Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 3 September 1908, Page 9

Current Topics

Tabby v.Pugp ' Give' me,' said Monsignor Tihen recently to a -Chatauqua, ' audience, 'an old maid with a tabby cat every time in preference ' to a' married woman with a pug-dog.' ....■_ . •-- . ; The Quackery Bill The Quackery Bill has got through its second reading in - our ' Lords. 1 And in the course of its passage through the Second Chamber the remarks of Councillors were frequent and free regarding the wiles and ways of the horde of ' medical ' impostors and parasites who are feeding upon the great body of .the credulous throughout the Dominion. The schoolmaster is very much abroad in our time. Yet this is thej.golden age of quacks and quackery. Rock, who was a notorious medical •charlatan of the eighteenth century in England, was one day sipping his Mocha v -in a coffee-house' on Ludgate Hill (London). A gentleman (a stranger to him), entered into conversation with. him and expressed surprise that" a certain physician of great ' knowledge and ability had but a meagre practice, while such a fellow as Rock was piling the shekels high. "'Oh!' said the quack, ' I am Rock, and I shall soon explain the matter to you. < How many wise men, think you ,_ are in the multitude that pass along Ihis street? 1 ' About one in twenty,' replied Rock's casual acquaintance. 'Well,, then,' said Rock, ' the nineteen come to me when they're sick, and the physician is welcome to the twentieth.' ■ ■ * The streak of wisdom in the passing multitude is probably not much greater now than it was in the days of Rock the charlatan. The quacks have to be thankful for the fools, for without them . their occupation would be gone. Our legislators are, however, doing a good work in treating the victims of the quack as persons in statu pupillan. The new legislation will in some measure serve to protect the -dove against the hawk.

How Terr iss • Backed His Fancy ' A cable message from London in last week's daily papers told, in brief space, this tragedy of a life : ' William Blinkison, formerly, the owner of many well-known racehorses, and a leading sportsman, died in a common lodging-house.' According to the Queen in Alice in Looking-glass Land, there's a moral in everything if you only know where to find it. And the moral of the story of William Blinkison is pro- > bably to be found in Smythe's biography of- the noted actor, William Tcrriss. When anyone asked Terriss on a racecourse what horse he was going to back, he replied :—: — ' Ilnv-going to back a little filly I've often backed before ; I've never won anything on-it, yet, strange to say, lve x never lost a penny.' - » - . 'Oh, what horse is that?', was the puzzled query. '-A little filly called Common Sense,' Terriss replied, ' ridden_ by. Tommy Let-it-alone.' " " -.'.,. Well, Terriss's sane way of 'backing his fancy' saved him . from the fate that befel! so many once prosperous sporting, men besides William Blirrkison and ' Jubilee' Juggins. * They do some things better, in France. Max O'Rell . in Between Ourselves (p. 60), says :'lf a Frenchman— be he father, husband, or brother— shows an inclination to squander a fortune which is one day destined to go to his children, his wife, or his 'brothers and sisters, the latter have a right to call a family council to examine the case, report on it, and obtain a restraint which prevents that man from having the sole and entire control of his fortune. And thus it is that French wives and children are protected from the eccentricities and extravagances of gamblers, spendthrifts, who may happen , to be at the head of a family ; and the law makes no difference between the man who has simply inherited his fortune or has personally earned it in his profession or business. ... If the family council have proved their case; 'the law appoints guardians or trustees, who pay the interest' of the capital to the man in monthly instalments, or to his wife if he is not judged competent to handle that interest, and the capital remains absolutely protected from his extravagance. That man is thus " declared by French law interdit— that is, prevented from doing any more injury to -his wife- and children. Even nephews and nieces can call a family council and get a profligate uncle intetdit.'

