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IBY THE WAY.I
I BY THE WAY. I Journalistic Proprieties 1 Old Miss Prim, who is regarded in our vil- lage as an exceedingly respectable and proper person," to whom anything even Lord ering on the crude and vulgar as anathama, is not alone in her firmly expressed opinion that modern newspaper-s have 'not the taste and refinement of those of days gone by. It is, of course, a common habit of most of us to compare contemporary habits unfavourably with those of a past generation. Ah up," we say, sadly shaking our heads, things are not what they use.d to be in our young days. and still less in that of our grandfathers." Well, perhaps not, and it may be just as well they are not in m.any cases. Take even the question of newspapers,- which, as Miss Prim alleges, have so seriously deteriorated in these vulgar and inquisitive days, when, she says, Those impudent fellows, the reporters, are poking and prying into all our personal affairs, and not a duchess gets a divorce but the whole story of her unhappy life (illustrated) appears in the Morning Shriek.' I am not disposed to defend every action of the Morning Shriek," or any other similar periodical, still even where the Press is concerned it is just as well to tell the truth, and what is the tru 'i about this comparative ideal of decency: then and now? • w « As it happens, there has just come into my possession an old newspaper scrap book, which belonged to a relative of mine long since dead, in which, as a young man, he gathered to- gether cuttings from the Press of that day, dating from 1829 up to 1847. For some reason he seems to have entertained a preference for the morbid, and his book provides a wonderful array of "Dreadful murders," "Horrible affairs" and "Melancholy accidents," as the titles of those days quaintly describes them. True, there are none of the great splashing head-lines, sprawling over three or four col- umns to which modern journalism has now accustomed us, but s,o far as the text of the reports are concerned I must honestly a; that if the methods of those days commands the approval and admiration of Miss Prim our village will be obliged to revise its opinion of her taste and gentility. What modern newspaper, I wonder, would dream, even in the case of the most illustrious of patients, of going into the details concerning an operation with which we are regaled in this extraordin- ary extract, lurking a—ay in the corner of the old scrap-book, under the innocent heading Surgical Operation :— We noticed in our last the extraordinary abdominal tumour in the person of a Chinese named Hoo Loo, a patient of Guy's Hospital, London, Saturday last being the day ap- pointed for its removal, the theatre was ab- solutely besieged by the most celebrated meditfsd and scientific men in the metropolis and neighbourhood. About half-past one, the patient being laid on the table, reclin- ing on Ipillows the operation was commenced by making two elliptical incisions from the outer margin of the peduncle of the tumour I to the spinous process of the pubes on ea?(?,h side. The knife was then carried forward along the upper part of the tumour, so as to raise a flap of integument, which was turned back. The mass of the tumour was finally dissected by a few strokes of the knife from the petinsem, and the lower flaps of the integument being turned back, it became entirely de- tached from the patient's body. The tumour weighed fifty-six pounds avoir- dupois, besides three or four pounds of fluid lost during the operation. Its circum- ference, when detached from the body, was exactly four feet! Of course, surgery in those days was in its infancy, and a patient who could submit to Buch torture, with anaesthetics, not then benefi- cently invented, deserves to be enshrined in the pages of the Press, but it hardly seems aecessary-it certainly would not be to-dy- to enter into these trying details of the suffer- ings, from which, it is not surprising to learn, all efforts at restoring the heart's action having failed," the wretched Hoo Loo finally sunk." < Then, immediately under this comes an account, equally unobstrusively introduced by the title of Horrid Execution," which we should not tolerate to-day even in the Morn- ing Shriek." On Saturday, James and Alexander Stew- art, convicted of murder, underwent the awful sentence of the law at the front of Lifford goal. They seemed quite penitent and resigned to their fate, but made no public confession. Having been placed under the beam, they drew down their caps over their eyes, and with fervent calls for mercy upon their lips, the drop fell. James died without a struggle but, melancholy to relate, the rope by which Alexander was suspended broke, and he was precipitated to the pavement, a distance of nearly