The Carmarthen Weekly Reporter

CARMARTHEN UNDER THE SEARCH-LIGHT. "Come come, and sit you down you shall not budge You shall not go, till I set you up a glass. Where yon may see the inmost part of you." —————— fcjHAKKl'KAHE. "Every dog has its day," says the old pro- verb. But it is a mistake. The dogs in this part of the country will never have their day until Mr Long retires from the Board of Agriculture. # We never speak as we pass by" is at f. i sent the attitude of many old friends in Car marthen. That is because they happen to be supporting different' candidates. «** A Frenchman was fined on Saturday for driving a trap along St. Clears road without a light. The crimes of perfidious Albion against beautiful France are innumerable. First we burned Joan of Arc then we erit Napoleon to St. Helena, next we turned Marchand out of Fashoda, and lastly we have enriched our coffers at the expense of Louis Tanquey, because he offended against a wretched local ordinance about carv/aig lights on the vehicles after dark. There is no chance of entente cordiale as long as pin-pricks like this continue. Cyclists are bound to carry lights, and they are chivvied off the face of tie earth if they don't. The law as to traps is more or less strictly enforced but carts seemingly can do as they like. Possibly we shall reach the latter some day. But how arc we to reach equestrians ? A man riding on horseback in the dark is as dangerous as any trap. How is this to be remedied ? The public knew for some time beforehand that the dogs were to be muzzled on the loth inst. That order was issued in order to pre- vent the spread of the disease known as rabies. If people believed at all in the righteousness of the order. they would have put the muzzles on as soon as they knew that the order had gone forth. Yet I did net. notice one muzzle on a dog until the period of grace had fully expired. This seems to show that dog owners think less of humanitv than they do of their pets. At the same time, dog-owners (as things stand) are quite justified in looking on the whole thing as a piece of class legislation. The dog which guards a, farmer's sheep, end the innocent quadruped which leads a poor blind man are regarded as monsters of such a violent character that they must be sternly muzzled. Yet, dogs which are engaged in sport—dogs trained to kill-are so harmless that they need no muzzling. The foxhounds can—and will-r..as-, through Carmarthen in scores, and nobody will see a muzzle on one of them. Such is the bare-faced way in which the classes are favoured. < The Local Government Board has dis- patched a circular to the Carmarthen Board Board of Guardians-in common with the other Boards of Guardians in England ¡.nd Wales. This circular deals principally with the indoor poor. After the alterations which it embodies are put in force, there will be no possible cause for any suspicion that the inmates of workhouses have not enough food to eat. The recognised practice, henceforth, will be not to give a certain allowance for each person, but to permit the allowance for so many persons to be divided according to the needs of individual appetites. This is a step in the right direction. A strict adherence to the allowance has in the past tended to waste, in the case of many for whom it was too large, and to in- justice in the case of those for whom it was too small. There need be no fear on econo- mic grounds" of doing a little to remove the prison aspect of workhouse administration. When workmen only earned Is a day. it pro- bably was necessary to take some drastic steps to prevent the workhouse from being overcrowded. With wages low and bread at famine prices, the workman was as badly off as any fairly well treated pauper. Th -e need be no fear of a bogey of that descrip- tion now. With wages at 3s a day (say, and bread at 5-Jd. per four lbs, the social condi- tions are entirely different. The repellent part of workho ise life always will be the loss of freedom which it entails. And that will be always repelie.it enough. I don't think there is the slighfest danger that any large number of freeborn Britons would ever prefer a decent livin,4 coupled with the loss of liberty rather tha;, personal freedom with the chances of the up- and downs of life. With many races. of course, the case might be different. I heard of a negro who was sent to gaol in Texa; for something or other. He enjoyed it immense- ly he had never had his three meal a day before regularly. One night, the gaol was burned down, and at daylight Sambo was found sitting on the fence on the other side of the road. What are you waiting for ?" asked the Governor. Waiting for the gaol to be built again." answered the negro. But we have