The Book Fiend After having, been successfully beguiled; by Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, in Uncle Remus 's Legends of the , Old Plantation, allowed that he had ' kotch a han'ful of hard sense. 1 , ' But there are, alack! so many Catholics who have. not tn^ fox-sense, or , even -the "homelier horse-sense, not to be caught twice-' by, the same -Bier Rabbit ' hirer For, entering full many^a home you sec ,thQ taAvdry andi costly and mainly useless gewgaws which a succession of. oily and~ cunning agents have from -time to' time contrived to" ' place . there at, perhaps, not - more than five or six times their proper price. - But the J'-han'fu'. of hard sense ' cometh not ; and now and "then we are asked to caution ' and to advise after the book or picture ' outfit ' fiend has -got his work in and has disappeared with a signed cast-iron agreement i.i his pocket. . . • . ; - -

-.• " ■?.■' > "- -- Circumstances now r mo,ve us to. say that for J:lie price of one of those cumbrous, more or less ' useless, " and . very expensive conglomerates, of gaudily bound printed stuff, the householder could make a good beginning with the" Catholic Encyclopedia, or could furnish his bookshelves with -about forty, -bound volumes.

of the Catholic Truth Society, or with hundreds of.. the useful and 'well-written publications of the Australian Cacholic Truth Society, or with weekly .copies of 'the; New Zealand Tablet, for two whole years. The time is opportune for quoting 0 tKe remarks made by_ja- sensible old Wisconsin farmer to a suave dispenser of a bulky and (to him) /useless-^work-Jn; forty-seven" parts. '-Well,' said he; \soriie>i\vays I'd£slike- to, -ari ? some ways I wouldn't. Ye se§ (j if I was to sign fer : that _. 'ere work-in forty-seven parts, .including; the -index an' appen4icitis/-I'm'~sorter - afraid I'd hey to -work so hard to pay fer it thetl'd-be too tired to enjoy readin* it ; while if I read it at my leisure, as I'd ort to, in order to git the good of it, I' wouldn't hey time to earn the price. So, all things considered, " I'll" hey to deny myself the_ privilege, as . it were. Looks sorter like rain off to the nor '-west," don't it?' . •■

Drink and the Treating Habit The latest police reports discioste a lamentable increase -in the numbers of those who - - , - ' Get on a spree * " And go bobbing around,' and never put off till to-morrow what they can drink .to-day. ,What is called ' the American .system '.of .dealing, with drunkards allows every victim of ' lickwid litenin' ' one overload of tipple — ' just as the old English law allowed every dog one* bite. When the soaked American is haled, before .the ' beak ' for a first , offence, he goes free on signing a pledge.' If he offends again, the law hits him at high velocity. Our Habitual Drunkards Act is a very beneficent measure. But something more persuasive is, we think, needed to; stiffen- the^. resolution of the 'prentice tippler j and brace -him against slopping over into the ranks of the ' habitual.' Not to mention other planks of- reform that have long beerT advocated by us, there is pressing need of more rigorous inquiry - into the- character and fitness of persons ' applying for licenses^ and a further loa<lmg*' of ',the butt-end iv the law ' when it falls upon the sordid and coarse-grained criminal who, for a paltry gain, pours liquid ruin into the wretched toper that has "already . passed the verge of moderate use. In the first of these two connections,' we trust that the lessons of the Christchurch scandal and of the Stirling sensation will not -be allowed to go .unheeded. ..•.-•- , * An emphatic Hielan' meenister once said of some of his flock that they would ' like the Cromarty Firth to "be a' biUV watter, the Black Isle to be a loaf sugar,, an' th' Beauly (river) runnin' whusky,' so that they ' cud juist brew, an' drink, an' brew, to all eternity.' But the old maxim of the schools applies even here : Nemo repente fit improbus — nobody takes a handspring into drunken habits. The ' rake's progress,' in this as in other directions, is* step by," step, and not a somersault or a 'header.' And in these countries the. beaten, path to toperism is through the pernicious habittfej*-. treating^ (or,, in colonial, ' shouting '). One of our stipendiary magistrates has .described it as ' the curse of the country/- J The for its suppression—which was started \by. clerical friends of- ours in the diocese of Ferns (Ireland)— has 'spread far.,; and wide, and'represents one. of .the most - radical . and most ' promising ,of all the "efforts to prevent the abuse* of :John Barleycorn. A venerable and witty clerical friend of the present" writer's— Father -Martin

