AT THE CORNER.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4839, 12 July 1884, Page 2

AT THE CORNER.

[by nemo.] Homo sum, Jmmani nihil a me alienum puto,

The members representing the Payne interest in the Hospital Committee, notwithstanding (heir large and assumed majority, seem to have been rather uneasy during the discussion .which took place at Wednesday's meeting upon the protest entered by a small minority of : the Com* mittee against the appointment of the surgeon being made permanent in the way by which it was done. Some very dignified representatives ofjthe mining interest felt greatly slighted and insulted that the protest should have been published before presentation. Poor: fellows .'Did they fancy that the protest was made on their account, or for submission to their want of judgment ? One of these simple-minded persons endeavored to get; rid of the very indigestible document by explaining to the bewildered auditors in his most lucid style that the whole matter at issue was the development; of a private quarrel between two doctors,forgetiulthatno less than three men of peace—ministers of religion—had made themselves parties to the imaginary warfare^ Another .burly self-complacent member of the same important industry was much exercised in bis mind as to the right of one of the Committee to be the colleague of so important a. personage as he, because the former was the rejected of the subscribers, who bad the discriminations yto prefer bulk to Jbrains, and blind partisanship to ■liberality. ; Then came the*rjeasonefs with their subtle logic—James Tintac, a very fine boy for his-a^e, and wonderfully wideawake, undertook to demonstrate to an appreciative audience that the word permanent, when applied to hospital apf pointments does not mean for life, in, fact', that it has no meaning at all in the sense given'to the word by the English Jan* guage, but is merely a figure of speech to be employed according to the intelligence of the Committee making use of it; thus exclaimed the embryo orator triumphantly "no claim for compensation can; arise out of the creation of permanent appointments" taken in a hospital or Pickwickian sense. "So clear was the■'., logic, so convincing the reasoning, of this precocious: rhetorician, that the Chairman, who has not agreed with anybody for the last thirty years, was actually subdued by Tintac's argumentation, and is now. of opinion that there ought to be nothing permanent about the Hospital—■ but the Government subsidy. ; About this time a slight chemical explosion warmed the meeting, which seems to have been occasioned by an overflow of acrid bile developing some ver^r windy mattery which caused much irritation in the speaker/and fully accounted for the bitter* ness of his remarks. After such Herculean eloquence, the minor lights were snuffed, out, and a division was taken on the motion before the meeting, when a perfect forest of dirty hands was held up against it; and so -perished one more honest effort to improve our Hospital, and mitigate the sufferings of the inmates. ' ':-:--;-'::-':;".i >-,f,-..;.-:. '• " . ••■.■ ;"'-.::-

.-,■ „;\," .. X;.::, X.i ,X';v".- '■;.■■■:■ ' Is it possible that not a single Borough workman is available for the purpose of improving the crossings in. our principal streets ? The pathway in Queen street needs immediate repairs. Of course bur* gesses must pay their .rates, even?if the paths: are never touched; lam told 'there; is no money in the Boroagh cbjQTers to pay for such necessary work, and if this is the case they should put up the shutters' at once. What! no lights in the streets ! and only a decent pathway in two or three of them ! O tempora .' O mores J: :

The windows* of the Institute are looking deplorably out of order. I would recommend the Committee to have them re frosted at once;; and a .crossing to the door of tbeireadiDg room would be a great boon to visitors. V Some of the fair sub-' scribers to; the- Library hare been grumbling because theyhave been unable to change theirr books till 7 p.m. during the past week, and had to go to the Library to? find out the; temporary arrangement. A walk through the mud for nothing is not pleasant. . ■ , ■. i ;.:>,-,J ;; vX.,i;;;::X.:-,- ; <><V.. :■..;: !■:■£.;

Why so many suicides in this colony during the past six months P The answer may be that rationalisim, materialism, and the " Conditional Mortality" dogma are working their way in the mind of man, leading him to think that he is selfrespon* sible,. and that, like the Frenchman who had seen all the countries of the world, and wished to see other worlds, blew his-brains out. They have a right to commit suicide when so disposed, but, alas 2 none of the self murderers have come back Jo tell us whether or not the change in their condition has been beneficial. It is still " a leap in the dark." XXX

There is a very much maligned sex, and ridicule and sarcasm,' as well as abuse,hare been levelled at it in consequence of its alleged possession of elougated conversational powers, but the best way of referring to the subject that has fallen across my.view is the following, culled from a Melbourne paper:-—" A lady who resides near Collingwood Elat, Melbourne, lost her speech for six weeks. The chiN dren. gained six and the old man 22lbs in weight daring the interval." - Verb, sat sap.