"ISHMAEL'S" FARWELL.

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 156, 2 August 1888, Page 2

"ISHMAEL'S" FARWELL.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE STAR. Sir, — " Ishmael" quotes an oft tolji and stale joke about lawyers as a prelude to con r eying to your readers (by way of insult to me) a hint that m charging him with falsehood I must have known that I had no grounds for I doing so. Now, the fact is that I did not charge him with falsehood in th» ordinary acceptation of the term. Any one may make a false or erroneous statement without necessarily' being guilty of falsehood, and that was all! charged him with, viz: that he had made an accusation which, in bay" opinion, was false and unjustifiable. " It is all very well for "Ishmael' 7 now to give an explanation of hi» meaning of the. words "doubtful character"; but, in the absence of such an explanation, your reader* were left at liberty to put upon those words the worst construction, they are). capable of bearings With respect to the vulgarity of the two songs so often referred to-, I defy '' Ishmael,'' or any one else, to point out a single line of them which can be called vulgar or unfit for polite ears. The fact is that " IshmaeP is appar-. ently of far too refined a nature for u» Feildingites, and if we cannot hold our social gatherings and concerts-, without being in awe of the hypercriticism of a gentleman of such super-refined feelings, and who cannot write a plain English letter with- . out indulging in absurd and unintelligible metaphors, the sooner he " departeth shaking off the dost of his. feet" the better we shall W pleased, and should not object to see hire "soar majestic through the gloriousempyrean" of the mountain rangeswhich bound our eastern horizon— and stop there; but, query, is "Ishmael's" contemplated departure a real or metaphorical one — who can tell ? Before concluding I wish to say that I am not responsible for the words"lshmael scarified" appearing an part of the heading of my former letter. ~ am, &c, Saml. Goodbeheke. Feilding, August 1, 1888,