JOHN JUSTIFIED OR, "THERE AEE ALWAYS TWO SIDES TO EVERY QUESTION,' BEING A REPLY TO "THE FIGHT-IN DAME EUROPA'S SCHOOL."

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 95, 24 April 1871, Page 2

JOHN JUSTIFIED OR, " THERE AEE ALWAYS TWO SIDES TO EVERY QUESTION,' BEING A REPLY TO "THE FIGHT- IN DAME EUROPA'S SCHOOL."

A brochure, iu which Europe is the School kept by Dame Europa, and the five great Powers, Monitors, under the Dames of Louis, William, Aleck, Joseph, and John, whose business it is to keep order in the School. These five monitors have gardens, in which they have built summer-bouses aud tool-houses, and which they cultivate, and are allowed to sell the produce to each other. William is accused of having long coveted two small plots in Louis's garden, and of having put himself in training, and of having taken lessons in boxing; and when he thought himself strong enough to fight Louis, of having tried to place a cousin of bis in a garden adjoining Louis's, which seemed to belong to no one just then (but which he knew Louis would not allow), for the express purpose of picking a quarrel with him ; and although William, on being remonstrated with, forbade his cousin taking this spare garden, Louis thought himself insulted, and challenged William to fight. They did fight, and Louis got the worst of it; and Mrs. Europa thought that John ought to have interfered and prevented their fighting, and rated him soundly for not : having done so, telling him that he was so selfish and so fond of his money, amassed by selling things he made in his tool-house, that he thought, of nothing else, and took no care now of the peace of the School, and was so taken up with his money-making as. to have forgotten how to fight, so that ,none v of . the other Monitors cared for him, or feared him, so the Dame threatened* to take his Monitorship away from, him; but some of the little boys begged her not to do so, as John had beAtt very kind in acting as sponge to both of the combatants, and. had washed Ihe blood off their faces, and bathed th*ir black eyes ; on which, the Danie releiited, so far as to let John off with a good lecture. ' ....''.-/ But this reply shows, that " There are two-sidesto.: every question."

'Tliat' same evening Mrs. Europa had invited an old friend and confidante to take tea -with , her in her private, room. The goodDame was so full 1 of the events of the morning, that she fidgeted and fidgeted until 1 ' aj break , in the conversation ena,ble]di her % '•unMrdbn'neV'miua" and "enter* 1 into" a minute detail { ot. aUvthat was, passing in the School, but a3 her friend made no remark,. 'Mrs! -Eurbpa,.'saidp 91 seievybu .think 'Pwas too lenient to John, and ought to have taken the monitorship from him, or

even to have expelled him from the school Do say what, in your opinion, I ought t» have done ?" " Well," said her friend, " as you ask me for my opinion, I will give it you ; but before doing so, I should like you to answer one or two questions. Have you not always found John honest and truthful and true to any engagement he makes ?" " Well," said the Dame, " I must allow that he is what you say, and even when this quarreL between Louis and William begau, he manfully took the part of a very little boy who was in danger of having his garden run over, if not taken from him, by William or Louis." " Exactly so ; and does he not always take the part of the weakest, if he thinks him in the right ? and when he does interfere, does he not do so heartity, never sparing the money you say he is so fond of, or caring for hard knocks and kicks, of which he manages to get plenty, although I must say he generally gives as good as he gets ?" " Tes, that is very true, and I remember now, that when some years ago there was a terrible scamp in the school, who took possession of the garden that Louis now . • has, and 1 , set himself up for a monitor, and not content 1 ; wi ; th v -that wanted to make all the other inonito|s obey him, and made such a disturbance in the school that I was nearly driven wild, he also attacked the monitors who then held the -pfeces that William and Joseph now nafvel and so. drubbed them that they could mot show themselves for a long time. He then cast a longing eye on John's gardeu, but found he could not get across the water to it, and even if he could he saw plainly that he would never be able to get back again, for John is, I must own, a sturdy fellow, aud he keeps such a fierce bulldog that every one is afraid to venture into his garden against his will. Now Nap, for that was the name of this bully of a boy, finding John's garden was not to be had, suddenly started off and. attached a big, burly, bearish boy, who helcl the garden Aleck now has ; but there he burnt his fingers, for the big boy set fire to his summerhouse rather than let Nap have it, and so singed the scamp that he was never worth much afterwaids. All this time John had been helping the other monitors with all his might, he gave and lent them his money and attacked Nap so fiercely, pummelling him in the back to draw him off from his attacks upon the others, and then, fighting him face to face and giving him such a drubbing that Master Nap had to run from the school and never troubled it again ; oh, I remember it all well now, and John certainly did behave like a man then." " Aud was not your school quieter after that than it had been for many long years before ? Aud did it not keep quiet until Aleck's predecessor in his garden wanted to bully that little dark boy, when John came forward aod with the help of Louis gave that rough cub of a boy such a licking as has kept him quiet ever since, though I hear he is beginning to get unruly again ? " " Yes," said the Dame, " that is true also." "Then," rejoined her friend, "you must admit that you owed the quiet that reigned in your school for so many years, and which saved you from so much trouble and chiefly to John, did you not ?"\ "I am willing to admit if," replied Mrs. Europa, " but why did he allow the . disturbance in the school to break out again now ? that's why I blame him." " Softly, my good friend," said her ir% companion ; " you must admit that it ■was' owing to John's exertions that your school was so orderly for so many years, but do you forget what it cost John to do all he did for the peace of the school ? Thinking so much of his money as you say he does, you cannot deny that he spent it liberally then, and scattered it in all directions, wherever he thought it might be of use, and, in fact, that he did not hesitate to get greatly into debt, so reckless was he of what he spent ; but he did it with a good will, and took cuffs and blows with a good will, too; and what did he get for it? Not much thanks, I imagine ; for when all the row was over, the other monitors soon forgot what Johu had done for them, aud begau to envy him his good name and the position he had rightly earned to hold among them, and they abused him and wanted very much — at least one of them did — to take his garden from him; but they were afraid of his bulldog, who began to show his teeth when he saw them stalking about on the other side of his stream and making ns though they wished 'to cross over. Now, just think, my good Mrs. Europa, was this the way to make .John --interfere in their quarrels, andifight their .foe them ' again,' aucl spend more i'c-r nil, .'moi^y, that ■ he and his class work so haifd for, and' get more cuffs and knocks, and then ~be abused for his ;painß, and: possibly when he had worn himself out by helping • others, and became weak and tired, some of the others who had taken it easily

