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"ALONG THE COAST." ------

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"ALONG THE COAST." (By a Travelling Correspondent). My compliments to the gentleman who had an interview with the justices at the Conway Sessions, on Monday. Ho had been invited to take a prominent position at the magisterial j levee, and he did so with conspicuous coolness and utter atcencc of "ftage fright." The Bench wanted to commit him about his language. They had heard that on a recent occasion he addressed a constable in Welsh, his expressions not befitting one of his Majesty's honoured sub- jects. The visitor listened with grave demean- our to the narrative of the constable, who came to describe what had occurred in that clapsio quarter known as the Col!ege Gate, but Eeomed rather puzzled when the transcript of his "lan- oiago" on a slip of paper was pas-red over to their worships for perueal. He was by and by allowed himself to eec the document, and ho then observed that what was written was written in We:fh. lie began to read aloud the words set down, but the Chairman in- terrupted him, and reminded him that the pre- caution of the constable in bringing the scrip- ture eo that he might not need taint his tongue nor the ears o-f the Court with what was there writ down would be nullified if the memoran- dum were read out. This view of the matter was at once accepted by our obliging friend, who thereupon turned, with beaming counten- ance, towards the Bench, and ga-,e utterance to oracular words, which conveyed the idea that when ho had drank "not wisely but too well" of beer, he never epoke Welsh. » » I did not use the term "oracular" just now without due thought of its import. The pro- nouncement of the oracles, whether those of Delphi or elsewhere, were always somewhat am- biguous, and the remark of our exponent of language was marked by the eame distinguish- ing quality. But I was pleased with the loyalty to our mother tongue which the observation dis- closed. Our friend at least goes so far as to decline to speak his native language when "in beer," thus keeping it from being stained by its use under euch circumstances. For that I am euro all ardent Welshmen will be grateful, and I 6Uro all ardcnt \clt;:hmen will be grateful, Rnd I 0.11 rea.l well.wishers of tho mall who is EO con- t;jùemte in his en1tployment of Wd6h will also hope that there will never be in his own best int,ore,s,t6 any oceak-oiig wlien it will be neces- er this rule cd to fe,ry f,>r him, unO' detert his mother tongue. • » • • Mns A. J Oldman has a taking way with her. She goes down to the Board of Guardians, and Tfl in her place, and says she has something important to communicate—will the Chairman allow the standing orders to be suspended? Now, jwhen he is assured by an eloquent lady that there is something important to be oommuni- cated, what chivalrous chairman could bluntly nay, "Can't!" We are a curious sort of animal and it would require more than human nature to refuse to listen. So, when, last Friday after- noon, Mrs Oldman informed the Board of Guardians that she had an urgent matter to Jay before the meeting, the permission to state her eaee was at once trustfully voted. » < 8he proceeded to say that there was a pest in the Infirmary! The very word "gave one the shudder." We immediately thought of the plaguo of London, which was called the pest, and of the "black death," which is so graphic- ally described in Charles Read's wonderful story, "The Cloister a.nd the Hearth." No wonder that Mrs Oldman was bringing the subject forward ae a matter of urgency I » » » But as the lady guardian proceeded we felt J to some extent reassured, because the pest she x,eferred was not necessarily bubonic, nor was it choleraic, specifically, though we soon real- ised that, under given conditions, it might eet up am epidemic of either of these murderous distempers. Nevertheless, the pest at the Con- way Workhouse was sufficiently serious. The house of Pharoah was once afflioted By it,- "and there came a grivous swarm of flies into the house of Pharoah, and into his servants' housee, and into all the land of Egypt; the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies." Mrs Oldman communicated to her fellow-guardians the intelligence that "swarms of flies" were corrupting the Infirmary ward, and giving cause for much distreee and discomfort to the sick people and those who had to attend upon them. • She pleaded that the Guardians should ro something to abate the 'abomination. Wo could not turn to Mosee, to interfere for us HJKI cure the removal of the swarms of files, so that there would remain not one. But we could at least employ the miraculous means of x;:od-;rn science to effect the desired riddance, and tho lady appealed that this should be done. But then there arose a rather curious if not amusing debate. It would have been amusing, that is to pay, if the nuisance to be dealt with had not been so- urgent and material. Mr Raynes made the sensible suggestion that the lady members Df the Board should take the slaughtering of the flies in hand. Fearing, no doubt, that the ladies would hardly have the stoicism and nonchalance needed to undertake such a wholesale butcher- ing contract without a little masculine stiffening of their gentle natures, he proposed that Mr Owen W. Roberts sshould join the execution com- mittee. There was method in that nomination, too, because Mr Roberts is the chairman of the House Committee, whose obvious laxity had allowed the plague to assume such huge pro- portions. Some members in the subsequent dis- cussion were inclined to "pooh-pooh" the matter, and to question the seriousness of the nuisance. But they were warmly rebuked by other speak- ers, who asked that all levity should be allowed to cease. w w w Perhaps, if we had carried on the discussion fifty years ago, we might have agreed that the subject was not worthy of such prominent at- tention, but these are tho days of the bacterio- logist, whose conclusions must be respected. A Jecturer in Manchester said the other day that flies arc of no service to mankind. It used to be thought that they were good scavengers; and perhaps, even in spite of the lecturer, they would be useful in that direction, by consum- ing organic wastes. But these are days in which we scavenge for ourselves, and we hasten to re- move organio wastes, and destroy them. In clean houses, at all events, flies are a useless encumbrance, especially as they nibble our food and contaminate what they leave. Flies are covered with bacilli from the tips of their paws to the ends of their wings, and these may bo tho germs which produce typho-id, or cholera, or tuberculosis, or other malignant disease. Tho old notion that they adhere to ceilings or win- dow panes by means of suckers at the soles of their feet seems to be mistaken. As a matter of faot the creatures have the power of secreting fxom glands in their feet a. gummy substance which practically glues their feet to the wall or ceiling. They "maintain themselves in impos- sible locking situations not by suction but by adhesion." The lecturer, Mr Hewitt, dealt with the mischievous part played by house flies in the distribution of disease producing bacteria. Hs explained how the feet of the fly and other parts of its. body are so formed as to make effec- tive carriers of germs, and as an illustration of what a single fly can do in this way he showed a photograph of a culture plate"—a bit of glass ooated with gelatine, and rendered moist and of the right temperature for any germ which touches the gelatine to live upon that pabulum, and multiply—"upon which a fly had been al- lowed to walk. In the tratk of its feet colonies of bacilli had grown 1" » 4 How important, therefore, that flies should be excluded from such a place as an Infirmary, es- pecially an Infirmary in which persons suffering from various diseases are ocoupying the isanie ward. A fly, for instance, may walk near the mouth of a patient suffering from phthisis; get ite legs covered with the bacillus of tuberculosis, and immediately carry that disease to some per- son in the ward suffering from some other com- plaint of less dangerousaiess, but in a weakly and therefore receptive state. The prospect of the mischief that may be done is appalling. In the end the Board entrusted the task of dealing with the pest to tho Works Committee, a body of elder men who have done some very good things for the good of the inmates of the House in past time, and for tho good likewise of the ratepayers. I hope that the Works Com- mittee will realise the responsibility of their task, for it is no .matter of child's play, or to joke about. They have already approached the Conway Corporation with t,1)o request that they should cover over with sweet eoii the tip near the Workhouse, and this wiil be done. For this year, however, the flies that are out of doors will not be likely to give much trouble. They will be killed off, after depositing their eggs for next summer's broods. The best way of clearing the flies indoors is undoubtedly to poison them with the old-fashioned fly papers,

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