no negro problem in this country. *• If things have improved for the working- classes in the matter of bread, they have cer- tainly deteriorated in the matter of coal. The cold weather is coming on apace, and soon with the present high price and the continued rise, people from the narrow streets who buy twopenn'orth of coal will be able to carry home their message in a ten-cup. Don't let them delude themselves with the idea that coal is coming down. It isn't. The thieve" who own the coal mines have got their revol- vers to the head of the public and It is your life or your money." It is not the fault of the dealers. They are the victims, too. I am assured that they are treated with the greatest contempt by the owners to whom they pay thousands of pounds. If this goes on, the question of the improvement of Carmarthen harbour will become a serious question. Coal from America will be a regular feature at the big seaports and we shall have it coming to Carmarthen in small vessels as we have corn now. There is a future before the Carmar- then shipping and it ought t o be en- couraged. THERE is A CLASS OF people in Carmarthen who regard the Corporation as an institution for providing good berths for officials, and who always stand by the officials through thick and thin. If the Carmarthen public can afford to elect such people, it is their own affair. There is room for a lot more of this sort of thing yet. If a butcher on the market sold decayed meat, he could be fined. If a fishmonger sold "high" fish, or a fruiterer fermenting straw- berries, the law could act very summarily in such cases. How about the guileless rustic who comes to the market, and sells eggs which when cracked contaminate the whole Ward ? Such articles are unfit for human food and any grocer who sold them would seem to be liable to prosecution. Is the market woman above the law ? I The question of corporal punishment in 1 prisons was before the Quarter Sessions on I Friday. Violent assaults on warders do sometimes take place in prisons, and seem to necessitate drastic methods of repression. The question is not whether such methods shall be abandoned, but whether the discre- tionary power to utilise them shall be in the hands of the Home Secretary or of the visit- ing justices. The question is certainly not pressing, seeing that there has been only one case of the kind in Carmarthen gaol during the last twenty years. One sees the gross travesities of justice which the unpaid magis- trate can perform in public even at the risk of gaining notoriety by means of the omni- present press of the United Kingdom (which is the only power either in this world or the next that the magisterial bungler really fears Knowing this, one shudders to think of the injustices which such people might perpetiate in a secret committee, whose decisions are irrevocable. The fountain and cattle trough presented by Mr Timothy Davies makes an excellent figure in the open space on the Western side of the Fusilier's Monument facing Picton- terrace. The inscription reads Cyflwynwyd i dref Caerfyrddin. gan Timothy Davies, Ysw Waltham Green. 6-6-19G0." The erection which has now been finished is really an addition to the town. For reasons which are only too paltry and too self-evident one or two Councillors tried to throw cold water (literally) on the proferred gift. But Trech gwlad nag Arglwydd," and Trech C'aerfyrddin nag dau ncu tri Town Coun- cillors." This latter is bad Welsh I know but it is an excellent sentiment. The univer- sal sentiment of Carmarthen is one of grati- tude to and admiration for Mr Timothy Davies. The site has been chosen with a fine eye to the eternal fitness of things. The front doors of seven public houses are glaring at that fotiiitain and there are six more within a radius of a hundred yards. This is a good record even for Carmarthen. Mr Timothy Davies when he first offered the gift to the town through the columns of the lirporfrr suggested that others should follow his example, and erect fountains in other parts of the town where required—a need which I pointed out. Surely Mr Davies's example will prove contagious. He ought not to be the only Carmarthen man who can do as much for the town. When you are coming out for the Town Council, it uoes not matter so much what you are as what you can humbug the public into believing you are. I am not coming out for the Council, for the simple reason that I am a public official. My salary is not fixed but I am going to put in an application once the new Council meets. If poeple want a neglected lane or street repaired, or a disorderly hedge clipped they come to me about it and the job is generally attended to in a fewdays or so. I don't quite see the fun of