, 1894-07-21
HE AVIS
Chcistiansted, St. Ccoix
Saturday, 2lst July 1894.

0"C"Au"y Isl uhJ ~
We have been requested to state that
there will be Divine Service in the Danish
Lutheran Church on Sunday at the usual
lour.
We understand that a Cricket match, TO be
played on The pasture at o rOspsrity, near
FrederikSted, on Wednesdays next, the 25th
inst has been arranged between elevens from
the two towns.
The weather just now is a matter of seri-
GUS concern. For the present months two
thirds Of which have now passed, only X
lines of rain have fallen in Christiansted and
81 in Frederiksted. The fall for June in the
two towns was respectively Oh and 274
lines, bringing up the totals for the first half
of 1894 to l114 and l488 lines. The cane
plants have so far held out very well bnt
unless an early change comes they will begin
to form short jointed canes and the prospects
for next year Will become gloomy. Butter
flies are to be seen in swarms and the cater
pillars are dev0uring the cane b AIDES in some
parts of the island. The damage done in this
way is, however, only of a temporary charac-
ter, and Il good fall Of rain would sweep away
the invaders and start the canes into now
growth at the same time. Let us hope that
such Il fall is not far off.
How far is hoaxing iustlfablo or even per-
missible -? Webster defines "to hoax" rs
ITO deceive to play a trick upon for sport,
or without malice
Occasionally we meet with people so extra
ordinarily simple and discriminating that
thew seem 10 be made to be hoaxed, and it is
not surprising that such become The oircu.
lators Of the most extraordinary stories, i'm
posed upon Thorn by sharper witted people. So
long as the stories are innocent ones, this kind
of hoaxing does little harm indeed itmay in
some way do good, for if the green" ones find
themselves laughed at occasionally it may
help them to wake up to the need Of a little
study of the things around them.
In these days, however. we sometimes meot
with another form Of hoaxing, in defence Of
which, we think, very little can be said, we
mean hoaxing the general public through
the newspapers. We do not refer to the false
news and exaggor0tions 50 common in these
DAYS, and to be descI ihed rather as lying for
profit than as hoaxing, but to wonderful pa
ragraphs about the progress of scientific dis
COvery, the marvels of electricity &c, which
we occasionally see in the papers. The truth
is that science has of late accomplished SO
many marvellous things that people of 0rdi-
nary information are puzzled az to WI at they
shall DeIleV6 ana what lney snail not DVlleNe.
The stories, for example, OF what can be done
by the telephone, the microphone, the phono-
graph and the writing telegraph are all Of an
incredible character at first sight or hear
ing; but when the instruments are explained
the stories become not only credible but plain
Iy true, or in case of failure to understand
the explanation, they may still be equally we'll
confirmed by ocular or audible demonstra-
ton. The mass Of people, thus finding that
many things are true which at first looked
untrue, are inclined to credulity rather than
to unbelief, and this is the condition Of mind
which the newspaper, hoaxer takes advan-
tage Of. TIL latest instance that we
have seen is the Story of the metal eating
plant which was sent us last week by
d local correspondent as the --latest
news about SANKEY'S expedition. What
use such an article can serve except to
show a certain kind of ingenuity on the part
of the writer, it is hard to say. Very little
knowledge is wanted to concoct such yarns
Che writer of that particular one, for Instance,
does not know how Stanley got to Cairo after
his expedition was over he thinks he came
down the Nile; he does not know that the
political conditions would have made it nm
possible to go that way, even if it had
been otherwise desirable; and he does not
I.k:J tN-I Ill