The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. TUESDAY, SEPT.30, 1890.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2842, 30 September 1890, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

TUESDAY, SEPT.3O, 1890.

Equal .in<l pxact justice to all men. Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

Strikes fill the air and every pulsation of tho electric wire carries over tho world aomo new manifestation of this strange spirit in some civili/od uouutry, nuw or old. All are more or leas under the spell, but from America comes, as usual, the nowost: mid thr> most nstoumlinp: strilrn ni' all. Vt r c\ cannot vouch for it.'i entiro truth, but tho fullest particulars aro given in a book of which very few copies have yec reached New Zealand. One of them hns fallen in our way and we have road it with an interest which mnn}', when it conies within their reach, will no doubt share. The author is Mr G. Noyes Miller. Tho strilco is no loss than that of woman, tired of hor fruitless '.•ITort? t<> <sn in n<l mission Inllio Li'jr- !

islativonnd to bo recognised in all respects as the equal,if not the superior, of man. Pity that book had not reached us earlier, for who knows what effect it might have had in advancing Sir John Hall's chivalrous Parliamentary tournament on woman's behalf. To the gallant knight wo recommend an early importation of this brochure which he should scatter among the ranks of his opponents in this great and glorious strife. Mr Miller treats the subject with great literary skill, giving ample fun as well as much food for grave reflection. The scone opens with a Yankee returning to his native town, and finding it so changed that he could only believe some; great calamity had happened. It looked "as if some great speculation or Anacondalike Trust had suddenly made a corner of the entire product of Buttons, and put them far beyond the reach of his fellow men." This was his (irst feeling as ho noticed wau-looking males, compelled to supply the place of these useful articles with all kinds of mechanical contrivances. Pins, string, hooks, and evon shingle nails held together '' the textile framework which invested every man I saw." Door steps and doorways were littered. Coffee pots, dishes, pans and the commonest household utensils adorned the rooms and could be seen through the opened cuvtainless windows. Dust, dirt, disorder and confusion reigned everywhere. Spell - bound ho wandered on, till happily falling in with an old but now most gloomy vbaged acquaintance. From him he learned the awful news. The women had struck as a last resource. Finding argument and reason useless, they had organised, federated and asserted themselves in the most effective way. They would no longer consent to wear the chains that had bound them for agea, although artfully garlaaded with flowers. Sentimental and endearing names would no longer satisfy their aspirations, and they would end a position more galling than that *of any bondslaves on the globe. So they had retired to a hill covered with large public buildings, and were living there bent on leaving man to his own devices, and of ending for ever the humiliation of their position by ending with it the human race. The narrator was such, but not blind also to the every day political and commerical aspects of the case. " Yaas," he said, " it's a kind of a hinderment, but the worst thing is the set-back it's going to give the population here in Hustleburg. Now, there's Sprawlton, the rival in our county, what's tryin 1 to get the county seat away from us. At the last census, by doin' some of the tallest kind of lyin', and takin' names off all the tombstones in the cemetery, they made out that they had about fivß more inhabitants than we. Well, now, to make things worse the women of Sprnwltown didn't tumble to the idea of striking till aliout a month after the women of Bustlebiirir, and the birth rate goiu' on will give it a great. start." At this terrible vision of disaster to the supremacy of his native city he was fairly overcome, but his gloom increased when ho found tho churches, the theatres, even tho clubs, deserted by the men who could never got the "absent ones" from their hearts and minds. To that absence thoir discoloured hands, burned and chafed in viun attempts at cooking and ironing, also bore vivid testimony. The prospect of the poet r'ampboll's "last man" boing so completely realised in his own nutivo town, doudenoil uiul bonuaibed his niiud, and sorrowfully he took up his rusidouco with his deserted fellow-townainau.

Thou wo huvo Boiuo very good writiuy and Home thought—t>aggostiufj viows ou social subjects that touch us all most clearl}'. The " Bitter Cry,' , a daily newspaper issued from the women on the Hill, gives leading articles so good that we should not mind comparing them even with those of our own widely circulated journal. To Sir John Hall and Professor Aldis, they would be a mine of wealth, which both gentlemen will be sure to appreciate. Mrs Aldis, too, will find some subjects with which she so delightfully occupies her skilful pen, dealt with in masterly, or, we ought to say, mistressly style. Social problems of the nnost difficult nature are solved, and all goes well, except for the husbands, the lovers and the friends. They are inconsolable and hopeless in their grief, for which no cure seems possible. Suddenly a cry of " Fire" is raised. It is in the women's new quarter on the hill. Frantically and stupidly the men rushed in, in confused crowds, all in one another's way, but all vieing with each other to save the lives of those whom thoy still so dearly loved. At the entranco of a burning pile they are confronted by ono of the lost angels who calmly, but sternly, recalls them to their senses by one simple word, the engines. Thus admonished, away they Uy. The lire is gaining and the ongines are up, just in time. Deeds of heroism are performed. Tho women faint and tho mon shed tears of dolight as they fall onco more into their arms. The reconciliation, busod. ou mutual, respect, is now complete. So may it be with all strikes and strikers, rind so may good from suffering ooinc, now and for nvor. l'Y>v tho lit tin book it.'iolf, " A Strike of a Sex," wo anticipate no small circu« lation, when it finds its waj into our own new but much striking country i