SCOTCH! HOTCH! POTCH!

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 18, 16 July 1920, Page 10

SCOTCH! HOTCH! POTCH!

(Contributed by "The Groper.")

Burns.

Thou of an irtdeperident mind, With soul resolv'd, with soul resign'd ; Prepar'd Power's proudest frown to brave, Who wilt not be, nor have a slave; Virtue alone who dost- revere, Thy own reproach alone dost fear, Approach this shrine, and worship here. — Burns. " A great man . is this day fallen. in I.^ruel." The occasion of his passing is oue for the interrogation, "When shall we seo his like again ?" Admiral Lord Fisher was one of the very few really big men of his time — too big to argue. His imagination and vision were almost those oi a GotL_ Of Fisher more than any other might we say he was the "organiser of victory." He transferred the iron-walls of England from the azure Mediterranean to the murky North Sea. With unerring genius he fathomed the German mind — he knew where the blow would fall and how. Those welter veights, the Inflexible and Irtvineible, that in a space of hours placed thcmselves in the South Atlantic, chose tliotr own barking distance and sent the broken hulls of Von Spee to "Davey dones," were the children of his witchery. liad this master-mind controlled, in person, the fleet of his creating, there would ' ve been a naval Armageddon — a Jutland never. Like Nelson and Wellington, he knew his mind, he liked the truth, and spoke it. His English, like Sir Iian Hamilton 's, is unmistakable. It is that of the autocrat. God save England when the hearts of democratic autocrats, like Fisher, cease to bcat. One "Jackey" Fisher is worth a nation of peck-sniffing little Engiinders, and the whole cut-throat pack of ignorant, misguided Sin Fcinn. Here you are : — "I was born in 1841, the same vear as King Edward VII. There never was such a healthy couple as my father and mother. Thoy never married for money; they marrsed for love. They married very youhg, and I was their first child. All the physical advantages were in my favour, so I consider I was absolutely right, when I was nine months old, in refusing to be weaned. '!I entered the navy, July 12, 1854, on board her Majestv's ship Victory after heing immediately examined by the doctor on board of her, and writing out from dict i tion The Lord's Praycr ; and I rather think I did a Rule of Three sums." Those who run may read the secret of life's happiness in these • plain words. Fisher believed in having suitable appliances handy to clip when necessary the German Eagle's wings. Presumably he was against -Ihe use of all other damnable devices for the restriction of population. Fisher, with Wilberforce and Lincoln, and the other really big men of history, was not ashamed to let the little fellows know that he looked at the Bible occasionally. Truth is his writings literally glitter with goms from the crown of literature. Fisher's place in history is assured— a glorious one it is — high up on the gilded arch of fame. That he was less than Nelson is not established and he may have been greater ! Who knows— but enougb

"Wisdom is knowing what to do next; skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue doing it. " ONE QUARREL. After the sermon, which had been on "Domestic Felicity," the minister happend# to mset Sandy, one of the flock, who expressed his delight with the discoorse. "Are you happy at home, Alexander ?" irtquired the man of cloth. " Well, sir," responded Sandy, "the wife and me ha'e only had yin quarrel in a' oor life." Indeed ! said the minister, evidently quite pleased. "Aye," continued Sandy, looking down at his feet, "of coorse, it's occasionally interrupted !" To be or not to be, that is the question, Sabbath night concerts at seventhirtee. "I'm glad there is a day of rest, one day in every seven, when worldly cares cannot molest, and we may dream of heaven. The week day labour that we do, is highly necessary, but if our tasks were never through, if they shoul-d never vary, we'd soon be covered o'er with mould, from bridle-bits to breeching ; so let ths Sabbath bells be tolled, and let us hear the preaching ! The editor of the Dee street daily flivver speaks ! "I use my trenchant, fertile pen to help along t-he cause of men and make the

sad world brighter, to give all good ambitions wings, to help the poor to better things, and make their burdens iighter. The page whereon my screeds appear enjoys a sacred atmosphere, it'3 helpful and , it hinds out morals by the ton, and shows the people how to shim the rocks to which they're drifting." Prices are coming down with a run. Newspapers will soon be quoted at "one!" Sandy had been staying with some friends for about a month and while he and his host were out for a walk one day they called at a wayside inn for a drink. As his host was about to pay for the same, Sandy stopped him. "No, no," he said. "I'll not allow it. Ye'vo been keeping me in everything at yer hoose for a month, and ye've treated me to the theatrcs, and cab fares, and paid for all the drinks. I tell ye, I'll hae na mair of it ; we'll hae to toss for this ane." Contented wi' little, and cantia wi' mair, Whene'er I forgather wi' sorrow and care, I gie them a skelp, as they're creepin' alang, Wi' a cog o' guid swats, and an auld Scottish sang. I whyles claw the elbow o" troublesome thought, But man is a sodjer and life is a faught ; My mirth and guid humour are coin in my pouch. And my freadom's my lairdship nae monarch dare touc'n.