doing all this without a salary. it** On Monday a case of what is believed to be rabies was diagnosed at Cwm. Llan- gendeirne. This time a cow was affected and Sergt. Thomas has forwarded the head of the animal to the Board of Agriculture. Three heifers at C'wmffrwd have also been bitten by a. rabid dog, so that things are looking up. On the subject of the Muzzling Order a correspondent says: The muzzling order is now with us again, and we hear a lot of nonsense talked about cruelty and pain which muzzles are account- able for. It's all rot my friends, sheer non- sense These people haven't the mental ca- pacity to weigh matters over in their mind before they arrive at hasty conclusions. They omit to notice that equally true and domesti- cated animals are hampered with far heavier harness than dogs arc. They have never noticed, although they see it forty times a day. that a. horse has a muzzle on. a gag in its mouth, a collar on its neck, and a crupper under its tail. and is expected to draw a ton weight twenty miles a day. There is only a difference in degree in the crimes of the horseman and the doggyman, and I think that the horseman is far the greater criminal At the rehearsal of the Cymanfa Ganu held at Lammas-street Chapel on Sunday evening a student remarked that the choir sang better than the angels in heaven. This pre- supposes, of course, an exact knowledge of how well the angels do sing. The usual farce was gone through by the magistrates on Monday. Tommy Mimmy 11 was up on the usual charge and was sent in for 14 days hard labour. To send Tommv to gaol for drunkenness isin essence (though not in degree) as criminal as to hang a homi- cidal monomaniac for murder. Tommy" was the victim of people who offered him drink. Numerous pints were thrust on him with the usual result. It is a pity that the people who act in this way can not be dealt with by the law. You were not bound to drink it all," said the Mayor, The Mayor knows nothing about it. He canot enter into the feelings and the weak- nesses of a man of this type. Certain people (say those who have been convicted a number of times for drunkenness) should be officially recognised as drunkards, and anybody sell- ing or giving them drink on any pretence should be liable to a month's imprisonment without the option of a fine. That would stop a lot of trouble. .y, The Mayor (Mr Walter Spurrell) will not seek or accept re-election this November. During the time he has been in office he has discharged the duties in a highly satisfactory manner. He has not been too distant on the one hand, nor has. he cheapened the dignity of the office on the other. In one little respect, perhaps, he has not given satisfaction. He has shown too much independence (real independence, not the "independence which consists in sitting on the fence ready to scuttle to the winning iilde). He has never associated himself with teetotal fanatics but he has taken a firm stand in or two cases when he thought the license should be objected to. This can never be tolerated. No matter, if a tavern were a notorious house of ill-fame, or a. notorious gambling den. we are expected to shut our eyes and pretend to know nothing about it. If you object to the worst abuses of ihe licensing system in Carmarthen. a certain section will write you down as a dangerous man. Beer is the holy unction, which consecrates any vileness which it touches. On Tuesday morning one of the County ty Council staem rollers passed down through Lammas-street drawing a litcle green painted cart after it. The effect was most laughable. It looked like a party off to the seaside for a month, with the luggage following in the rear. 1H ► The municipal election is exciting more interest in Carmarthen than it has done for the last five or six years. This is a healthy 'I sign. If certain people do not come up to expectation turn them out. If those again are disappointments, turn them out. In some cases you are always certain that you won't make a change for the worse. .¡:x In the Western ward, the retiring candi- dates are Messrs John Lewis. H. Tierney, and David Samuel. Mr John Lewis has been connected with the Council for some eighteen years off and on and bases his claim to be returned on the attention to the work which he has given during his term of office. *f Mr Tierney has been a member for six years and labours under distinct disadvan- tage of having been a man of whom a lot was expected. For such a man to prove a common or garden Town Councillor is rank failure. He has done absolutely nothing to promote the getting of water for the town. This is a statement which defies contradiction. He and the whole Council (except Mr T. Jenkins) acquiesced in the making of a tank for