LOTTERIES.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1512, 20 December 1878, Page 3

LOTTERIES.

To the Editor of the Globe,

StR, —After a silence of nearly a week, *■ Artimas ” (or “ Artemaa ”) haa again come forward, innocently declaring that he did not expect a reply to hia letter That reply, it would seem, was for “Artimas” rather soon, and sudden; and, therefore, unprepared for the shock which the exposing of his hidden designs gave him, he sought refuge in the long silence that had been necessary in order to regain his lost composure, and assume the bold front which the audacity of his purpose required But I must admit that he had not been idle during the week which it cost him to reply, for true to the principles of his wiley profession, he again appeared before the “simple and inexperienced” people of Christchurch, robed in all the fulness of that presumption and hypocrisy which he, of shrewd nature and certain experience, seems alone so capable of donning. In his first letter, he, for reasons of his own, thought well to insinuate that the people of Christchurch are ignorant and superstitious, and good mfcuredly gave them his sympathy iu their inability to look after themselves, or watch over their own interests ; thereby giving them to understand that they, as a matter of course, would require the guardianship of some saintly individual like himself. After such presumption ho nxd tho hardihood to declare he did not ex <ee’ a reply. Why, who did he think we arc, mat he should expect us to remain silent under his insult? Sir, I availed myself of tho right to reply, and in doing so, I now perceive I hit upon t>>e key-note which regulated the tone of his venomous and serpeut-like attack. Aware, as I am, of the danger of having even the most casu-d intercom’ss with bad company, and happy though I feci at the opportunity of returning his farewell, still I shall not allow the separation to take place without a parting word, which may afford him ground for contemplation, especially as his second letter savours of a propensity (of course new) to ponder over high subjects I said that “ ,/i Dimas’s ” letter proved him to have a closer acquaintanceship with the deceits and trickeries of Continental lotteries than he had with the virtues of the elergvmen of Ohri'-tchurch; and, to add to this I have now his last letter. At the opening of it he enumerates the choice games of gamblers with a precision, which, at least, makes it apparent that they had < ccupied a good deal of his attention, and so filled his mind with their dishonesty and swindling as to have left bat little room for honest ideas, lie again took tho trouble of pointing out how a Neapolitan clergymen had swindled £84,000. Well, I needed no further confirmation of this than his first assertion; neither did I say that I doubted his statement. To do so, on my part, would be fqlly, since I am well aware that it was quite possible for one of the disappointed conspirators whom the vigilance of the police caused to fly from Naples—to have settled in Christchurch ; and I am also well aware that it was quite possible for that disappointed conspirator to have assumed the name of Artimas—and jealous of the people being under the safe guidance of their clergymen here—to have appeared in print, and relate the story of the Neapolitan swindle, in order to contaminate the minds of an “inexperienced people” with his peculiar ideas But his week’s contemplation must have shown him that such a course would prove a failure ; so what do I discover in his second letter hut that he_ is aspiring to religion, and haa been dabbling in theology, which he tries to use in order to give more force to his calumny. “Artimas” went out of his proper sphere, and got into an unsuitable element when he choose religion, and when from the midst of his gambling and trickery he refers to the Great Teacher and his twelve followers. “Artimas” asks me if I do not know clergymen who are not, according to the definition of the true clergy, men which he lays down, to which I answer that if he be a so-called clergyman, I know of one, The class of theologians who say that the end “justifies the means,” must be of “ Artimas’ particular class, aqd beyond that particular class 1 defy him to point out any other who say that tho “end justifies the means,”

The eleven good followers of the Great Teacher, when "they pointed out any evil, never through cowardice assumed a 'also name, nor never were they afraid to place their names besides their doctrines. Is “ Artimas” therefore like those ? No. The traitor’s care was to keep all the money ho had in the “bag,” and always oxypoae any leaving, no matter for what high or holy object. Is not “Artimas’s” lave conduct more like his. In conclusion, I would recommend “Artimas” to ponder over the Great Teacher’s warning to the hypocritical Pharisees, whoso care was to show clean the outside, while inside they were full of rapine and iniquity. Yours, He., ONE OP THE SIMPLE.