Sunbury News and Bulla and Melton Advertiser (Vic. : 1892 - 1900), Saturday 19 August 1899, page 3


NOTES AND COMMENTS. One point of resemblance between the Dreyfus case and the Panama scandal is the number of reputations that go down in the wreck. It is sad to see the, names of high officers and statesman dragged in the dirt-to reflect that the men upon whom the nation must rely in her hour of need cannot be trusted. Formerly it was the high statesmen who were not above reproach ; now it is being realised by France that her military chiefs are not all Bayards. General Mercier is the latest delinquent. Fortunately there are Picquarts and Gallifets as well as Mer-ciers and Boisdeffres. But until lately the latter were on top. It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and the Dreyfus agitation has at least shown France some of the men whom she may not trust. -0 seems to be almost a dead letter in French courts of justice. The proceedings in the new Dreyfus trial at Rennes seem to be very lively and excit-ing, Mercier gives his evidence, and the prisoner interjects with passionate comments. Poor Dreyfus! Now that the wheel of fortune is turning in his favour, he cannot refrain from playing to the gallery. The prisoner's exclama- tions,' we read, ' were greeted with abun-dant applause,' but nothing is said about it being instantly suppressed by she officers of the court.' -0 is a wise child that knows its own father, and, by the same token, it is a knowing womau that can recognise her own rooster by his voice. A Carlton lady lost her fowls the other night, and subsequently, when passing along a neighbouring street, she was agreeably surprised to hear the familiar crow of her lost chanticleer, 'Old Hen.' Two lessons are to be learned from this good lady's experience. If you keep your own fowls, get a rooster with a voice you can re-member. If you go in for acquiring other people's 'chooks,' be careful to gag or otherwise suppress the tuneful notes of the 'herald of morn.' -0 is generally thought that the killing and cooking of missionaries by the fes- tive savage is nowadays confined to the comic papers, wherein it is one of the stock subjects of the unhappy joke faker. It seems, however, that broiled mission-ary is still considered good eating by some of the less advanced tribes of the Pacific. During some recent disturb- ances in the New Heblides, a party of seven missionaries got into trouble with the natives, one of whom they killed in self-defence, and the cooking arrange-ments were at an advanced stage when the intended materials for the banquet were rescued by a party of French sailors, and the wickcd heathens were left with mouths watering and stomachs anhungering. -0 takes a Scotsman to match. a Scots-man (remarks ' The Age '), and Mr. M'Lean was more than a match for the member for Auglesey in the Woman Suffrage debate the other night. In matters of religion Mr. M'Kenzie, as a leading elder of the Presbyterian Church, is a pattern and guide of conduct whom the House cherishes, as giving to the chamber an atmosphere of moral eleva-tion. Mr. M'Lean was therefore rather neat in replying to the argument that women going out to vote would neglect their homes, with the analogy that wo-men left their homes to go to church without any disastrous consequences en- suing. This touched Mr. M'Kenzie in his most vulnerable point, and he smil-ingly acknowledged the astuteness of his ancient rival.