forty feet. He fell with the side of his head on his own coffin, which was broken, and re- bounded off it a few feet. He was instantly carried in (supposed to be dead) by two officers of the gaol. The executioner, all dressed in white, with the part that covered his face daubed with black, by the assist- ance of a ladder, soon put another and stronger rope over the block, and with some difficulty again raised the drop-in doing which the unfortunate culprit, then sus- pended was pushed as much a$ possible, to the one side, and lower a little possible, to about twenty minutes from the time he fell, to the astonishment of the assembled multi- tude, Alexander again appeared, and walked out on the drop more firmly than before, answering to the prayers of the clergy. He- took his place—and the signal being given. I the drop was again slipped, but it rested on the shoulder of James, who was again pushed aside, and Alexander was launched {CVmtiri' bottom of next
[No title]
Latest photographs of the ex-Kaiser shew that he has grown a beard. Investigation into the case of Miss Violet Douglas-Pennant has proceeded during the past week. Mr. H. B. Irving, the well-known actor, son of the late Sir Henry Irving, died last week, aged 49. j Although wages wei-i never higher and un- employment never less, 26 deaths from star- vation were recorded in England and -les last year. i It has been suggested that every member of the N.U.R. should contribute 6d. to buy Mr. J. H. Thomas, M.P., a new house in recog- nition of his services. The Executive Committee of the Miners' Federation are meeting in London to consider various bonus payments, the payment of in- come tax and other matters. The Premier announces that the bread sub- sidy was to go but there could be no saving on such productive matters as housing, educa- tion, agriculture and transport. The President of the Board of Agriculture has appointed Professor C. Bryner Jones to be the Welsh Secretary to the Board, and to control the business of the Board's "\elsh office at Aberystwyth. Ald. T. F. Plowman, of Bath, for many years secretary of the Bath and West and Southern Counties Agricultural Society, and a writer on agricultural subjects, died on Sunday. The Prime Minister has presented to the National Library of Wales a copy of a Chinese play, Le voile de Boubeur," written by M, Clemeneeau, enclosed in a satchel of green plush, lined with brown silk. Capt. J. H. Thorpe (Coalition Unionist) has been elected for Rusholme, polling 9,394 votes. Dr. Dunstan (Labour) polled 6,412, Mr. vV. M. R. Pringle (Liberal) 3,923, and Capt. Crewdson (National Party) 815. At the annual meeting of the Governors of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, over which Major David Davies, M.P., pre- sided on Friday, it was announced that three candidates for the vacant Principalship had been placed on the short list. They are Mr. J. H. Davies, M.A., Registrar of the College Professor Tom Jones, London and Professor J. E. Lloyd, Bangor University College. The appointment will be made next month. It is stated that the Agricultural Wages Board propose to make an Order that boys between 14 and 18 who are receiving instruc- tion in agriculture, under the supervision of. an approved authority or organization, shall <■ be paid the following weekly sums in excev of the value of full board and lodgmg: -28. between 14 and 15 years of age; 2s. 6d., 15 and 16; 3s., 16 and 17; 4s. 6d, 17 and 18. At the annual meeting of the Governors of the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth last week, Mr. Herbert Lewis, M.P., presid- ing, the librarian, Mr. J. Ballinger, reported that L500 had been set aside for the purchase of books dealing with mugic, in the selection of which Dr. Walford Davies had promised to help. Mr. F. P. Dodd, Wrexham, was among those elected a member of the Court, and Maj. David Davies, M.P., Professor J. E. Lloyd and Mr. H. Neville Gladstone to the Council. The Ministry of Health announce that, in accordance with the expectations held out to Welsh members during the discussions on the Ministry of Health Bill, arrangements have now been made to extend considerably the functions of the Welsh Board of Health. The work to be transferred immediately includes, all the functions of the Housing Department of the Ministry of Health in Wales. Mr. Lloyd Thomas, the Housing Commissioner for Wales and Monmouth, becomes a member of the Welsh Board, and his staff is to be transferred from London to Cardiff. Establishment ar- rangements have also been made to transfer to Cardiff an important part of the work of the Ministry in relation to public health. In view of the extent and importance of the work involved, the actual transfer cannot take place immediately, but the preliminary arrangements l have already been made.