Dunne, a Wex ford jjarish priest;— once saw. the thirsty village cobbler sneaking into the local public T house, .and cautioned him that the Spirit of Evil was accompanying him thither. ' 'Taint worth his while/ "feplied the cobbler; 'I've only tuppence ' (the price of a half-glass or minimum single dose of whisky). It woiild be well for air concerned if "the treating habit were as opposed by the good sense of the public as, in the case just mentioned, it was unwelcome to the thirst of the -bibulous vil-

lage cobbler. The praiseworthy movement for the suppression of that foolish and vicious habit Has taken root beyond the Atlantic, and will yet, we hope, exert its beneficent influence throughout this Dominion. The Catholic Transcript says in a recent issue: — ''The Wisconsin Association of German Catholic Benevolent Societies in "session at Madison" lately went on record as "opposed to treating^ and declaring against prohibition as contrary ""to the principles of personal liberty. Saloon treating, which our German friends so lustily condemn as pernicious and tending to promote' drunkenness. should.,have gone by the boards lon'g'ago. The man who. on pay-d,ay J invites the bar-room up for drinks, feels' he is doing it 'Handsomely" by his boon companions who, not to be out-distanced in liberality, follow suit. Ttie week's earnings drop into the till *of the saloon-keeper. Home and" family are the sufferers. The Anti-Treating Society is out "_ against the mistaken notion" of good-fellowship beneath all this. ' The "be good to your friends, step in and treat them"* 'sentiment has nothing in common with ..the sen.se of independence we Americans' boast "of. ; The treating the genial. Germans of Wisconsin now condemn they never saw in the Fatherland. ' Their reprobation of the custom in the land of their "adoption does them credit'. 1

Race Suicide

_ During last week* a sitting 6£ the Legislative Council was enlivened by a discussion on a motion tabled i/y the Hon. J. Barr. The motion prayed that the Government ' take into their immediate consideration the devising of some further practical measures whereby the heavy cost of living at present borne by the married workers as compared with the unmarried may be lessened, and that the position of those with families be especially considered, so that the rearing of their children may be looked forward to with less anxiety than at present,, and parenthood thereby encouraged. '

In the course of a speech on the ' motion, the AttorneyGeneral said : ' At the bottom of the "question is that of population.' No nation can rise to greatness that does not maintain a national birth-rate. It is hardly necessary to discuss the '* paramount importance of maintaining a national birth-rate. Mr. Barr wants the State to help those who carry out the duties of ' citizenship and encourage parenthood. AH, his suggestions aim at lessening the burden of .those- who accept the responsibilities of parenthood. Everyone is'aware that since iSgo attempt after * attempt has been made to lighten the lot of the worker. Two questions arise : (i) -Is there need for the Government, to encourage, parenthood ? ' and (2) Are the suggestions made likely to be effective? " Mr. Barr has pointed out that the average family in. NewT'Zealand has fallen from' 5.14 to" 3.15, a drop of over 15 per cent. He might have gone further and pointed out that the birth-rate, from being the highest^ in Australasia in 1880, had fallen to- the-*-!owcst in 1900. New Zealand has an area greater than England -and Scotland, and yet only possesses a population ''a little greater, than the city of Glasgow. It can be shown that European countries have doubled their population in thirteen years. . At. its -present rate, of progress it would take fortyrtwo. .years .for,. New -Zealand to double its population. In 1878. New Zealand, _ had a normal - birth-rate. The RegistrarGeneral, has informed me that, had .the births continued at the . rateL then ruling., ...the population of New Zealand to-day would be 1,289,647 instead of 908,726 as it" is. Thirty years ago there were 4a children to every 1,000 married women in New Zealand;now lonly 27.3* — a drop of 14.7. In other words, had the birthrate fit „1878 continued, there would have been 15,000 piore births in New Zealand last year,, than actually took place.' The Attorney-General. does not view^the Hon.- Mr. Barr's well-meant proposals, .with .-any, hope, &nd he has his doubts that race-suicide ' can. be touched by* such palliatives as have- been suggested." The root of the trouble -about the canary-and-bull-pup family is , moral degeneracy.- ' And it is no-more ; to be cured by bribes, to , workers than itholera-morbus is -to be ' cured by homoeopathic j doses of the .muftiplication-table.