The Potteries Examiner : — 1877-03-31 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

RASCALITY AT MOW WP.  To flu Editor of Um "Potters Examiner."  Stis,—Would you think it : that after all that has , been done to elevate our working men, miners included, to some extent by the increased facilities for obtaining religious and secuhir knowledge, that so grandly distinguish the present age, and which are unparalleled, • would you readily believe that there are such dastardly villains, such crawling vermin, such prowling wolves as have just been indulging their grovelling greed, their sneaking cowsudice here at Mow Cop by plundering a stranger only very recently come here to reside. Hospitality to strangers is a noble feature in human character, and is solemnly enjoined on every man by the Adorable Creator and Ruler of all men, in His own inspired Word. And when these dastardly thieves wander from borne in search of employment, or are suffering at home from the same or some other cause, they are glad enough to t site advantage of the heartfelt sympathy that they cannot find in their own hearts to reciprocate. The good old law, "Do to others as they should do to you" suits these gentlemen of the "fancy" —these noble sportsmen (?) when the shoe pinches them, hat their wolfish nature turns up its precious nose when the shoe pinches another. The stranger I refer to so having been so basely treated, i, the minister who hsa succeeded the Into vicar. He is not a friend of mine, not even an acquaintance, but he is a fellow- ! creature and a stranger, possessing all the divinely. teeniest and divinely-ordained claims upon our duty and sympathy that man owes to his fellow-man the whole work! over. But in addition to that—judging by the ' usual index of the mind, "the human face divine," and • by his brief ministrations—he appears likely to be a worthy successor of the late vicar, who was always ready with practical sympathy to soothe the suffering in the hour of ailLetion' and who was neither an ecclesiastical mountebank, traitor, nor tyrant. Such a man nowadays is a treasure of no little worth, particularly as matters L run now in the clerical market. But these considers . ---- -------tions are evidently too elevated for these illustrious pigeon.fiyers. Like their htrd-hearteil, bloodthirsty brethren of the rabbit torturing and rabbit murdering fraternity, they grab all they can to fill their wolfish paunch, with this one difference between them—the rabbit murdering aristocracy nobly practice their tender mercies in day light; but these cowardly mobocracy practice theirs in the "black and dark night." The vicar had provided his family with a valuable supply of higlily.prised pigeons; and Rasmus whose intelligence descends no lower than that of a sedate and sensible donkey knows well how useful such birds are in a family in times of sickness, and bow pleasant it is to a benevolent heart to be able to bestow one upon a sot. fering neighbour. And such duties are always expected of a clergyman. But these pothouse spawn don't appear to have intelligence enough to comprehend that, at any rate they hasn't the manliness to weigh it over before rushing into a course of shame, that neither ' drink, nor smoke, nor jolly company can drown for ever. I They have abstracted them. They were carrier pigeons, and such birds as these don't change hands for an "old Fong." They are said to have cost a heavy mai. Bat then, these midnight jackals would lick their lips all the more sweetly on that account when they reached their drink den to gulp down its Government poison, and stifle their guilty consciences for awhile. Whatewer others may think of this rasally deed of darkness and disgrace, it appears to me to cast a dark shade over the character of Mow Cop. With thin deep impression, I do most earnestly suggest that an immediate effort be made to collect a sum of money sufficient to repay the sum expended, and now lost; and that a public meeting be called to denounce this dastardly deed, and to exprese becoming sympathy with the vicar. Some who read this may suspect me of being a Churchman; if they do, allow me, sir, to add that they were never farther adrift in their whole lives.