"MORE IN SORROW THAN IN ANGER."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3034, 3 November 1908, Page 5

"MORE IN SORROW THAN IN ANGER."

Sir, —Desiring no honour where none is due, I merely hasten to deny the nauseous suggestion of Mr Bridges. And in pasf/ing I would say that I have not the ability of a Liquor Organiser, nor am I desirous of possessing the fine merits (?) of a No-License Advocate, such as MiBridges. lam merely a humble person endeavouring to guide (however imperfectly) my stumbling footsteps in the path of the Great Redeemer; that Redeemer who brought joy and gladness to the dying thief, and said to him: "This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise." I write this, dear Sir, not in anger, but in sorrow and in pity; sorrow for the memory of my poor dead friend whosa relatives are pilloried in a No License advertisement, and sorrow for the organiser who is capable of such an unkind deed. I gladly pay tor this letter in the interests of Justice and humanity, that humanity which I fear Mr Bridges knows not. Methinks that gentleman is like the Pharisee of old who stood afar off and thanked God that he was not as other menpublicans and sinners. Surely, Sir, spite, bitterness, vengeance and want of feeling for the shortcomings of his fellow man is not a desirable feature in the leader of an alleged party of reform. To that organiser I say just this: —

"Whene'er thou meet'st a human form "Less favoured than thine own, "Remember 'tis thy neighbour man, "Thy brother or thy son.'*

Recently in your columns the same gentleman announced his respect for the money of his employers, and it is nuw abundantly clear that his respect for his employers' money bags tar exceeds his respect for the feelings of the orphan and the widow. This writer has been amongst those who were privileged, after the cannon has ceased to roar across a dreadful battlefield, to minister to the wants of wounded and dying soldiers, where the flitting form of the gentle redcross sister attended to every sufferer with only the groans of the smitten and the screech of the wheeling vulture to break the stillness of the night, and there he found that even his enemies were kind-hearted foes. And now, as the sands of life are running low, I regret to have found in peaceful Masterton a person in the guise of a No-License Advocate who looks on many of his fellow men as hypocrites and liars, and who sees no man perfect save himself. I offer, however, no rebuke to him, possibly his own unpleasantness is an allsufficient punishment to him. 1 care nothing as to the effect on the publicans of the re-print of the account of the Mauriceville occurrence. I know that the rebound of that advertisement has left an ugly sore on Mr Bridges, and to that gentleman, as an aged man speaking in all humility, I say: "Seek not after ways that are dark, bear no bitterness in your heart, and eschew all thoughts of vengeance for a Greater than you hath said, 'Love thy neighbour as thyself.' " —I am etc., "CHARITY."