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WHOLESOME TRUTHS FROM A POPULAR
PREACHER.
to tub editor of the age.
Sir, — At tho public meeting held at tho Town
Hall on Tuosday ovening last on the
early closing question a chord was struck,
with all tho force of trnth, by the
Rev. Chas. Strung, that must have vibrated
with considerable intensity among tbo moro
reflective portion of tho large audience
when he said, in effect, that tho highest
ambition of the rising generation of
Victoria found its culmination in tho gamo of
football, and its concomitant, horse racing.
These are the absorbing topics of conversation
among tho bulk of Victoria a young men. Those
aro the pastimes to which they so eagerly rush
when the eight hours system has released them
from " labor," which latter is child's play in
comparison to the demand made upon
the vital powers by tho little less— as carried
out— than brutal game of football, while
that of horse racing is a legitimate
exenso for one of tho worst forms of gambling.
It is worth while to inqniro what iB it that
constitutes tho potent charm of "playing" at
football? Tho answer I think will bo found in
that it is the nearest approach of any pastime
yet invented to punching heads and breaking
limbs, and thus it affords a fitting ontlot
for that destructive propensity of hu
manity which, with all oar boasted progress
of civilisation, is, at least in this young
empire, as unsubdued as over it was in
the so-called barbarous ages. To this brutal
fascination of the game may be added that ot
open gambling, to which as a fitting channel it
is, like horseracing, degraded. That the division
of tho twenty-four hours into eight hoars for
labor— either mental or physical — eight hours
for relaxation, and eight hoars for sleep, is a
wiso and philosophical division, all will admit;
but surely a portion of tho eight hours thus
secured from toil should be devoted to
pursuits that aro a little more enobling— a little
more useful than those in which to achiovo pro
ficiency only demand tho exercise of "brute
strength." Tho trump card of tho advocates of
the eight hours system has always been that of
giving the " working man" timo for self-im
provement and tho cultivation of the social and
domestic virtues. Let any closo observer go
into the Melbourne Public Library, or
any suburban frco libraries of an even
ing, and noto those who are seated
with books before them. He will
see Tery few of the hard, rough-handed, eight
hours men, upon whose palms every callosity is
of infinite higher value to the Stato than tho
gems and jewels which flash and glitter on the
digits of tho Collins-street swell. Bnt ho may
see them in the drinking shops, called "hotels,"
or aimlessly sauntering along the street?. It is
not to the married men with families these re
marks are intended so much to apply,
Sir, as to the single men. Veil may
the rev. gentleman before mentioned de
plore the marked absence of the desire for
learning something of this wondrous mass of
matter, on which they dwell for 60 brief a span,
beyond the vices and degradations of tho weaker
humanities which crawl upon it. I repeat here,
Sir, what I have frequently stated elsewhere,
that this uncontrollable rage tor athleticism and
its concomitant gambling, augurs ill for tho fu
ture glory of Victoria, it is therefore, allow mo
to say, with unfeigned pleasure I hear men of
the calibre and profession oi Mr. Strong givo
expression to their views upon the subject from
the public platform. — Yours, &a.
Meibannie, 14th July. 8.. H. WTNTLR-
$