Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

4 articles on this Page

• ,,II..■■■II.I--1" Correspondence.

News
Cite
Share

• ■■■ I.I Correspondence. J..E4itor does not hold, himself responsible for the opinions expressed by Correspondents, RELIGIOUS DEPOLARIZATION. LT To the Editor of the Penarth OhronicZs. SIR,-Your correspondents of last week, Peripatetic Pagan and Anti-Humbug, has struck a chord whose echo I hope will reverberate through Christendom. Fermit a layman a few words on the same subject. Sectarianism in disseminating God's word is a bane, S the antidote of which is not far to seek. If a human soul is necessarily to be trained up in the faith of those from whom it inherits its body, why, there is an end of all renson. If, sooner or later, every soul is to look for truth with its own eyes, the first thing is to .-recognise that no presumption in favour of any .articular belief arise? from the act of our inheriting Amplify this and you would not give the Mahometan a fair chance to become a convert to a tetter religion. To hasten this, common manhood t;ill have to be mixed up with theology, otherwise we •'fhall ever be troubled with a theological plague. i, What is wanted is to depolarize every fixed religious adea m the mind by changing the word which stand :for it. Perhaps it may not be generally understood -what is meant by "depolarizing." When a given symbol which represents a thought has lain for a certain length of time in the mmd. it undeigoes a ohange like that which rest in a certain pontion gives sto iron. It becomes magnetic in its relations—it is traversed by strange forces which did not belong to r-t. The word, and consequently the idea it repre- .sents, is poZewiscd. The religious currency of mankind, fin thought, in speech, and in print, consists entirtly of polarised words. Borrow one of these from another language and religion, and you will find it leaves aU its magnetism behind it. Take that 'famous word O'm, of the Hindoo mythology. Even a priest cannot pronounce it without sin, and a holy ,Pundit would shut his ears and run away from you in Iiorror, if you should say it aloud. What do you care for O'm ? What do others care for Baptize ? If you wantecl. to get the Pundit to look at his religion -if&vrly yon must first depolarize this and all similar vords for him. The argument for and against new rtranslations of the Bible really turns on this. We are reprehensibly conservative in our religion. Is it vuat passing strange, taking Penarth alone, that not dOne Church uses the latest version of the New Testament! I think, myself, if every idea our Book contains could be shelled out of its old symbol and put sinto a new, clean, unmagnetic word, we should have •■.gome chance of reading it as philosophers, or wisdom- ilavers ought to read it. Not only out of the mouths of babes and sucklings can we get our truest lessons, bat also from heathens. Having travelled, pretty .well nearly over the world I can speak with some -authority. This correspondence I shall watch with Considerable interest. Enclosed, please find my card. I air, etc., COSMOPOLITAN. ,Penartb, March 14, 1395. BETTING. To the Editor of the Penarth Chronicle. Dear Sir,—I noted the letter cf your corres- pondent. Fair Play, re Betting. He very justly aeomplains that some are prosecuted, and others are rassed over as unseen, and says -1 The present state •of things is undignified and ridiculous," which I fully endorse. He points out the fact that betting houses abound stili in Penarth let us hope these things will be noted by those whose duty it is to purge these dens of mischief. But I think the tone of his letter -suggests that the Law" rather than the evasion of has recently been a nuisance to him, but why were the latvs on the subject ? because the practice is a. recognised evil Let us see in what way. I will -not attempt to detail how the practice has wrecked eche fortune of the Marquess or the Ba:,otiet bow it 11M3 brought to a crash the merchant's business, but will give specimens of tne more common place inci- •dent. The clerks debt of honour" (SUI (t Jy the direst diBhonüur), paid from his employers cash, how many aach have 1o,i),nt sleepless nights on hard beds in her .Majesty's, gaol as a supposed expiation of the crime, "While his wife and children were left. penniles3 to en- fdare their disgrace How many shopmen to meet these misnamed debts of honour have robbed their r45.st.ers t:n ?. Th en came to my knowledge ,tlhtjy ksr than twe:a-y jsules from Penarth. Ne). I. A,ti boy on certain Alonday boasted of aittj »«??»•••<fns in 11(3 proceeds of tatting. lie Jeat a CLiLV" to a fcl 'i, v apprentice to speculate" j with, but. before Saturday in the same way as it came •'BO his moL ey went. Tins reached his employers tears, who on inves^gition, found that be with two fellow apprentices, and about seven fellow shopmen were a company of gamblers The employer know- ing that a gambler's conscience is very often a missing article, felt that his property and money were not "safe in such hands, hence the gambling apprentices j bad their Indentures cancelled and the seven assistants' discharged. No. 2 case at another establishment within rifle shot of the former one, a man with wife and family being paid a fair salary to live respectable became enamoured of the gambling greed, plundered his employer to the extent of some hundreds of pounds to meet its demands, resulting in the inevitable will out," and out of consideration for a slight family relationship and commiseration for his wife and chil- dren he was simply discharged, character and em- ployment lost) and in his wanderings he recently came to live at Penarth, but fortune did not follow him and I he has gone further. No. 3 case at an establishment also within rifle shot of the first. Three young men holding respectable positions, but they were clients of the bookmaker, and they too robbed their em- ployers to the extent of some hundreds of pounds. At I first discovery their employers did not know the fextent of their plunder, and to avoid the worry of a prose- cution he simply cleared them out. And such men [ are some of the bookmakers of to day One of the r last named has plied that business in Penarth, his character being gone. I presume a better calling j was not easily obtainable. These are not culled from newspapers or gathered from the ends of the earth or even the observations of a lifetime, they are all of very recent date, the establishments concerned within two minutes walk of each other, and the several employers are my personal acquaintances, and as before intimated not far away. These are but inampleii, and I have only touched a very small part of the evil of gambling, but enough to show it is an evil. Berry, the late executioner, states that out of one hundred and ninety persons he has hung there was not one Teetotaler. I should be interested to know how many gamblers he had led to the gallows. Fair play charges the ff Bishops" with bringing ignorance into the controversy. I suppose he will hardly call the foregoing facts" ignorance," he may say there are other evils; granted, but that does not make this less an evil- By your permission I shall probably treat the sub- ject next week, historic and legislative. Yours faithfully, EDWARD SEAGRAVE. Penarth, March 13, 1895.

Church Defence

----------Prudential Assurance…

Concert at Andrews' Hall.