TO THE EDITOR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 48, 30 November 1899, Page 3

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,— l am grieved at the treatment you have dealt out to our dear and venerable friend ' Civis.' lam afraid you have made the mistake of taking him seriously. When you know him as well as his friends do, you will do bo no longer. We all like old ' Civia ' immensely. That is why we laugh at his jokes bo. And then they are so easy to see : no digging out required. Even a Scotchman can see them— sometimes. It is really too bad to find him mauled about like this, and he doesn't like it. Tou see, he has, any time during the past ten years, been accustomed to have his little dig at St,

Joseph's and the Tablet with impunity ; and now forsooth, because he tries to score a point off the Tablet again, he is treated in a manner that well nigh staggers him. No wonder he is angry and disgusted. I don't think 'Civis' will offend again. Indeed, lam sure he won't ; but if by any chance he should, ! please be more gentle with him for the sake of those who love him. He is getting on in years now, as you may have gathered from some of his more recent ' Notes. 1 Don't mistake me : he is not in his dotage yet, for has he not lately demonstrated with amazing clearness that the year 1900 is not finished till it is ended? One of his readers wanted him to believe otherwise, but ' Civis ' proved him to be wrong in a • note ' of about a quarter of a column. His intellect is, therefore, as you see, quite unimpaired, but excitement is not good for him ; and he doesn't like to be contradicted ; and he has corns, too, though he pretends he hasn't ; and nobody likes corns trodden upon — his own. Of course we don't mind 'Civis' treading on our corns occasionally, and heavily, too ; but his corns—that id quite another matter. — I am, etc., 1 SUAVITEE IN MODO.'