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Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 479, 11 June 1890, Page 3

A Scotch parish minister has been discussing the rival claims of football and religious worship. He finds, says the “ Daily Graphic,” that some of the athletic youth in his congregation have been so wearied by their exertions at the football matches on the Saturday, that they could not come out to church on ihe Sunday morning. The remedy ho proposes for this state of matters sounds very like revolution in Scotch religious ideas. He proposes that the football match should be postponed till the Sunday afternoon, and that his young people should have their worship first and their enjoyment afterwards. He defends his proposal by the observation that, etymologically, religion and recreation moan tiie same thing. We are not so sure about that, but the fact that such a suggestion is made by a minister in Scotland proves that Scotland is moving forward, perhaps, fast enough. Twenty-five years ago another Scotch minister was the subject of universal reprobation in Scotland because he suggested that a quiet walk on Sunday might be a good thing. Now we have football on Sunday recommended. Scotland is advancing.

I have ascertained, says “ Atlas,” in the World, the real truth about the Jessie Brown legend. It has been made clear that the story was a myth, but nobody has been able to relate how it originated. In 1858 a clever lady, who is still living, was engaged in journalistic work in Paris, and one of her duties was to write a monthly letter in a certain daily paper about Indian affairs, which letter was supposed by the ingenuous readers of that journal to come direct from Calcutta, as it was dated from that city. The letter was always considerably “written up,” in order to suit the French taste for high-flavoured narratives, and when the time came to rolate the circumstances attending the relief of Lucknow, the clever lady in question evolved the story of Jessie Brown and the bagpipes entirely out of her own imagination, well knowing that it would be just the sort of episode to delight her readers. She was quite right, for it was copied into half the papers in France, and, having been translated, appeared in either “ Galignani ” or a Jersey journal, whereupon it was printed in the “Times,” and went all round the British press. Telegrams did not then pass between India and England every hour, and by the time the romance of Jessie Brown was denouncad as nonsense by those who who had been at Lucknow, it was universally accepted as truth, and I father fancy that a picture was painted depicting the scene. Numerous women have been pointed out as the original of the non-existent Jessie Brown, and in Scotland it would even now be scarcely prudent to deny the truth of the story, although it is clearly one of the mock pearls of Indian history. On May 7th Mr W. Hitchcock, VicePresident of the Suburban Bicycle Club, Sydney, had the unique pleasure of seeing his eldest and youngest sons finish a dead heat for the Club’s road race. The same two young men on the 17th instant came in first and second for the Club’s 3 mile championship, J. H. Hitchcock being first and W. W. Hitchcock second, only about 3 feet separating them. The time was I3nain ssec. •