■would come on and pitch iuto him, and even perhaps try and get into hia garden and rob his tool-house and his money-box ? No, John —for I know the boy well, and like him for ail his rough ways —has got wiser than that now, and does not see why Jie is to be always ioterferiug in other boys' quarrels and get no thanks for it. He is willing to take his share in keeping the school quiet, and that is all you have a right to expect of him, and he was willing to do so in this last quarrel." " Then why didn't he ? tell me that." '• He did try to persuade them not to fight; but Loui3 told him it was a private quarrel of loug standing between him and

and had nothing to do with the rest N ' of the school, and that ha had no business to interfere." "Yes, he did that,- but when he found thatj they would fight, why did he not step in with his great broad back aud make them give up righting ? " "-Why did ryot who do this ?" "Why, John, to be sure ; who else was to do it ? " "Oh ! I thought there were Jive monitors, and that only two of them were fighting,- eo there must have been three looking on." "Well, what of that ? " "Why, if there were three monitors looking, on, of whom John was one, why were the other two not to interfere as well as John ? " " Why why why because, of course, it was John's business to interfere; he always did so before, and the others would have been sure to have done so now if he had set them the example." "I think I have heard you say," replied the Dame's friend, "that for some time past John, had lost all his influence in the school; that he was supposed to care only for his turning-lathe and: his money-box, that he had become sluggish and stupid, lost all his activity, and got fat and flabby and quite unfit to fight (although they they /would find their mistake if they dared to molest him, for he can fight as well. as ever if forced to do so), and that none of the other monitors cared for or feared him ? " " Yes, I have often heard them say so." *• Then wlnr was he to put himself more forward than the others in this instance? If they did not think it their business to interfere, and prevent Louis and William fighting,. why was it John's business 'more than theirs ? : When two boys have got a grudge against each other, and are determined to fight, fight they will some time or other, do what you will to prevent them. No, my good Mrs. Europa, I think you are unjust in this case, and hard upon John ; you should have least have called up Aleck and Joseph, and lectured them also ; they have been lookers on, or neutrals, as they call themselves, as well as John. " " Well, but why has he helped Louis by sending him over those stones to pelt William with ? " "You must remember that John and his class are very industrious boys, and make a number of things which you allow them to sell to the other boys. So as John could not prevent the quarrel, he said, "I. can't .stop from, selling either..of you anything you want to buy from me, merely because you are fighting with each other, it would be unkind ; so either of you may have what you require.' Louis wanted some stones ; so John sent him a few, for he had very few at hand ; and William has been very angry at this, as he says it is helping Louis to pelt him. But it so happened that William did not want anything just then from John, and if he had done so, he could not have got it, for you see Louis has much the larger boat of the two, and obliges William to keep his boat locked up in his boat-house, whilst. Louis can fetch anything he wants; so that had John made a fresh rule now, Louis. would have complained that he was favoring William at, his. expense, and that it would not be acting fairly to both parties. If when this fight is all over, all thejnpniljors agree to make a rule that; if there is a fight among any of them, none of the others shall supply either of the combatants with anything they may want, it would be a very just rule ; but to alter an old-established rule now, which would affect one .party and not the other, would not be fair, and I think William will see this* when the fight is over. But for one stone that John sent, those sharp boys in the, school; across the; water sent.:him a cart-load, yet they call themselves neutrals also.,. : But<l bear no complaints against them"; it is always John should have done this, and John should not have done that. Poor John ! he is always the one to be blamed. Fortunately, he has good broad shoulders and can bear it. He goes on in his own quiet way, and does what he thinks right, whether he 'gets ; abused for it or not; and even, in ..this case, , although he could not interfere,, he -has done, his best in ' using the. sponge ' ari,u binding up' the wounds of both parties." " Well/' said, Mrs. Europa at last,.".you have put the* case very srrohg for John. I had no idea he had so staunch a friend. I have been so iii the habit of always hearing him abused, and. of being told that everything he said or. did was wrong, even by parties' 'in' "b,is own' class,' that I supposed it'must pe~ so ; but I fear, in this instance I' hay'e done, him wrong, and been hard upon mm, and sol will tell him tomorrow,, befpre .all; the othe^ boys r 'and I wiU „mak£| what* amends to him .l. can r by replacing 'him in his former position of, if not the r firsK J at 'all events one of the' 'most honeßt, IJI ' J aid u!Ji di&in I terested",' ma* : well meaning monitors in the school j for, as you imiA>®&&%,W'teshiQn&-- ™'

