An Unctuous Rascal

New Zealand Tablet, 13 December 1906, Page 9

An Unctuous Rascal

Years agd;r thergrants of the "sham ' ex-priest' and ' ex-monk ' business were so /considerable that this branch of .the "magsman's ' profession ' became ." for a " Uime uncomfortably, overcrowded. The congestion was however, gradually relieved by* the • action of the police

and the criminal -courts. We' Kav> effaced— arid" retain in our '* Rogues' dallecy '—the careers .of>spm'e\ ~ scores of- the .so-called;- . '^ex-piiest ' andh ,« eWnonk; '-;, ..sland'er•mongers that have been retailing pornographic filth to the public during .past -.twenty , years al. ..(visually),.. [ front seats one shilling, f' bacr : Veats' ; ' sixpence"'— or" " "fts" American equiyalenc, .The^v_astly r , greater part of them were never r priests" ;• or monks 1 '; -- a j '" bTg^peic'eivtaige of : , them,., were never , Catholics . /i'he* few -of. "them-that were" 1 once irr~ the sacred, ministry were merely .' weeds that the T Pope. . threw over" his garden Vail-— cast for.th for , ,opnduct' unworthy' of their higH .'and holy calling; We " /"have failed. to find among' this class of.poarse "' lecturers *' w even one "man of- unblemished character.- -With a,- few exceptions,- they are,- Motown to-Hhe police ' an-d have made (some of ■• them repeatedly) the acquaintance of the prison cell. Arid mie and" all of. 't'fii's" loathsome^ "class" _ made a ; dishonoi;ab-lc' livelihood^by carousing r and -trading- ", on sectarian passion ami crorrupXln&l-ILhe^-m^nds- of youth with pamphlets .which (in the, wprds/of '"Newman) ' cannot have been intended for—any other purpose than to ' 'afford merriment in the haunts oi "v-ice and profligacy '. * - One of the bright' particular ornaments of-this/btand of the .philosophy- of . the stye is the .unctuous "rascal who" 'calls himself *v ex-monk » Windows. „ He" was never a monk and his real name is Nobbs, not Widdpw.s. "He was sentenced ;in Uana-da (says London ' Truth ' of March 30,^1899) id' ten years' penal servitude for a crime which involved , ' a^ piece of as revolting, immorality as it would be;" possible "■ to conceive '. In. the House of Commons in July, 1901, the Chief Secretary for Ireland (Mr. Wyndham) told how the brutalised imp ostor ' -vvas convicted in London in 1888 of the offence referred to ' (an unmentionable crime)- « and sentenced to . ten years' penal : servitude ., Shortly after Mr: Wyndham" had • exposed - the :'l>ogUi> '-ex-monk' in Parliament, ft .the fellow was 'sent -up,' , Joj^a-tetm^ of. /P^iial^-seryi-tu-ue for another abominable 'crime. - % OrP'-his'-iibe'ratidiii some two years "ago or ch'ereabouts;- 'he "Was back to his. conventicle;in- -Hackney v (L-ondo^) by % bevy of v tlie •' lidies '■ 'of - the iiltle congregation fth at are "satisfied to.' listen' 1 - to'-the unspeakable^ bll,ckguard-'"s ex- - position of the'""Gospel,;acc.ording^tio;.?ypbbs.tr,"Pew. in Ms - ■- I noisome , trade -hav,e learned better- -than:. : he '^ -- J The knowledge" 'of the thriving art;- ' , A holy outside and* a hollow", heart' '.-■ ,-' •But .the profession is not so profitiable^asjt was— the sciioolmaster has been, abroad to'-Vqmei^piulr'pdse.. And - the sham ' ex-monk '—but genuineJet-c6nvict^pt l'H^ck-:l 'H^ck- : ~ % ney is now, as Panurge was at.^t}iirty-five, "subject to" a ' hciivd of -.-disease v 'wh.i<3i is called t jack of money:" Here,\is how London ' Truth ' of • Se|rt6mber 19 deals Vijbti the unctuous ex-convict and his f; urgent appeal ' fOr^sEekels :-. , i „-»._ t ,r" „''*]', ■ '-■- c.v" • - s" '• 'A< corlespondcnt forwards a^tcopy , .of an ," r( urgent appeal " from the unspeakable scoundrel Widdows, which was put into his hand -at an open-air religious, service in. Haokney. Widdo.ws.ig- i-tf-" urgent want oF£4OO 'to discharge- a debt whichfisrjianging over ■ .his head, and by way of sugges ling. that ,-i/he debt. is, driving .hfjn - into an. 'early lie goes on thus :.'" The -winter* of .my life is approaching, and, sleeping I dream/ and waMng I hope, that,, ' before I go hence, 1 -this 'debt may ''be swiped- out. -Mental worry~and akxiet'y have a serious breakdown in healtli, and 1 was obliged^ to give up work for a time, but thank God laiii somewhat restored.", ■It is easy to, understand , that a man • -who has • done '■ ."two ' terms "of "penal? servitude in this, country, subsequently to imprisonment in the Colonies,r * =has experienced^ aa. good.A-deaL^jof-fjnentaU-^jorry -^and.i anxiety.' '" *' ' *' *£ When" Nobbs" "( alias "Wiado-wsj'"ira"s~" passed' through" - 1 th© .'winter of his life ', his tonvbj'-may,. appropriately - bear'~the- following "inscription (adapted 1 «from Barham''s~ , " Rob ' Gilpin) :— . ~ r - :: ' , ■-- .-~-r.r ' John Widdows was a , con vi at bqld.^ \ "'"[ 'Of very bad ' re'nowif '„'.'"*. - r Z~' ~ . ',"' " '' "^ Of no great l credit 'in "his own, "' ~" r Or any. ojther town '. ' - - ■ .*- - ■-•- • r^y^-tj •■ ■ ' • - - - ;■

The broad4,nw brand oL, religion is about the most de-graded of all substitutes for" Christianity. - Its "doctrines are a "profanation 1. >,lis' preachers are^ofjt'he class described by Carlyle '-&& '* Vociferous, - brazen-faced, brassY tongued—and not polished brass at that. And .tha minted sovereign is its ark of -tho covenant. _ ~ A