The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-12-24 00:00:00

JOgroet Countg Expreoo,
11 UM

SOUS anb 'tints

The coffee tavern movement le spree4lng, mid has
already reached Dorchester, while therete a weak
attempt to extend it to Weymouth. I can speak con-
fidently of the service it renders in the dims' East of
Loudon, where, iike an oasis fa the wilderness, rem to
my 'Mg search the Edinburgh Palace, and offered
good, silizanlvcrigeLdkurink:ldwith co
out mfortable word:
" palace." The watt population that";:ched-up
district, on which smiling Nature seems almost to
have turned her back, find In the coital pekes the
refuge sad the guides that encourage them to strive
for the good, and amid the evil, sad, not least to •
Donee man, the named leri Shaftesbury prominently
displayed, reminded me that the lord who lons the
poor belongs to more than his own county. Great
and good names lure us on to efforts for those who
have not power to do special work for their clam
And .o it is that when the name of Mrs. Colonel
Bingham "mother." (I can't say " fathees") the
scheme for • oolse liven+ in Dorchester, one is awn&
that nothing but the useful and the good will be sought.
I confer that in Weymouth, so numerous and ex-
oeliont are the oollee-houess, so quickly can you get
served, so cheap is the price—that I don't believe the
case tavern is required, while, m to a Working
Men's Club, there our beloved member has provided
one that can only be improved by more of the working
class laming in. In Dorchester I best Mrs. Bingham
and her issistaats wish to establish • place capacious
enough and homely and cheap enough for large num-
bers of the animas and labourers to drop int; and
where they can get • "bit sad a sup" cheaply and
safely, read the papers with comfort, and feel they have
• right there. It I. intended, in short, to nuke a
place like the cheaper beerbome, only without the
beer. The intention is excellent' but Mn. B
must not be d' ed if she Ind the workingV:
don't gather there. In Weymouth so few of the real
labourer and artisan gather to the Working Men's
Club that men who can afford a great deal higher
subscriptions attend and take the benefits, while the
committee and cams feel them "upper" working.
de.-men must be welcomed in default of the poor.
Should tb• same thing happen in Dorchester, Men
Bingham and the °committee will have this satisfaction
—that at all events they have established a place
where the steady may meet, and which may be •
college-mot to say a nursery—of men who are
determined to rise.

Mosotho* the coffee-houses of Dorchester will be
stimulated; their attendant* will ham thing@ dose at
hand, will serve more quickly, and in various little
ways I need WA mention, will be brushed up. One
oonsideration OD behalf of the oodee-housse ontst not
be lost sight of—they are paying their way without
aside, for subwriptiona, and I would warn our
philanthropists not to drive those who support them-
Delves (who pay their landlords' rests, sail share in
the minteipel burdens by contributing their Aare of
rates)—into defending themselves by selling that
against which phllant&oplees wish to make war.
Where had the DoscheetAlr magistrates bidden them-
selves on lgooday moaning, that they snowed out
worthy and badomrious Mayor to sit upon the Bench
alone, and even to waste his time, for want of •second
a I It wasn't that there was no business for
tbuntlastical dispensers of justios, for the police were set
reunion about to Mr. this and Dr. that, yet, after all
the pert= encountered on the slippery pavements,
they disappointed. It put me in mind of
thah occasion when one had bought a farm, another a
yoke of oxen, and aU with one consent began
to make excess The medical profession we
of course cannot And fault with, for broken
inns, contend hips, skating marks on the temple,
and other damages from stopping too quickly on the
Ice, most be attended to, while even In bitter winter,
the ladles who love their lords are apt to present
Christmas bozos, which require the attendee= of the
kind and skilful aoccucheur. But are there no others
but medical J. P.s., beside the Mayor? Or is it that
the Dorchester Bench scorn the too-practical invention
of rota, whereby the prompt administration of
Justice can be secured? Happy thought! It is
suggested to me that the Dorchester magistrates were
Chzistniaaslng. Rather hard on the Chief
Magistrate, that the gentlemen so liberal at
this hard time should be left, not only to attuutPt
all the work himself, but to that position still more
annoying to a thorough man of business—of being
prevented by the shortcoming, of others (rem doing
the work he meant to get through. These gentlemen
must not cry out, by and by, if, in these days of new
creations, they and the maristerial honour cheapened
by the addition of new MIMS to the Commission of
the Peace.

And now, to all my readers, philanthropista, o/
miry degree, magistrates, farmers, tradespeople,
workmen, policemen, young or old, =I to the falrer
Nes of oourm—to nfl who are doing their duty—l wish,
as far as possible,
A MERRY CHRISTMAS.
. . .

Au,' those who 1;;;o4 elp-ealro-1; Teeny— , on whom
bereavement or other &strew has fallen. I will ask
them to expect with al mach hope and faith as they
can muster _