.ISYCOED..,.r
ISYCOED. r FARM SALE.—Mr. John Jones, the White- gate Farm, Wrexham, and the Big Bryn, Isycoed, has sold the latter farm of 240 ,.cres to the Denbighshire County Council. When Mr. J ones perceived that the Council intended taking a field from one farm and other fields from I other farms he proposed to sell the Big Bryn rather than that others farms should be lopped. The Big Bryn is a fine dairy farm right on the Cheshire border, and has rarely changed hands during the last 100 years.
THE CHURCHES.",.
THE CHURCHES. WELSH ARCHBISHOP. AN "INTELLIGENT" ANTICIPATION A special correspondent of the "Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury," reviewing the iorth. coming development ci the constitution of the Church in Wales, when, under the Welsh Church Act, it becomes severed from thai Province of Canterbury, discusses the ques- tion of who will be the first Archbishop of "Vales and the probable method of his appoint* nient. It is popularly imagined (he writes) that the selection as the first Archbishop of Wales will fall upon ihe Bishop of St. David's* But the services of the Bishop of St. Asaph-" who is the senior bishop and bench in the whole of England and Wales—have been so. great and conspicuous that in all probability Liae great honour and distinction of being se- lected. the first Archbishop of the new province will fall to his lot. The election of the firsts Archbishop for Wales can be done in one of at least four ways. The bishops of the Prov- ince of Canterbury, when they make a Weigh* province, could give an archbishop to WalesJ and it is held by the authorities that that would be canonically correct. Secondly, the; bishops of the Welsh province, after it is couv stituted, could elect their archbishop. Third*: ly, the governing body, as the sovereign as* sembly of the Church in Wales, could electf the archbishop. And, lastly, the electoral college provided for in the new constitution! couict make the selection if it were broughti into actual being in time, but actual conditions will not allow of the latter alternative for the first election, although all future elections will, of course, come through the electoral college. There is hardly a doubt that the third course will be pursued, and that thai Governing Body will elect by acclamation" which is u, correct canonical procedure, adopts ed throughout the ages. It may, therefore,. be fairly safely assumed thsft next January, at Cardiff, someone will suggest at the Govern- ing Body meeting that the president, the Bishop of St. Asaph, be elected the first Arch- bishop of Wales, and that the whole member- ship will thereupon acclaim him as such. THE BISHOP OF LICHFIELD ON CHRISTIAN COMRADESHIP. The Bishop of Lichfield, speaking at thEJ Church Congress on Wednesday, on Tber Spiritual Foundation of Comradeship," said it was obvious that the Church ought to be the most warm-hearted, loving fellowship in the world. There were signs that this better spirit of comradeship was coming, but it had not yet arrived; at present there was often more comradeship in a group of the Labour Party than in a Christian congregation. There were all sorts of barriers to be broken down, petty parochialisms to be suppressed, remnants of class snobbishness to be cast away, violent partisanships to be overcome. And let them .be well assured that strong eon. victions were no enemies to fellowship. If only the members of the Church would fix j their mind and will on the purpose for which it existed, there might still be differences- sometimes real and important differences among them, but their comradeship would be. secure. That purpose was the establishment of God's Kingdom. They needed to enlarge their horizons, and to set some visinn f the grandeur of the missionary ideal and of tha reality of Christian witness to liberty, right. eousness, and love in all our social life. The Rev. LI. R. Hughes, rector of Llan- Guano, has been appointed a canon of Bangor., A memorial service to the late Principal T. [ F. Roberts was held at the Tabernacle C.M. Chapel, Aberystwyth, on Friday. The Ven. P. T. Simpson has been inducted to the living of Shobdon, which Preb. Bate- man held for 65 years. [ The death took place last week at Bettws Garmon of the Rev. Rhys Lewis, a familiar figure in the Calvinistic Methodist ministry. Canon Peter Green, of Salford, who is agi- tating for better recompense for the junior clergy, says carters are to-day better paid than curates. The annual meetings of the North Wales Federation of Free Churches, postponed owing to the railway strike, will he held at Flint on November 10-12. The subjects for discussion include the social and evangelical mission of the Church.. The quarterly meeting of the Flintshire Eng- lish Congregational Union was held at Holy.. well on Wednesday. The following officers were elected: President, Mr. T. Harding Roberts, Rhyl; vice-president, Rev. J. D. Wil., liams, Flint; secretary, Mr. E. A. Sainsbury, Holywell; treasurer, Mr. W. J. Cook, MeiU den.
