The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1877-12-04 00:00:00

Dotes anb Pinto.

Mr. Edward Pidgeon, you have my hearty thanks,
sagacious man, for your sensible suggestion that a
room for the band, for a conservatory, for something
pleasant, whatever it may be, shall be erected in the
New South Gardens. While we are waiting for giant
aquariums, floral halls, mammoth aseembly-rooms, we
have not a place to while the dull winter away.
Hundreds could take their pleasure, and not sadly
either, in your proposed conservatory hall, Mr.
Pidgeon, and you are too wise to think we ought to ga
without any pleasure place, because we can't get it as
large in proportion as Brighton and Southport. Your
letter of last week in the Telegram deserves to be read
and considered, and if the plan be not carried out,
the Town Council ought to gave us the reason why.
A contemporary justly longs to see plenty of lenders
come forward with the few hundreds necessary for
carrying the Outer Pier Extension far enough for the
much-needed light. Mr. Edward., M.P.. has very
kindly thrown nearly £3,000 into the see there, and
the opportunity for any other " Friend of Weymouth"
is so tempting that I hope Mr. Edwards will not take
away the chance. Conservation of the Harbour would
be true Coneervatism, and here is a first.rate means
of showing that " Conservatism is the truest Liberal-
ity," as we eo often hear. The chance is cheap, and
the outlay would be profitable, for it would save one
expensive lamp.

Mr. Harm seemed to think, in the case against the
Overseers of theermowne, that 'twas rather hard to
prove the notice of audit only by means of an advertise-
ment in a Weymouth local paper. If that paper had
been another, and not the one named by Mr. Walston!,
I should have teen prepared to dispute even with
the rising solicitor who has got into our Council
by over 600 votes. Had the worthy auditor
advertised his approaching audit in the Telegram
I could have pointed out that the well-known sheet
circulates very largely in the country districts as well
as in the towns. Without presuming to advise the
auditor that he should limit his advertising in any way,
I would remind him that, if he would reach country
peovle and townsmen too, the Telegram is the paper,
and the advertisement therein could not be subjected
to any such strictures as those of Mr. Hanna.

--
St. Mary's schools have been vindicated horn a
hasty charge. Some mothers, summoned for not
sending their children to drink of the fountains of
knowledge, tried to escape blame by charging absent
persons with the fault. —a very serious fault, too—that
of not marking the registers properly. One should
receive very cautiously the statements of defendants,
made toscieen themselves, not given on oath, and in the
' absence of the persons accused. Of course, it was
I necessary that the statements should be published, in
order that the assailed might find defenders ; but it
IVIIR premature to conclude that these charges were
true, and that school registers were false. Yet this
• conclusion was jumped at, not so much by the Dingle.
I traits as by a writer on the subject. The Rev. Talbot
• Greaves and the officers of these excellent schools have
lexplained the justice of their registers and the unde-
served slur is removed. When I consi W der the absence
of any other public elementary school in Melcombe
Regis, I more heartily hail the vindication of justice
and troth.

"No surrender" is the answer given by the rural
deanery to the proposal to treat about the Burials
Bill. Our consecrated burial grounds" are to be
preserved to Church of England services and Church
of England clergy. The dispute does not trouble
us in Weymouth, for we have a cemetery where the
Churchman or dissenter, attending the funeral of his
departed, may in some cases hear the solemn words of
his brother's service borne across to him, and the
likeness does not startle those who know the deeply
laid foundations of One Faith. One Baptism. But in
the country places the war is a real one, for there
biasenters have but few burial grounds. Meanwhile
bow goes it with those who wink without a Church of
England service, or a Church of England clergyman, in
the sea? Or with those who die in their country's cause
in Africa, or who have been lost, officers,crew,and all,
in the ice of the frozen North ? Is it for a spiritual
benefit to the departed, that Churchmen are striving,
or for the privilege of comfort to the relatives, or for a
burial fee'

Much more real, and a thousand times more
valuable, is the effort of the Girls' Friendly Society to
win the living for the Church. While two great
powers are moving on the social evil of our country,
It is gratifying that another influence is striving to
keep the healthy from falling. So desperate have
become the awful results of a certain license that the
very manhood of our soldiers and sailors is being
sapped thereby, and innocent persons are exposed to
insidious contagion. The police are trying to take or
drive away the poor wretches who have thrown every-
thing into the horrid trade, while some benevolent
souls are striving to rescue from the pit those who are
sick of it all; but very small are the rescues compared
with the cast mass of woman-kind who are engulfed,
some of them scarcely through their own fault,
and others with black and foul apathy from
their own flesh and blood. I have heard of a
so-called respectable (save the mark!) non-commissioned
officer, living not a hundred miles from here, whose
own daughters are far down in the pitfall, while
he doesn't seem to care; but the whole subject is one
that can hardly even be hinted at. So I turn with
refreshment to the Girls' Friendly Society, which
seeks to hold on the poor servar,t girls exposed to
danger, and to find them friends. The Rev, Sir
Talbot Baker, RD.. will receive subscriptions, and
those ladies who would like to know the working of
the society should look in at Bridge Cottage, Bridge-
street.

" We all shall be together, on merry Christmas Eve,"
say the sesistants in Weymouth drapers' shops, for
the tradesmen will coneent to give them Monday as
well as the regular holidays. I suppose they'll have to
work late on the Saturday night previous; but three
clear days' holiday may be easily given in some trades
at this dull time, and our drapers have shown their
wisdom and liberality also, by aiding the Christmas
/01.

Where we are to go who cannot spars much time for
a jaunt this Christmas, I can't tell; but I hope that
before a year or two more are pawed, we may be able
to hasten through Upwey, Friar Waddon and Fortes-
ham, to pretty AbboWbury, where St. Catherine's
Chapel o'erlooks the wild waste of waves of the West
Bay. ;Mamas M the Abhotsbury Railway, and good
fortune to Mr. Hanson, Mr. Stanfield, and .11 the local
magnates who have enlisted the Earl of Ilchsster in
the promising scheme.

Evening entertainments are on the appointment
lists, and it is to be hoped the weather will allow of
better attendance, than at the Wesleyan Missionary
meeting which we, washed out on Monday night. We
have already had a concert where Mr. Avant brought
forward a favourite lady singer, sad to-night Holy
Trinity Church choir with their friends delight us ; to-
morrow the athletes feast and sound the praises of
Makin, an Tanta*. Conairvatives din, at Bourne.