"' There are always two, sides to every 'question.'' " "Now," said her friend, "since you have done justice to lioness; Jpliuj, there' is one other little point in tjhAslEory ou N wb^e,h I wish to say p. word'OrJivo. You said that William had long coveted two little plots in Louis's garden, aud that. ffShrjost rom the time when Nap gave liim such a licking, he had put himself in training and taken lessons in boxing, so that he might take those two coveted s plots by force whenever he felt strong eirough to do so, and that he had put his cousin up lo take that spare garden near Louis's for the express purpose of picking ( a quarrel with Louis. Now, I don't quite know how you have found that opt ; but surely you must be aware that ever since Nap's time his class have always coveted a little water-course that runs through a part of William's garden, aud that Louis has long., been waiting for an excuse to quarrel with William and take it from him ? You say that -Louis was in a great rage even after William had said that his cousin should not take that spare garden, and pretended to be insulted. Of course he was in a rage, because William had taken away the cause of offence, and Louis feared that the opportunity of quarrelling with him would pass away; for it so happened that Louis had also been in. training, and thought he had found out some wonderful /new way of hitting, which was so severe ,and dreadful that no one could stanjdup . against it. He was so proud of this,- s» certain of its deadly effects, and so afraid" that the secret would .leak out, and that William would hear of it and learn how to employ it as well as he, that he was most anxious to begin Ahe fight,at once, and would listen io no feasorjjJfut called upon William to makela prj^riise that he knew he would not makl-ircd that he. did not wish him to make. jpPoor follow ! he has suffered sadly fo£»-Kis| folly, and I pity him with all my heart." | "But rf Williaffn has lleaten him so, and punished him so severely, why is he not satisfied with the drubbiug he has given him ? and not go ou hitting him now he is down ? " "Well, you see it staudsthus. William did not wish to fight if he were let alone. He had plenty to do just now putting his garden in order, so he said if he was to fight now,. he would fight so as to secure his not beiug attacked again by -Louis or any of his class. Between the watercourse in William's garden and Louis's garden there are some high aud strong walls,' which belonged to Louis, and which .William hasynow taken from him, and which-he is determined to keep to prevent Louis getting over them and takiug his watercourse at any future time. So William says to Louis, 'If you will give me permanently those walls, I will stop beating you ; as I cannot take your word that when you are well and strong again you will not wish to fight me once more, I must have some "material guarantee," such as these walls, that you will leave me in peace for the future.' Poor Louis had, however, before this been so mauled that he had been carried away ; but. those who now keep his garden say, 'No, we will ■not give you one stone of these walls, or one inch of ground on which they stand.' So. what is to be done? William has been terribly bruised and hurt in this fight, and now that he has beaten Louis, who was the aggressor, he cannot be expected to let him oft scott free, or not to secure himself from beirjg agahi molested, or from having his watercourse, and that part of hia garden throughWhich it runs, taken from him at any future time ; for" you know he and his class rave about their watercourse, they make songs upon it and are so fond of it that I believe they would rather all fight till they died sooner than have it taken from them : so until Louis's successors find they must give in, or can manage to take the stone walls back again from William^ I fear there is no hope of the fighting ending, or of any peace and quiet for you, my good Mrs. Europa •;; for < here again, you see, — f; There are always two sides to every question." '.:-...