FACTS AND FANCIES I
FACTS AND FANCIES I A Jew's Friendship. I At Brixton a Jew offered a landlady 30s. a week for four unfurnished rooms, a premium, a handsome present, and friendship for life." The offer was immediately accepted. The Cock on the Steeple. I The teacher was testing the children's general knowledge at a school in rural Wales. "vYhy," asked he, do they put a cock on the top of a church steeple?" No one had any idea until an irrepressible youngster made the original suggestion, Because, sir, jt would be too far to fetch the eggs if it was H hen."   I Lord Kenyon :'s a"" ChO;iste;. I A Woman of No Importance," but of a I wide circle of notable friends, in her Mem- I ories Discreet and Indiscreet (published by j Herbert Jenkins, Limited) gives us a glimpse of Lord Kenyon in what to some of our readers may seem a rather unfamiliar role. His lord- ship was quite a little boy when the authoress remembers seeing him in his cassock looking like a cherub in the church choir at Coatham (which is a suburb of Redcar) little boys in front, big boys behind, then the clergy. i Lloyd's mother (the Hon. Mrs. Bulkeley-Owen) was delightful and I was fond of her. She was very High Church and a really good woman, most anxious to bring up her son in the way he should go, and he was a verv de. ¡ vout little boy; I remember his crying one ) evening because his mother told him to stay and play with us instead of going to even- song. • • A Question of Taste. ) What really happens when we taste a sweet cake or a sour apple? French scientists state in the Reven bcientifique" that even the experts are not quite sure. Most people would be ready to declare that all foods and bever- ages, and many other things like lead-pencils, have each a distinctive taste. But (says Every-day Science ") physiologists are i agreed that there are really only four differ- ent tastes—sweet, bitter, acid, and salty. A cup of coffee and a strawberry ice have very different flavours, but it is not the sense of taste that tells you which you are consuming. While the four other senses are simple, the sense of taste is complex. Two other senses, touch and smell, are so intimately connected with it that it never works alone, and a third sense—sight—also usually asserts itself. In fact it might be said that a flavour is roughly 50 per cent. odour, 25 per cent. feel, and 25 per cent. or less actual taste Cut out the other senses and the sense of taste can dis- tinguish by itself nothing but sweetness., I bitterness, acidity, and saltiness. You know if you have a bad cold so that your nose is out of action you can taste very little. Stop up your nose entirely with a clothes-peg, and shut your eyes, and you will find that you are en- tirely unable to tell coffee fr'om tea or even from ice-cream, provided they are both about the same temperature and both liquid. More- over, you can only truly taste substances which can be dissolved in the fluids of the mouth. You. can't taste a pencil or a chunk of lead the sensation you experience if you suck them are wholly those of touch and smell. « A Lianfairfechain Echo. I I made a very charming and interesting discovery at Llanfairfechain the other night (writes a correspondent of the Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury "). It is an echo of beautiful clarity and promptness of response. I have been to Llanfairfechain probably thousands of times during the last thirty years and not only never heard it but never heard of it. This is the more surprising as its habitat is apparently in the plantation 1 adjoining the railway station which everyone coming into or leaving Llanfairfechain by train must perforce pass close to. It is not a re- peating echo; it will only respond once to each call. The beauty of the echo is inex- pressible by words it must be heard to be realised. Anyone can easily test it as I did on Tuesday night. It was brought to my notice by two boys who chanced to enter the company's road to the station at the ,a?.: time as myself, who were whistling and yodelling and shouting for mere joyousness as I thought, and then I detected the wonder- ful echo. The company's private road to the station curves from the main public road for about fifty yards and then goes straight on to the station. Along the, left hand side runs a plantation, and at the end is the station- master's house, which converts the road into a c-al de sac. Behind the station master's house is another part of the same plantation, and it is, apparently, from here the echo issues. The echo is best heard about twenty yards from the entrance into the straight, and is almost equally well heard for another fifty yards towards the station. 