DE BAKEWELL AND THE ‘DAILY TIMES.'

Evening Star, Issue 3845, 21 June 1875, Page 2

DE BAKEWELL AND THE ‘DAILY TIMES.'

To the Editor^ S a, T?’ he of the‘Otago Daily Times,* or rather the medical clique of which lie is the month, piece, is trying to write me down. One article published as a letter is already the subject of legal proceedings. To it Ido not mean to refer, bub there is a leader in yesterday’s ‘Times’ which is perhaps not legally a.libel, but is more vulgar and offensive timn many libels. lam not going to descend to the level of the editor of the ‘ Daily Times j’ I am not «) disgrace your pages by bandying epithets with the editor of that journal; Noblesse oblige, and the are some things a gentleman cannot do. I m j ' ve , no personal acquaintance with the editor of . ® °aily # rimes/ and do not even know him by sight; and it is therefore evident that the poor ran-n m attacking me as he has done is only acting at the bidding of his masters. But if he thinks or they thmk that they will conquer me or drive me out of Dunedin as they would like to do. they axe grievously mistaken. Contempri Catu Untß gladios, non pertimescam tuos! vVTien I was in Trinidad, Otto Wenkstem tried to write me down. Now Otto Wenkstem had been a special correspondent of the ‘Daily News,’and was for years on its staff. Though a German he wrote heantfful English—English as for superior to the dreadful twaddle of the ‘ Daily Times ’ as gold is to mnndic. But poor Wenkstem, though he had a Wonderful gift for satire, never succeeded in patting me down—not for a day. The last article he ever wrote was one pitching into the medical officer of health (myself) for the absurd fuss he was wn-iHnfr about yellow fever, and the needless expense to which he was putting the Colony by his precautionary measures. The same evening he was attncked by yellow fever, and died in iour days. The Daily Times ’ sneered at me last week for alarming the public about typhoid, and hinted that I was getting up an agitation for interested purposes. This day it publishes a warning article about typhoid among its “locals.” Let the editor take care he does not oateh it.

, r T b® ‘Times’ and its clique were the causes of Mr Hawthorne’s death; hut lamof a tougher fibre than Mr Hawthorne, and have been too) much behind the scenes to care for anything newspapers say. _ One of the laughable mistakes made by the editor of the ‘ Daily Times,’ is in imagining that I ‘am an amateur writer trying to get notoriety. Bless his little innocent soul, unless he is a very much older man *bnu most of the men here, I will venture to say that I wrote for the Press long before he did, and was a sub-editor years before the ‘ Daily Times * ever had an existence, for it was before Otago was settled. For some years a considerable part of my then very small income was derived from what! received for my paid contributions to magazines and other periodicals, and if I have not pursued literature as a profession it is only because I find medicine pays better. But it is not very long since that I was an occasional paid contributor to a magazine that all your readers know very well, and in which they have read, or may have read, my articles. I have been the regular correspondent of two newspapers, one a London daily. If the editor of the ‘ Daily Times ’ had ever received any lengthy Contributions from me, as he never has done, although he has the impudence to claim me as a contributor, he would have guessed from the form of the M.S. that I was no novice in literature. T was born and cradled in it- My father and mother were both authors—both editors—my only sister was a regular contributor, under a nom de plume, to one of the most popular periodicals of theday, and as for me, writing is far more easy to me than talking- I don’t suppose the editor of the ‘Daily Times ’ ever read ASsop’s fables, but there is one . about a viper getting hold of a file, which he might peruse to advantage. I am not going to answer the -leader in yesterday’s ‘ Times.’ When a writer is driven to compare his opponent to a “scabby sheep,” and says that he has the “itch" (faugh!) he descends to dcptlis where I cannot follow him. Billingsgate was not the region where I spent my early youth, nor the language of its lady occupants that which greeted my ears when a boy at home. I have no objection to hard hitting, provided it is fair hitting—straight out from the shoulder and above the belt. But the cowardly shadow of an anonymous writer I never descended to. I never attacked a man in my life without putting my name to what 1 wrote. But if you will allow me I will exp'ain why it is that 1 have ‘ been attacked with such persistent animosity by the ‘Times,’ and the medical clique who work it. Some long time ago—about eighteen or twenty months, I should think—it was proposed to get up a Society in Dunedin. A preliminary meeting was held at the house of one of the promoters, to which I with some others was invited. Not all the members of the profession in Dunedin were invited, and it soon became evident to me that it was intended i a 80rt of close-borough affair of it, and exclude some who were just as good as the others It was proposed that no one should meet any hut members of the Association in consultation, and that roles should be drawn up for regulating charges. To this I objected, and said that I would not iom a Medical Trades’ Union ; that what I wanted was to see a society for promoting the study and practice of scientific medicine established. To put the matter beyond a doubt, I wrote to the principal promoter the next day, withdrawing altogether from the proposed society. The scheme was abandoned, but ever since I have noticed that all the members of the clique have been very bitter against me. It must be unpleasant to them to see a newcomer take a conspicuous port in public affairs, and for his ideas to be adopted— e.g., the Waterworks, the Working Men’s Club, the appointment of a Medical Officer of Health—and it must be most unpleasant when, instead of meekly bowing his head and crying “ Peccavi!" he defies the whole lot of > them, and appeals to that sound public feeling which exists in every British community, and to which no Englishman with justice on his side ever appealed in vain. *’

If 1 write to make myself known, I do what every other medical author does, and unless I write what the editors of the papers think will inteicst or amuse t heir readers, I might write till doomsday and never get au article inserted. I have no interest here. I am nobody and nothing, and it must he that any articles must depend on their intrinsic merits. I have to make my living by my nrofession, and by any fair and honorable means! w.U do so. I can quite understand how men who never wrote anytlnng m their, lives, and never held any important official position, are savage ai anyone

owning here who has written and has held important appointments, but it would be mnch wiser if they aid not show it so plainly. I have to apologise for this long, and, I fear, stnpid letter. lam in very bad form just |now, partly from the effect of a severe bronchitis, and partly from ‘Daily Times’ on the brain. I have read so mnch of that periodical during the last week that it has seriously impaired my intellect. I took it in for three months when I first came here, and was a new ebum, and I narrowly escaped softening of the brain. As it is, one of its leaders always has the effect of a pint of bad porter on me|:|it makes me heavy, drowsy, and muzzy. The editor may go on with his attacks if he likes, but do not let him think that this child is going to play into his hands by answering him in hi« own paper—pas si "bits!’’ —l am, &c., _ B. H. Bakewell. Dunedin, June 19. [Di future wo shall be glad if Dr Bakeweli will confine his remarks within reasonable limits.— Ed. ‘E. S.'] -