The Potteries Examiner : — 1877-04-28 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

REPLY TO "M. C." (No. 1.) To the Editor of' the "Potter-tee Examiner."  SIR,-It may eta the purposes of designing flatterers, feebleeninded paterfamilias, and beardless aspirants for local fame to censure my just condemnation of that dastardly deed named in my last ; hut, so long as working men "call a spade a spode," using epithets and expletives in their daily life of the homeliest and of the strongest description, and so long as the supreme standard of all moral excellence, the Holy Scriptures, retains] its authoritative precedents, so long will " B. D." be able fearlessly to " whistle" their carping criticisms "down the wind." As an illustration of the former class it is only nocessiiry to name that " resell-andready " epithet of "a stinking shame" to recall to the memory of your numerous readers many, many more " members ', of that same rough-and-ready "family circle." The universal use of iticknanies amongst them is another strong proof of the correctness of the same assertion. Those who know working men best know right well that they indulge in plain dealine, and also , that they prefer it. Another significant evidence of it , was given the other night at a working men's meeting. When a certain speaker tried hard to make sonie capital , out of my letter at my expense, there was not one res. 4 pensive voice, neither to cheer him nor to express the ! slightest approbation of his unnecessary strictures. I Not one. And why was there not? Because, sir, the men know in their hearts and consciences that the 4 , chastisement administered by B. D. was "served 'ern , regt." When a miner orders his mmdle to be trimmed, : is he heard imitating the Circumlocution Office by using : the fantastical phraseology, " Please to curtail the ! superfluous termination of the nocturnal luminary ?.. , Not he. "Snuff that candle, Jack !" he shouts, scorn- ! ing the very idea of hiss being thought capable of such ! "Miss Nancy" work. So it is. I.ike a Yankee ; "going is head," be takes the "shortcut cuts" to his ! work and gets done with it. Then as to the Scripture ! precedents, or examples, who cannot remember the ' Great Forernmaer's rebuke, "Oh, generation of vipers," . and flint of his adorable Master and ours, "Woo unto , you, scribes, pharisees, hypocrites." Following that ! castes the scathing rebuke of the First Martyr. who ! fearlessly, in the very jaws of death, charged his ! countrymen with being "the betrayers end murderers" of the Just One. "Go, tell that fox," said that adorable Being on another occasion; and this chosen champion, the Prince of Missionaries, found it necessary, with burning indignation, to rebuke the wickedness of Elymes, the sorcerer, with these withering words, "Thus child of the Devil ! thou enemy stall righteons- . ness! wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the . lord ?" One example more, taken from the daily press, ! shall suffice on this point. A copy of a most eminent provincial newspaper, of the 6th inst., contains an , article on "'rho overcrowding a dwellings" by "the , improvident artisan," and "the criminals of our large , towns." The article stigmatises these characters WI . "wretched, degraded beings," drunkards, diseipeted, or idle." Pretty warm that. Abe', "ouch people care , more for their own gross and selfish gratification than the welfare of those dependent upon them ;" that "the ; improvident, and immoral, and the criminal will always live in a manner injurious to health, and offensive to pubic decency ;" and then it gives the finishing touch to this naughty end " impwopa " ;improper) censure of "Mow Cop's" "human beings—men constituted in the usual way—compounds of body, soul, and spirit .' in this very naughty manner, "and will herd together " oh I oh ! sir! shall I ,la—da—dare to copy it ? or, "deer, it like a hot potatoe," to avoid another double flagellation ? Whew! here goe., whether "smith, Jones, and Robinson" smile or frown—here goes, "and will herd together like