'Arry'a £ 200 Pi-anner. I Into the shop came a middle-aged man of the costermonger type. A clay pipe in his mouth. He was accompanied bv his wife, who wore a fur coat. We want "a pi-anner, young man," he replied to the assistant's polite What can we do for you?" A small cottage piano was pointed out, but it was ind'ignantly passed by, and a request was made for something bigger." We have a full grand," answered the amused dealer; but I'm afraid that would be too expensive for you." Never you mind about the price. Just let's see it. How much?" was all the coster asked when he saw the grand. Two hundred pounds." A staggerer? Oh dear no! The money was counted out in bank notes and Bradburys. Never mind about the tuning," said the purchaser; we don't jliind that. To-morrow's our Fanny's birthday, and we want to give her a nice uig pi-anner. The large piano was duly delivered, and a day or two later a tuner was sent to put the grand in order. He reported that he found the instrument in a pokey room. The coster- monger was presiding at the business end of the piano over a hot joint which was placed upon the polished top, together with several plates containing steaming vegetables. Some members of the family were actually standing up to the piano and eating their meal from the top The tuner-man was told to go away- the piano was quite all right apd didn't want no tuning nor nothing." We shall get that piano back in about six months," savs the tradesman. We shall probably have to pay £50 for it, but with a little polishing and (Continued 11: bottom of next column).
IBY THE WAY.I
into eternity, but not suddenlv. His whole body was convulsed; during the strangulation he several times put his feet to the wall, and pushed himself from it with great force—his clothes burst open, so that his naked breast was seen-and the cap not being altogether over his face, blood was seen flowing from the wound which he had received on the cheek in the fall. The feelings of the beholders cannot be de- scribed—they were most agonising. Nowadays, happily, it would be impossible for editors to feed their readers with these grue- some literary viands, even if they desired, for public executions have long since been abolished, Sir Henry Lucy, I believe, claim- ing to have attended and recorded the last ever held, that of a labourer convicted of a particularly callous murder in Shropshire. which took place outside Shrewsbury gaol. • • • ft But then nothing was sacred to the scribes. Paul Pry, pencil in hand, felt it his duty to let us into the most in- timate secrets of the great. Certainly the descriptive writers of those days dotted their i's and crossed their t's with a vengeance, and I venture to challenge Miss Prim, in comparing the much derided news- papers of to-day with those from which these extracts are taken, to say which age of jour- nalism is calculated to make her blush the I more. í A PHILGSOPHBE ON THB IsSSiOWIh
FACTS AND FANCIES I
a lot of tuning it will be quite a marketable article again." It's good for trade, h. added. The Minister's Ammunition. Rev. Edward Lloyd, Jones, a Blancheritegk minister, tells a story of his experience ia Fenian days. He was travelling from a. Welsh village to Brecon, and had with him a strong wooden box filled with heavy theological books. At Shrewsbury the detectives, who were on the look-out for explosive machines and th$ like, suspected this heavy box, and word was sent on to Brecon. When the young minister stepped out of the train he was astonished to find a sergeant and several constables awaiting him. I think you have a box with you?" said the sergeant. Quite right," said the preacher, who be- gan to scent a joke. Out came the box and its weight excited fresh suspicion about its content. This is your box?" Yes." It contains ammunition?" It does." Very well. Consider yourself in charge* Open the box." The company stood away while the lid was cautiously wrenched off. When the sergeant found it contained nothing more explosive than Adam Clarke's "Theology," he ex-4 pressed his indignation freely to the min- ister. All that he got back was the soft answer: Why, bless my soul, man, you asked me if the box cantained ammunition. That is my ammunition. I'm a Methodist parson, and that's what I shoot with."