Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 356, 5 March 1903, Page 7

Traveller.

NICKNACKITORIAN. shopkeepera' slang is a q|4ip dialect in itself, and one that is always) changing. What, then, is -' a ' nicknackitorian P' We know not the word to-day j but, looking recently through some old law cases, dating about a hundred yearsVback, If was puzzled to , find it applied in all, gopd faith to describe a plaintiff" in the sheriff's office court On further search it turned out to be piece of forgotten Cockney slang for a dealer in bric-a-brac, saya an English paper. "■'' The evidence sho wed that this plaintiff kept a sort rf old curiosity shop, in which he dispensed ' mummies, poisoned arrows, the head of King Arthur's spear, and a genuine manuscript of the first play acted by Thespie and his company in a waggon 1' The defendant, a woman t had. actually bought and paid for some of these rarities, but she died after having commissioned the embalming of an orang-outang to add to her collection, and for this her executors refused to pay. : Counsel for tbe defence poured contempt on the mummy of the orang-outang, and caUed it a •stuffed monkey.' But the 'nicknackitorian' won his case. His profession was more taking than his name/

%J THE FBUITS OF JAVA. The fruits of Java are many and strange. The moat common is the strangest of all. It is called the durian and grows like a huge exoresence from the trunk of a tree ..somewhat similar to our p c ar tree. The fruit, which is pear shaped, grows to a great, siz >, often several feet in length, and has a yellow skin, rough like a pineapple. ■ The most remarkable thing about the dunan, however, is its odor. To say you can smell it a block off is putting it mildly. A combination of aged eggs and the ripest cheese would not be-compared with it When you break open :tbe;huli to fiad what can be the eause of all this disturbance to your olfactory nerves, you find a great cluster cf snow white kernels which taste like some strangely delicicus custard, ytur amazement is greater still, says a writer in the Kansas City Star, .'Another strange fruitis tha serpent fruit, so called from the fact that its skin is tbe exact counterpart of a snake. There is the" pornoloe, like a great orango- the potatp fruit, which resembles that vegetable in all but its fine flavor; the custard apple, with a yellow custard like pulp having a rather decided taste of turpentine ; the poppae, like a melon growing on a tree] the great jack fruit of rather a coarse flavor; a. Bmall yellow fruit with ari unpronounceable native name, encased in a great burr like a chestnut, and a hundred other varieties, some < good, some indifferent, and some entirely unpalatable to any but a native. The orange ia rather a scarce fruit, but the pineapple and bansna are abundant and delicious. There are more than twenty varieties of bananas native to Java. The most delicious of all the fruits, however, is the mangosteen. For years an enormous reward haa awaited the man who would bring a baaket to the Queen of Holland, but unfortunately the fruit is too perishable and to taste it you must go to the country where it grows. Encased in a hard purple shell, lined with an exquisite gauze, are a number of snow white sections something like those of an orange, only each one growing smallnr as they round the core. Each section contains one seed encased in a substance like the pulp of the grape. To describe the flavor would be impossible, but if you can imagine a perfect blending of the flavors of the grape, orange, pineapple and banana you may have a famt notion of the delicious flavor of the mangosteen.

NOTHING BUI? A TERRAPIN. ' Baptizing . days' are great events amonir the negroes of the south, says the New York Tribune. On one occasion the old black preacher took two candidates, one a middle-aged, sedate, quiet man, and the ether a young, excitable fellow, well out in the stream, where the water was waist de9p.. He put the older one down firs*, who came up, folded his arms and looked dignified and pious. The younger one, after being put under, came up greatly excited and shouting : • Glory ! Glory,! I seed de Lordl I seed him in de water, rigfct down dar at bottom I' The elder one, patting him on the shoulder, said: 'Hush,honey, hush; datwarn'tde Lord. I seed it. It was notion' but a terrapin.' HAD BEACHED THE LIMIT. ' TLis continued whittling down of prices reminds one of the merchant who had a big trade in Alba spoons and decided that he ought to get them from the manufacturer at a better price,' said a hardware salesman. 'The manufacturer said that he could not make a reduction unless he put more lead into the composition. ' All right, use more lead, then,' said the merchant. ' Before long he wanted a second rei duction and got the same answer from manufacturer*,? who thereupon was instructed a second time to use, more lead as the merchant simply must have the spoons at a cheaper price. But still the merchant was not happy. He wanted another reduction- But the manufacturer wrote that he could not possibly submit to a further cut." ,\\ .':'!'',..■«;*.; }hV- •'. ■• •I-can't;/ answered the manufacturer, • the last lot I sent ycu were all-lead.'-PREFERRED THE OLD WAY. The lady was instructing the new cook, who was not only new, but as green as her own Emerald Isle. One morning the mistress went to the kitchen and found Katie weeping over a pan of onions. ' Oh, you're having a harder time than you need to have, Katie,' said she. 'Always peel onions under water.' ' Indade, ma'am,' said Katie,' I'm the last one to do that, askin' yer pardon. Me brother Mick was always divin'and picking up stones from the bottom. It's little he couldn't do under wather, if 'twas tyin' his shoes or writin' a letther; but me, I'm that unaisy in it I'd be gettin' me mouth full and drowning entirely. So if ye plaze,. ma'am, I pale tbimthe same ould way I've always been accustomed to, and dhiy me tears afterwards.' HE WAS PULLING. On one occasion when Whistler was the guest of Sir Alma Tadema, Whistler was told by his host that he intended to give a breakfast next morning. 'There will be a number of ladies present, Whistler,' he said, ' and I want you to pull yourself together and look your beßt.' The next morning Whistler's voice was heard ringing through- the magnificent halls of the Tadema mansion : : «Tadema, Tadema I I want, you.? Thinking of nothing less than fire, Sir Alma rushed to tho room of his gueßt. * For Heaven's sake, Whistler, what's the matter ? You've waked up every one in the house. What is it ?' 'Oh, don't get so excited, Tadema,' drawled Whißtler; ' I only wanted to know wbere you kept the scissors to trim the fringe of my cuffs. Thought you wanted me to pull myself together for the ladies.' i