Picton Terraee, and in letting the big question slide for years, until the Local Government Board compelled the Council to move-no thanks to them. Mr T. Jenkins now of Harwich) was the only mem- ber to protest against the whole agitation collapsing into a Picton Terrace scheme. **» The matter of the Johnstown wells was the only practical question in which Mr Tierney showed any initiative whatever and that ho carried through. He ignored the question of the housing of the working classes ( of which I have written until I am tired) he proposed that no notice" be taken of the first letter of the Asylum Committee com- plaining of the lack of drainage (which is such a nuisance to Johnstown) he opposed the proposed railway through the town be- cause it would spoil the residential charac- ter of Picton terrace and he opposed the proposal in favour of making Carmarthen a military depot until certain respectable people had time to emigrate." Still, he might be returned at the head of the poll. There is nothing like a reputation, once acquired, whatever the facts may be. Mr David Samuel has only been a year or so in the Council but. he has an excellent record of strict attention to business while he has been there. If he is fairly energetic as a canvasser, he ought to make the best show of any of the retiring cndidates. He made a good fight to enter the Council and his municipal reputation has improved in the meantime -a most unusual thing for Town Councillors in Carmarthen. *-1(,* Of the new candidates for the Western Ward Mr Herbert Davies is first in the field. His address is a regular knock-down blow to cliquery. Cliquery has been rampant in the Council during the last two years. Cor- porationalism was never so fully developed and the people whom one would never have suspected of it have had it the worst. -;t:{- Mr D. E. Stephens has also come out as a Progressive and makes a point in regard to the much needed improvement of harbour accommodation at Carmarthen. Mr Stephens was comparatively late coming into the field; but like Mr Herbert Davies he is expected to make a good bid for a seat. He will pro- bably get more plumpers than anybody else. Mr Acton Evans, another solicitor, announ ced himself on Saturday as the sixth candi- date for the Western Ward. The more the merrier. His programme is the opposition to any further increase in the rates. In the Western Ward, Mr C. H. Williams as a. councillor (as I have already remarked last week) has been active in and out of the Council on behalf of the public. He appeals triumphantly to his record. Mr T. E. Brig- stocke has also been distinguished as a pro- gressive. and he points for his justification to Ills work on the Council. Mr J. F. Morris docs likewise. Mr Morris rather damaged himself by speaking against the proposed in- crease to the workmen but he has a set- off in the hard fights which he has made on behalf of the projectors of new streets. He also took part in initiating the movement to make Carmarthen a military depot. «** Mr Morris Jones is the first new candidate in the field in the East. Mr Morris Jones is the first railway man to contest for municipal honours, and there is undoubtedly a strong feeling in the Eastern Ward that the work- ing men arc not sufficiently represented on the Council. He favours the holding of the meetings in the evening so that workmen should not be practically excluded from the Council and lie Avants a playground in Priory-street for the children there. This is a strong point -because the Eastern Ward to a large extent feels the need of such a play- ground in the upper end. There has been a lot of nonsense talked about Mr Morris Jones' candidature. One objection is that he does not understand the language in which the proceedings are con- ducted. Seeing that Mr Jones is an officer of a Welsh Church on the one hand, and that on the other hand he holds a position which requires him to have passed examinations held by the L and N.W.R. Company, and to prepare returns regularly, and that we hear him often talking English, the question arises "In what language is the proceedings of the Town Council conducted ?" Is a Town Coun cillor expected to jabber the Boer Taal or to do the onion-men's pariez-vous francais ? .t The objection that he cannot attend the meeting is nonsense. His Company afford every facility to their employees (particularly since the passing of the Local Government Act) to become members of public bodies. That matter can be and has been arranged and except the meetings last 24 hours a day Mr Jones will be able to attend. But as the Town Council has not a Parnell and a Healy to make an all night sitting such a contin- gency is improbable. It has been said that a