The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-01-15 00:00:00

Dotts ant* If into.

Rivalry in doing good is now and then manifest
between the great. Dorset County Hospital, awl what
the friends of the latter are pleased to call the "small
local hospitals, with perhaps a pardonable little bit
of self-con.oion ..... Bniveen such aluirsble in.
stiturions as horprtals. the only proper =elms of
showing rivalry is by the " Chri.t.like plan of doing
good to each other," and acoording4 the terrible and
deeply-lam-nits:a misfortune to a Dorchester traies-
man has given an owes' rn for taking a part of its
own work from the Dorchester-located house of mercy.
Our Royal Hospital has had this week a double
oprortimity of ito usefulness bsing proclaimed. At
Its annual meeting Dr. Hoorhead's eloquence showed
how it had during fourteen months extended its
benefits to 1,214 out-patienta, and 81 in-patient., MA
that is cosmopolitan in it. action, for the patients
come from all parts of the world, even from New
Zealand. The sr-cond main opportunity has been the
extreme kindness and attention shown, as I 01111
personally testify, to !sir. William Pnlincy, who was
admitted on Wednesday last, and died on Sunday.
The medical gentlemen, the matron, and the attend.
ants, all vied in doing good to the sufferer. Im-
mediately on his reception he was attended by Dr.
Griffin, and by Dr. Moorhead very soon after, and thews
gentlemen were regular and careful in their visits,
while those who live at the Hospital watched unre-
mittingly in turns for the patient's wants. The
kindness shown at our If °Thal will, we hope, remove
somewhat of the unpleasant impression produced by
the manner in which the mortally-wounded man was
removed through the streets of the town.

Mr. W. Pouncy's condition and death should make
every one who fall in with • sembconacious man to be
very careful how he comes to the conclusion th it in-
toxication is the cause of his helplessness. Hero a
tradesman is found s.umbling about on rocks under
TOft cliff. heibiu prominentbruises, and is almost help-
less, yet at once the conclusion Is jumped at he was
suffering from drink. McKinnon and Byrne appeared
to have rendered him prompt assistance, the latter
even takin; him on his back; aryl so far the treat-
ment was as satisfactory as might have been
expected. But I am forced to think that
had the helpers no auspi don of drunkenness .in
the ease, and had the tern 'is hurt. of the strange man
been coturiderel more carefully, he would have been
differently conveyed from Hope Square to the
Hospital, or at least have Ewen suffered to rest • hen
he desired at Mr. fodder's coffee-house. For the
injured man was • most abstemious and regular-
living tradesman, an old customer of Mr. Hodder's,
and who therefore probably felt that he bad at last
gained a resting-place after his terrible fall, and the
walk which must have been a severe trial to him in
his injured state. We are • gres.t deal to. apt to set
down misfortunes to the sufferer's fault, an need to
be reminded—" Who art thou that judgest another r
Revs ting to the Hospital, toasters and mistresses
are reminded of the status of serval:as with regard to
those institutions. Servants are not eligible for
admission. the idea bein; that masters and mistresses
have • duty to perform to their faithful servants, and
that they can semi them to the Sanatorium, by pay-
ment of • few shillings • week. If the Hospital
authorities can inculcate the paternal duties of
employers to servants, tlmy may alter the present
state of thin.s, under which employers complain that
a Food servant is moat difficult to get. But I fear it
will be long tint, and that, with the hand-to-mouth
systems irf some wsployem and servants', the latter
must be regarded as destilute when they are di..
charged.
One more point in the hospital statement. The
eloquent pleader spoke of a Fijian as desired to
" renounce cannibal propensities' It gives no hope
for the improvement of the world to know that a
cannibal Fijian is now out of date. The Wesleyan
missionaries have been the means of converting nearly
all the people of Fiji ; and doctors who will go out
there against small-pox, the last terrible sc iurge iif
Fiji, will run no risk of being cooked and eaten, but
will be welcomed as bringing blessings to the race.
Thus have Fijians moved on, although Christians
nearer home advocated the slaughter of two hundred
thousand RUllsiillt and Turks on the plea of freeing
Bulgaria, and "Christians" at home want war which
may slay it. millions in order to resist fulther force.
Why do we labour so hard at our pleasure.' I
attended • concert not many evenings ago, and,
instead of the usual wearin, re that comes upon one,
and makes the most beautiful instrument-playing a
custom more honoured in the breach than the observ-
ance, I enjoyed the whole, and came away fresher
than before going to the concert Fortunately. I was
a little late, and had to meek the back seats among
some merry boys, whose strength was certainly not to
sit still. We mustn't tell tales out of school; but we
certainly did not keep our appointed places with that
decormna immovability that the swells of the front
rows had to practise, and we contributed rather more
, than our share to the applause, in fact we were able to
carry all before us. Yet a though I took a racking
headache to that concert, and was rather nervous
when the boys c appal. that headache Red, like a fog
before the sun as I entered into the jolly fun of those
unconventional back seats. Give me • boy—
" A I:ght freedonartml careless one.
For his "love of fun" can almost "minister to a
mind diseased." But when we attend concerts,
lectures, sermons, and even after-tea Meetings, the
orderly perchment on seats, whether they be stiff
pews, level forms, or first-class easy chairs, is far too
body-confining for enjiorment, and no doubt this has
something to do with that want of love for lectures of
which our Institution and Club Committees complain.
I should like to see an entertainment tried, where
they allowed chat, and even walking about to
different friends. Let us have something like
the freedom at the Melcombe School concert,
.4 those merry back seats. The Good Templar. of
Caxton lodge did something to 1-rlng "sweetness
an I light" into the Christina' joyfolness, and the
Theatrical Amateurs were heartily received with their
"glorious budget of fun." for we want sometisinF more
in a Christmas party than to listen and sit still. A
happy medium between these two, with &little for the
audience to take part in, would probably be nearer
the solution of the question how to bring into Food
company and entertain, our soldiers and Radon mixed
with the civilian populati in in time of pesos. Yet
the soldiers and sailors must be made to feel at home
with us, 07 they'll catch the plague of restlessness that
makes foolish people long f it. war.

