The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-10-18

 l and sewers.
 The Irish are masters of the situation. The only solid party in the house able to throw the weight of their votes in either balance, as suits them best, they can obtain almost whatever they wish for in reason, and they cun repay old debts with interest. No more treating Irish members as parliamentary Hooli- gans who must be suppressed with a strong hand. because modern sentiment will not allow of their being extermin- ated. When thieves fall out, honest men come by their own" and Ireland should profit greatly by the weakened condition of it's enemies in England. It would be a curious instance of retribution were the designs of MT. Joseph Chamberlain to cause home rule to be granted to Ire landl
 If report that has reached me Is cor rect the inhabitants of Deenethorpe, Northamptonshire, must be kept in a con- diton of serf-like obedience to those whom they are taught to regard as their betters. The tenancy of a highly re- spected farmer on the estate of the Count ess of Cardigan has lately been termin- ated under circumstances which are said lO nave SetuIeu uliH tlle sympathy oA iiio neighbors. It was decided to make a pre- sentation to him and his daughter on their departure, and a committee ar ranged for a gathering of the subscrib- CTS at Thigh tea" in a club room at- tached to a licensed house on Saturday week. According to the report, how ever, a factotum of the powers that be went round to every house in the village with an injunction against the proposed public presentation, and, furthermore, ordered the innkeeper not to lend plano for the musical entertainment 1t was in- tended to hold. It is asserted that in consequence of this edct only two men in the village were daring enough to put in an appearance at the club room, though their womenfoll1-not having been expressly prohibited-assembled in great CT numbers to consume the tea that had been provided. The story seems incredi- bIe, but though this is a free country, strange things still happen in rural dis tricts
 I hear of a curious development of the street piracy business. The music pub fishers have more or less organ1zaf the genuine music trade in the provinces, and provincial music dealers willingly afford their assistance in endeavoring to put down the Illicit traffic. But, despite heavy seizures of pirated music and fre- quent prosecutions, the act of last year seems entirely to have broken down. At Nottingham, last week, a street pirate was greatly amused at the situation. When the summons was served upon him he explained that the prosecution in- variably resulted in the magistrates or dering him to pay the costs and the man from whom he bought the prated music In London would send him the money. And this Is exactly what happened.
 
 An interesting example of the vexed question of the amateur in the organ loft has just arisen. Somebody advertised for new organist for the Presbyterian l church, Port Elizabeth and 1t was inti- 1 mated that an amateur would be pre- ferred. The explanation which followed, i however put the matter In the right i light. It seems that the financial au- thorities of this church could not afford to pay more than s25O a year salary, and that there was no opening In the way of teaching or otherwise for a pro- fessional musician, the worthy folk of Port Elizabeth taking in all the music they want on Sunday. So the church of- fcials preferred an amateur organist- in short a commercial or even a working man who could earn his living by other means. To such a man. they are pre- pared to guarantee by his week day la bor $750 year, besides his S250 salary as organist. The proportion of 25 per cent for art and 10 per cent for music Is sig nihcant.
 Barely told in the following is a sad story, one which would have caused the universal heart to throb had the magic pen of Charles Dickens painted the pie ture For the account of a pauper's funeral at Ormslkirk one would judge that the OrmslxirlS Bumbles have just about as much regard for the bodies of those who are unfortunate enough to die under their charge as if they were the bodies of mere beasts of the field. A woman had died at the workhouse in- hrmary and the son, with two friends. came from Southport to attend the fun eral The body was drawn through the town on an open trolley, something like the luggage truck in use at railway sta tlons On arrival at the Ormskirk par ish churchyard no clergyman was in att tendance, and the coffin, with all possi- ble despatch, was lowered to the grave without any ceremony of any kind. An inquiry from the official fin charge of the arrangements elicted the reply that it was quite usual to bury the people from the Ormskirk Union warehouse in this manner, and this was the sole scrap of comfort to be obtained by the bereaved son. It seems an eXtravagant conten- ton, even for Rumble, that the crime of pauperism should entail denial of the rites of Christian burial in a Christian country,