, or even the Democracy. But the interests of the trade are not to be lightly tampered with. I once hoped that somebody would got killed at a fair so that a change would be made. But I was green then, and did not know how easy-going Carmarthen juries were. I know better now. When some- body does get killed, I know very well that a Carmarthen jury will make no recommendation—except that people had better not get in the way of the horses. Bless you; a Carmarthen jury won't even advocate changes it takes everything as a matter of course. We bungle in the Ancient Borough; we murder people by the absence of proper regulations and then wo have the audacity to blame Providence for our crimes. Some people think this pious. I regard it as blasphemous. « I understand that the Sabbatarians are going to walk to Carmarthen Junction in future. They cannot make it fit in with their principles to open the new line on Sunday—as was actnally done by the impious G.W.R. If I ever see any of them- patronising this line, I shall know how much their conscientious objections are worth. X Last week I drew attention to the dis- graceful condition of the trees in Richmond- terrace. Since then it has been pointed out to me that Wellfield-road is in a much worse eondition. Dozens of trees overhang the way there and in one case the spread- ing branches aetmally overhang the opposite side of the read. This is distinctly illegal; it is the duty of the Highway Authority to insist on t'he trees being properly trimmed. In consequence of the flagrant neglect of that duty, Wellfiekl-road is full ef puddles and mud-pies even in dry weather-as the evaporation is, of oourse, greatly retarded. There seem to be a large numbei^of high- class houses in Wellfield-iioad and I should not be surprised if the inhabitants there pajd as much in rates as do those who live on the Terrace. The only difference I oan find in tke twe localities is that there are no Town Councillors living in Wellfield- road. I do not say that this is a case of cause and effect; but the coincidence is somewhat Bemarkable. Of A Government inspector reviewed our Police Force last week. The Home Office does not know its business. It would te much better to inspect the Watch Com- mittee and the Magistrates. They are the people who are really responsible for maintaining law and order in this town. The police are only servants. If the masters became a little more wide-awake and vigilant, the police would have to follow suit. If an engine runs slowly, you don't swear at the machine. If you swear at all, it is the engineer against whom you direct yoiw profanity. Soime years ago when an agitation was on foot to provide a new water supply, the Some years ago when an agitation was on foot to provide a new water supply, the precious fluid was only turned on for a few hours every day. Now that we have decided to ge in for a new supply, Cwmoernant is in a position to supply us for 24 hours a day, although we have a largo number of new houses which we did not have formerly. I have no explanation to effer. Anybody who remembers Carmar- then history for five years knows that I am retailing facts. 0*e of the signs of the times is the manner in which the pleasure fair is losino- its attraction for the rustics as well as the townspeople. The day was when country people would come to see peep-shows, coooa-nut shies, and a living skeleton! Now even the immensely improved attractions of the modern showman fails to tickle their jaded intellectual appetites. People irom the most outlandish parts of the cewatry HOW tarn up their noses ajiperciliously and barely tolerate a Carmar- then fair. This is afi due to the 7s id excuriilon. Fifty years ago less rustics visited the metropolis than visit Russia now. Excur- sions rapid and cheap were impossible ita stage coaches. Now, anybody who can get a couple ef days "off," and can find a sovereign or two to spend, can run up to the Metropolis and see the Crystal Palace and Madame Tussaud's, and half-a-dozen exhibitions of one kind and another. Tho country people take full advantage of all these facilities and Carmarthen fair begins by comparison to pale its ineffectual fires. 410 This same fact explains many things. It explains why the county families don't come to Carmarthen and have a high old time of it during race week. They go to the Derby now. This reminds me that I have not of late heard any of this balderdash about Carmar- then becoming a residential centre. In spite of all the buildings which have been I erected, the "residential" character of the town seems as far off as ever. The only change which I can see brought about is that Carmarthen people "go up higher," and that their rents do ditto. This is a splendid thing, of course for those who have speculated in house property. The Corporation officials appear to be adopting my suggestion. At the end of last week a plumber was told to come at once," because two neighbours could neither of them get a drop of water from their taps. The plumber went to the 11 stop-tap between the two houses, and found the pipe blocked by an animal as thick as his finger, and having iour legs. Where else but in Carmarthen could such things be encountered ? The sweet innocence of the Borough J.P. is very charming. Fancy a fine of £ I and costs for a breach