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CAMBRIAN GOSSIP.

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CAMBRIAN GOSSIP. During last year the Argentine Govern- ment established 10 National Elementary Schools' in the Welsh colony of Chubat. The teachers are all Welsh people, and their salaries range from 100 to 130 dollars per month. • » In Judge Owen's opinion the injunction of Charles Kinsley to help lame dogs over stiles doesn't apply in the case of money- lenders. He blandly said to a Hebrew on Wednesday, 'I don't help money-lenders over stiles, you know.' And the Jew was non-suited! A representative of Cwmni Masnachol y Catnwy'—which is the trade name of the Camwy'-which is the trade name of the Co-operative Commercial Company formed by the Welsh Colonists in Patagonia-is on his way to England with the object of exten- ding the business operations of the concern, and of purchasing vessels for the use of the Colonists. m m 9 Mr. O. M. Edwards, who prosecutes with vigour his campaign for the universal adop- tion, at least in Wales, of the Free Libraries Act, assures his readers in the March num- ber of Heddyiv that there is not a town in the kingdom with so good a library, and so enthusiastic and active a chief librarian as the progressive town of Cardiff,' and an illustrated article descriptive of the Cardiff Libraries is promised for a future number. • 9 W One of the incidents of the Dewi Sant celebrations at Bala was a mock trial, in which one of the students, impersonating the traditional Dick Shoa Dafydd, faced Judge and jury on the capital charge of denying his fatherland. The culprit was convicted, and the sentence of the court con- demned him to death, or, in the alternative, to translate the 'Apostolic Fathers' into Welsh. The unhappy man, without a mo- ment's hesitation, choose the former. 9 9 9 Col. Davies Evans, the Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire, who is himself an accom- plished musician well-versed in the tech- nicalities of the organ and the harp, has promised to inaugurate a new organ at ffil 1!1 the Tabernacle Welsh Methodist Church, Aberaeron. This, it is said, is the first organ introduced by this denomination into South Cardigan. They are also establishing another excellent precedent-the instru- ment is to be paid for on the day of the opening. A suggestion is made that a normal de- partment should be added to Lampeter College. A brother of the Bishop of St. Asaph—the Rev. E. W. Edwards, vicar of Ruabon—writes that it would strengthen the cause of Church education in the diocese if the new principal of Lampeter in addi- tion to his other duties attached to the office was also to be recognised as the principal of training schools to be organised for the pupil teachers in the several rural deaneries, and the Union secretary for the associated schools in the diocese.' m m m Eos Dar was the pennillion singer at the I Lampeter College festival of St. David's Day, and when in the course of the evening I the inimitable Eos sang the praises of the College as the nursery of bishops, the en- thusiasm of the students, past and present, went ablaze. One of the happiest peumll ion of the evening was the following Cadw gwyl i Dewi Sant Mae'r plant yn Ngholeg Dewi, A'r Coleg hwn yn estyn sydd Olynydd iddo eletii; I Yn rhoi esgobion nid oes fan I'w tyfu fel Glan Teifi. m m m An old-time Welsh word revived in Car- diff on St. David's Day was 'cwynos,' which means 'supper,' and as it is a good descrip- tive term, and is to be found in all Welsh dictionaries, let us hope it has come to stay. The honour of restoring the word to every day use belongs to the Rev. T. C. Phillips, the curate of 'Eglwys Dewi Sant,' who for the next 12 months is bent upon moving heaven and earth to get a St. David's fes- tival held within the historic walls of Llan- daff Cathedral when next the anniversary cornea round. • • » The methods adopted in certain schools in Wales, not many years ago, to discourage the use of Welsh among the children were little short of barbarous. Happily, better times have since dawned, and scorn and derision are no longer to be heaped upon a Welsh child for conversing in his mother tongue. In a Festiniog school, during the forties, an innocent-looking piece of wood was utilised as an instrument of torture. It is described as having been an inch and a half long, three parts of an inch broad, and half an inch thick. This was called the Welsh note," and the practice was to thrust it upon the first boy caught in the act of saying a Welsh word while in school. The delinquent had to hold it until he de tected some other pupil committing a similar offence, and then the hateful object would I be passed on to No. 2, who, to save'his own skin, had in his turn to play the eavesdropper upon his class, for it was quite the rule of the school that the boy who had possession of the Welsh note" at the end of the day's lesson had to submit to corporal punishment of a very unenviable description. • 9 On the question of the earliest Welsh commentary, R. J. J. writes ;-The first commentary in Welsh on the whole Bible was published by Peter Williams, in 1760, and the henour claimed for John Evans, as commentator on a portion, must be relin- quished in favour of Josua Tnomas. Evans's Cyssondeb y Pedair Efengyl did I not appear till 1765, while Josua Thomas published his brief summary of Matthew Henry on the New Testament as early as 1728 Particulars of this might be interest- ing. This Josua Thomas is not to be confounded with the historian of the Welsh Baptists (1719-1797), but was an older man, who was minister at Llechryd, in Cardigan- shire, in 1727. Mr. Charles Ashton, in his IL story of Welsh Literature" page 221, gives the title page, from which we find it was printed by Nicholas, at Carmarthen. There was a copy in the library of the late I Rev. W. Thomas (Gwilym Marles). Mr. I Spurreli, in his" Carmarthen," makes no note of this work. r it it I A remarkable stroke of luck seems to have befallen a Cardiff man who is out in the United States. We refer to Mr. Thomas Rimron, a brother of Mr. William Rimron, of Penarth, and Mr. Edward Rimron, of Barry. He emigrated in 1862, and for some years worked underground as a collier in Pennsylvania. Eventually he bought a farm, and then another, the second being at Uniondale, a short distance north of Crystal Lake. From the very day that he went to live to this farm, fortune has showered her blessings upon him. A colliery was sunk on his land, and a vein of coal 6k feet thick was struck, and there is 200 acres of it. The large deposits of sand and paving stones J were discovered, and these alone are now bringing in a large sum annually. The grandest discovery of all, however, was made a few weeks ago, when a workman engaged in loading the sand struck a layer of quartz containing gold. Experts who have since examined the quartz and the ground unite in declaring the find to be a rich one. 9 • • The progress of orchestral music in Wales is among the most gratifying features ef the time. Twenty years ago, many Welsh Non- conformists would have regarded with horror the introduction of any musical instrument into a place of worship. Now, it would be difficult to find a chapel that has not its modest little harmonium, and costly organs are no longer confined to EpiscopalChurches. The organ is becoming as indispensable to a Nonconformist chapel as the pulpit. Then there is the introduction of a full orches i 1 to the Welsh Cymanfaoedd Canu (congrega tional musical festivals)—another very de- sirable innovation.

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