Another way in which our pleasures are spoiled
is by over-doing them. The young ladies and gentle-
and the young-hearted married peple, who
rejoice their minister • heart by decking their favourite
church for festival time, are doing a good work. But
when ten, eleven, and even midnight pools on.
and long wreaths are still brought in, and the tap of
hammers and thepilare of gas still go on, while the
caretakers' mince es are spoiling at home, here,
surely, is discretionless seal. Let our amateurs
attempt left, or begin earlier, and let it not be said—
" Still hard at work, with frauds and sextons yawntrit.
The ladies sot hut fresher towards inornitut."
There may be dissipation in "church work " as
mush as at a ; but if ladies want to trim the mid.
night lamp, they had better be by the bedside of the
sick than burning the church gas.
Tramps had a good time of it this Christmas
mud, no snow to mako the roads miserable ; no bitter
cold t drive them Into re. so that the love of Inc ,mo-
tioa that makes the regular tramp like a Wandering
Jew, coold be fully gratified. Tisn't pleasant to fio.l
that, instead of a hundred and eleven, as in the
siding quarter of last year. two hundred and
;i7iTyessr; casual* had applied for relief up to the end
of the year, and that an Misname majority were
real working men.

Swindles are rising up on every hand, and cheating
hand-workers out of their money. Among the latest
Is that of • firm who have widely proclaim." • ooetly
gift for a comparatively small sum. You send
your money to these wretches and get nothing
but an 'nvoioe and the satisfaction of knowing that
they •.• in custody.

Working Alen of Dorset bays a prize before them—
the sum of £3OO, which the committee of the Industrial
Exhibition haze resolved to rains and offer for noel.
lance in work. Now is the time, during the dark
winter months, to make somethispecially beautiful,
curious, or in some way good. Ana enter for a prize
that will bring honour to the worker, and credit to hie
birth.plaoa.

That beautiful copy of the "Sketches in ensd about
Weymouth" which Mr. Harker mot to the Primate
of Wales, would have been a worthy object not for
competition' in the Dorset Show ; but it is already
tone up for exhibition_ , sad perhaps will win the prise
of making a Royal Princess sufficiently curious about
Weymouth to come and vieit us. Weymouthisas
will be who if they follow " H.'s " example, and make
presents of the book to any one whom they would like
to me here a copy would be welcome anywhere as
a New Year's gift.
" Manifest y drowsed" p ople are to be " crowned "
after all, mu ong as they can b. identified. The Dorset
Court of Quarter Sections has &Norwood thlit its
standiog u der, prohibiting Inquests on drowned
people, warn based on a case that had no bearing on
the =Mier. And, amid a good deal of surprise by