"CHARITY" AND MR BRIDGES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3038, 7 November 1908, Page 5

"CHARITY" AND MR BRIDGES.

(Letters published on the No-License question are subject to casual advertising charges,) j | ; '

(To the Editor). Sir,—Just a few lines to, if possible, set Mr Bridges right. He suggests that owing to my letter being paid for at advertising rates, therefore its source must be tainted. If his suggestion is true, then surely his own letter must be doubly stained, for not only is its publication paid ior, but he is also paid for writing it; whereas this writer receives no reward, nor does he desire any praise. Mr Bridges says I should down a trade that robbed me of my Mauriceville friend. Wait, Sir, till I tell that gentleman a sad little history. Many long years ago I had a little curly-headed brother, five years younger than myself, the pride of his father and my father's life, the joy of his mother and my mother's heart, and the little boy he loved us all. Boyhood saw him the head of his class; as a youth he excelled in learning and in sport; he completed a brilliant career at College, and he became of clever and skilf'il professional man. I see him now in memory with the ball of fortune at his feet. I see him leading from the altar a winsome English lassie as his bride. The years go by, and I see him again in a ward of a great hospital dying from a wound inflicted by himself after having shot his wite and his little child, while suffering from religious mania. But I bear no grudge against religion. Mr Bridget taunts me with want of courage in not signing my proper name. Possibly, Sir, in my old age I am a coward. In the days that are gone by I have stood amongst those who have been face to face with death. I have listened to the rush of the hurtling shells as they flew whistling above our heads. I have watched the quick-firing gun finding the range; I have seen the little puffs of dust and listened to the zip, zip of the leaden death as it swept to the right, to the left and then in front of us, till it found the line when strong men bit the earth. But courage may not have been required on such an occasion. However, Mr Bridges has answered the question, and as he, I believe, has led an Army in Masterton, doubtless his definition of courage will be gladly accepted by your readers. In the meantime it is interesting to know that quite a lot of the very best in literature has been produced by writers who used a nom de plume, that Mr Bridges in no way answers my letter, but clamours loudly for my name, presumably that he may bespatter it as he has bespattered the name of my Mauriceville friend. —I am, etc.,

"CHARITY." Dreyerton, November 6th, 1908.