good engine-driver is not necessarily a good Town Councillor. Neither for that matter is a good editor, a good solicitor, or. a good shop keeper. This j is a double-edged sword. An engine driver is specially qualified to keep the straight and narrow path, to calculate the speed at which he is going, not to keep up as much steam as will burst the boiler, and to put on the brake when the machine goes too fast. An engine driver has as much knowledge of practical work a.; most, and a good deal more than some. The fact of Mr Jones being made the butt of so many silly criticisms (which are not difficult to diagnose) proves that his candidature is regarded as a very serious matter. > Mr H. E. Richards, tho managing director of the Ferru Cocoa Co., is also a candidate for the Eastern Ward. His address is a thoroughly business like one. Mr Richards is no opponent of progress—far from it but he hits straight at the disgraceful extrava- gance of the Town Council and tho con- tinued increase of salaries to officials. The contest in the Eastern Ward will be a tough one. I feel the danger of prophesying and I have been amused at seeing so many coming a cropper through over-confidence that I hesi- tate. Still the probability seems to be that there will be two new candidates successful in the W est and one (possibly two) in the East. Of course, in elections, one need not be surprised at anything. But that is how it looks. There is one thing pretty certain —the burgesses will elect whom they -choose. There are leaders of different kinds who have hitherto arrogated to themselves the right of dictating who shall be elected. They have have had a few falls, and they will have more We (I mean the Carmarthen public at large) are determined to bust-up Tammany. We have had quite enough of it. The Carmar- then public is not going to be bull-dozed. Still these gentlemen deceive themselves. After the pint has been given, how do they know that they will get the vote. I have seen astute voters in Carmarthen not poll until a quarter to eiglit. They would not part with a vote a-s long as there was a chance of getting another drink on strength of it. When they voted, they needed their spectacles to read the names of the candi- dates on the ballot paper. _it- There wil be beer flowing, of course. Possibly ts influence is exaggerated but men will float in sometimes on beer who could not get in otherwise. It is a consolation to them to know that they represent the fellows who can be bought for a pint. )H* The continued and persistent increases to officials has become almost laughable. Really it has come to this—that if an official applies for an extra £ 50 at any time, or for an offi- cial residence of white marble, he would get it. The thing is a public scandal. When I first protested, a weak effort was made to write me down (two or three times) on side issues but it is evident now on which the public is. The efforts to choke off" free discussion of such matters have had their natural re- sult—the matter is now discussed by three where it was discussed by one before. Coun- cillors will remember in future that they hold their power for the people. They are our delegtes not our masters. On Saturday, the Carmarthen public en- joyed a street performance of the Highland Fling and the Gillie Calhun" (in costume) to pibroch accompaniment, the man piping, and the lady dancing. This is an improve- ment of the German band (if only as a change). ••• Professor Weatherall commenced his winter services in Park-y-velvet Chapel last Sunday. The quality of his discourse can be gathere from the remark of a non-member present :—"The sermon was too good for the place it should never have been given to a congregation of not less than a thousand." «** Mr Harry Coysh is showing a very inter- esting specimen of the fruit of Tyrus Japonica. This shrub is better known as "Japonica" and is usually grown against fronts for its display of crimson flowers. The introduction of this fructiferous variety, is a distinct and useful advance. #*# I am pleased to find that amongst those upon whom the degree of M.A. was conferred at Oxford on October 18th, was the Rev. Enock T. Davies, assistant curate of Aber- dare, and son of Mr John Davies, King-st., Carmarthen. "(- On Sunday, at 8 p.m., Mr A. J. Silver, F.R.C.O., will give an organ recital at St. Peter's Church. Mr E. Colby Evans will be mayor for the next year. -x- Over Llandefeilog way there is a farm called Cwmfelin. A foxhound passed that way the other day, whilst a mad dog was in the neighbourhood. But Mr Long believes that foxhounds are proof against rabies. Since writing the above notes I find that Mr Tierney has withdrawn his candidature for the Western Ward. Aletheia.