Runcorn Examiner. — 1893-07-15 (Runcorn, Cheshire, England)

THINGS HEARD AND SEEN  AT WARRINGTON.  Some revolting circumstances came to light at the Warrington Police Court, on Monday, when a man named John Dillon and his wife, who resided in Ship-yard, were brought before the magistrates on the charge of neglecting their children. Their child oe. seven months only weighed Eilbs., and it was covered with filth,and sucking through a vile-smeling tube fi-om a bottle in which there was some bread and water which had gone sour. Their other two small children were also seen by Inspector Uphill, N.S.P.C.C., under most disgusting circumstances, lying on a . rotten mattress, and in a stench that was almost unbearable. This was not a case of hopeless and helpless poverty. As it was, the man gets 245. a week in wages and a quarterly pension that amounts to 2s. per week. The real cause was not far to seek, and it is the same cause that is at the root of so many other evils, that is, drink. The man, instead of looking after his family, appears to have treated the whole of the Ship-yard inhabitants with the money,he received from his pension. such parents as these deserve a heavy punish ment,and a month's imprisonment was none too long.  Mr. Diggle did not make much impression upon his hearers on Monday night at his - lectures on sanitation. He tried to frighten them by saying that the town is in danger of another epidemic of smallpox, and other frightful things, if the Health Committee and the Sanitary Works Committee do not mend their ways, and accept the help he offers so freely. But the audience, did not, appear to appreciate the gravity of the situation. They tcolc it all as a joke, and when Mr. Diggle plaintively begged for a vote of thanks, he was unable to get any thanks whatever. Poor Mr, tiggle ! He has learned that a prophet has no honour in his own town. He claims that he is a philanthropist, and that on that ground alone is he advocating his views, as he says, if they were adopted now, be will not live to receive the benefits from them. This philanthropy, however, is wasted upon the people of iVarrington to judge from the reception he gets when he endeavours to obtain their suffrages, as he only got 12 and 14 votes in his own ward, at the last times he endeavoured to get into. the Council.•  A certain Nonconformist congregation in town were on Sunday last either the victims of a playful jest on the part of the minister,or he was the victim of a little amusing oversight. The local minister ought to have preached, but in his place in the pulpit appeared a stranger,whom no one seemed to know. Just before the sermon the minister seemed to realise that he was the object of a considerable amount of speculation, so he delivered himself thus :—" Being a stranger here,l think I owe you a little explanation as to who I am. Last week I wrote your minister and asked him if he would preach the children's anniversary sermons at my chapel, and be consented on the condition that I filled his pulpit. This I consented to do, and! feel very much pleased with Warrington, upon my first visit." Then apparently all unconscious of having omitted his name, and what someone playfully called his "come from," the preacher went on with his sermon, leaving the congregation just as much in the dark as before.  Now this reminds me of another little misunderstanding which occurred a few weeks ago at a, chapel certainly within the proverbial one hundred miles of Warrington. Jt was a very close evening. One of the members of the congregation handed rt? a note to the minister with the following on it: "Give us short meter to-night." This was meant to be a request that the service and sermon should be shortened. But the minister innocently passed the note on. to the organist,being under the impression that short meter was required in the musical portion of the service. The organist demurred for a time at having to alter his selections,but eventually he was persuaded by the minister to select hymns of a short meter. It is supposed that the minister , did not see the hint. Perhaps not—maybe he didn't care to.  You commented last week upon the demoralisation caused in Switzerland by strong drink, and, on the same subject,l notice that it is now stated that 50,000 school children in England examined by doctors more than 30 per cent. were found suffering from physical or mental defects, largely attributable either directly or indirectly to the drinking habits cf their parents. In Belgium the Government have caused the following placard to be hung up in every schoolroom :—" Of one hundred and twenty-five thousand deaths, as many as twentyfive thousand, or one-fifth, are the result of alcoholism. In a period during which the population has increased by fourtden per cent., the consumption of alcohol has been augumented by thirty-seven per cent.,cases of madness by forty-five per cent.,crimos by seventy-four per cent., suicides by eighty per eent.,and vagrants and beggars by one hundred and fifty-six per cent." Awful though such facts are, they cannot be too well-known, and our government at home might do many a worse thing than have some of our own social statistics thus dangled before the eyes of the rising generation. _