of the Sunday Closing Act! No wonder law-breaking is rife, and the police discouraged when the magistrates take such a very lenient view of the pre- valent vice of the town. The time was, in Carmarthen, when fines amounting to £5 were inflicted for sueh an offence. At the present rate, five years hence defendants will be dismissed with a caution and tln years hence it will be the policemen who will be severely reprimanded for being too officious. The booking accommodation at Carmar- then Station is nothing short of a scandal. Why any corporation as wealthy as the G.W.R. can tolerate the sight of a row of fifty or sixty people each waiting their turn —just as at the gallery entrance of a theatre-is more than I can imagine. On a busy day the spectacle is something painful to contemplate and the amount of moral and intellectual damage which must be sustained by the unfortunato solitary booking clerk is incalculable. The booking arrangements at Carmarthen would do very very well for Llaapumpsaint or Dryslwyn but in their piesent position they are a disgrace. Bishop Jayne, of Chester, was at Carmar- then Station on Saturday evening looking none the worse of his recent accident. If he only tarried in this town a few months, he would probably modify his views as to the advisability of allowing the liquor traffic to be run by the local authority for the public benefit. < I received a cordial invitation to attend Llanelly Flower Show-an invitation which was declined on account of circumstances ovo-r which I had no control. But I daresay it was a success everything which the Llanelly people undertake is a success In Phe tin-plate town they pull together they have esprit de corps; the only spirit we have in this town is that of the alcoholic variety. In Llanelly they help one another to make everything and anything successful for the good of the town in Carmarthen, Harry and Tom try to spoil everything Dick gets up because they had not a finger in the pie themselves. Dick, of course, waits his chance and spoils Tom and Harry's pie. The jealousy in regard to music is not that of Carmarthen v. the rest of the world. Two or three choirs are started; and what do you find ? If you talk to a member of Carmarthen Choir A, you will probably find him anxious, if his own choir does not win, that the prize should go to Neath, or Llan- fairfechan—anywhere except to Carmarthen Choir B. In other towns, people are quite as religious as in Carmarthen, and they are not sectarian; they are also aristocratic and stili they won't refuse to join in something organised by another set. It is not sectarianism, nor is it snobbishness, which is art the root of our lack of cohesiveness; it is that sheer cussedness," that small mindedness which impels a man to tread on his neighbour's corns rather than do any- thing for the good of the town at large. At the meeting of the Town Council on Tuesday a discussion took place over a tender fer "iron cradles." What species of athletic infants require to be nursed in such receptacles ? The next thing will be armour-plated perambulators. ■¥r *jf The mushroom season is on us they come not now in single spies, but in whole battalions. The shop windows are filled with them the air is redolent of them and the market lessee and his assistant have their eagle eyes open after the country folks who vend them. So far as I can see, the market officers are quite able to ketch-up with the mushroom merchants. >Yo Mr Colby Evans does not know it but he is actually a revolutionist. That is a nice thing to say of a man who is a Tory, ,-and, if I mistake not, an ex-churchwarden. But great as is my respect for this worthy Councillor, I must reiterate it; he is a red-hot revolutionist. Any man who can stand up in the Council Chamber on behalf of Mill-street is a bit too* advanced. Such a thing was never heard of before. Who ever imagined that the Corporation had anything to do with Mill-street—except to collect the rates for the property there ? A burgess who has been out inspecting says that there was not a single drop of water running down the dingle at the Hock and Fountain last week. So the storage reservoir will not be by any means an un- necessary precaution. The rock is always there but the fountain is sometimes absent. I hope nothing which I have said recently has been construed into a reflection oa the sobriety of Priory-street. As a matter of fact, Priory-street is admittedly the most sober part of the town a drunken man there attracts attention in some other parts he is taken as a matter of course. %■ One of the mains was found leaking in Dark Grate on Sunday; and the Corporation men had to work to an unholy hour to repair it. In such circumstances Sabbat- arianism is thrown to the winds. The light that failed "was to bo seen in Priory-street during the week. It oonsists of the remains of a lamp, elevated on a post opposite the Priory Chapel. Such things naturally commend themselves to lovers of ruins. ALETIIEIA.

—♦— The Symbol of Strength.

The Fire near the Brewery.

i. Carmarthen County Petty…

Sudden Death near Whitland.

Llandefeilog Agricultural…

-----'-.....-.,......--...,-,---.-------..------...-.........................---------LLANGENDEIRNE.

LLANGATHEN.

CROSS HANDS.

LLANDOVERY.

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