Varieties.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 383, 10 September 1903, Page 2

Varieties.

THE SIKHS OF OUR INDIAN ARM? SOPTTKING an inspection by General. Sirff Gaselea of some of the native reA£gh. giments which had formed part of the relief force and Pekln garrison, the general had the native officers up and talked to them, Before dismissing them to their places he asked if any from among them had a complaint to make cr would like a question answered.. For a mom-nt there was silence, and then*a fiae old snbahdar major, who had fought in the Mutiny for us, and possibly in the Sikh. War before that, Bteppea up and salute 3. Though an old man he wa9 still as straight as a laace, and the red dye on his beard was hardly needed, so well preserved was the colour of hi? hair. •Yes, General Sihib, we hare one question.' « Well, what is it, Mohammed Khan P» asked the general, smiling. ' General Sahib, it is this. We have now bees fighting in this far-off country for months, and we have seen tha soldiers of the whole world. Ever since we were children, and that, as the General Sihib will know, ia many years ago, we have heard that the Russians are coming to take India. Now we have seen the Russians here, and we would tsk the General Sahib if these are the same Russians of whom the British Government, is afraid, and who are to take our country ?' The whole group waited breathlessly, for an answer. «Yes, these are the very Russians!' said the general. ' Then,' and all the sirdars (ouuerpj spoke with one accord,' let us declare war to-day. We have nothing to be afraid of, and Eucn as these can never tako India!' A STORJT FROM MONTE CARLO. The pretty French gold piece worth a hundred francs, or M, is not often met with in commerce. At the Casino at Monte Carlo, however, a large stock of tbese coins is kept for the convenience cf players, who find them useful as a stake. Quite recently, when on his way home from the Italian lakes, an Englishman, who, from conviction sternly sets his face against all gambling, as emanating from the Evil One, stopped for a day in the principality to visit an intimate friend there, a foreigner, and dined with him that evening. Before dinner the two passed into the rooms, and the Englishman saw for the first time these pretty gold medalß. He was so pleased that he changed a note for one of them to take home to England as a present to his wife. After dinner at the Hotel do Paris the two fciends again strolled into the Casino, and the host, who iasajd most of biß Winters at Monte Carlo, tried his luck with a few five-franc pieces on the simple chances, with indifferent succsbs. Tired of this, he turned to his English friend, and s%id jocularly : ' Come, you ought to pay your footing! However much you disapprove, you oughtn't to expect to get all this lightneßP, brightness, and amusement for nothing. At least give them the chance of getting a five-franc piece out of you 1' Thus adjured, the other relented, a victim of the forca of example, perhaps; and putting irs hand in a waistcoatpocket, murmuring: 'To please you, I'll put a five-franc piece on number five, my little girl's age' j he handed the coin to the croupier to place for him, The ball was already spinning; a moment later—-Rien neva plus! Cinq Rouge, Impair, Manque !' was sung out wearily, and the long rakes began to haul in notes and gold on black, and other cfc ances. According to unvarying custom the wieners on the simple chances were paid first; and then the sum dua on ' No. 5 ' was counted out—3 ; 6oo franca, (45140), and pushed towards the Englishman, In bewilderment he demanded: ' Why ? ! —pay me all this P' The explanation was simple. He had staked the pretty gold coin intended for his wife, and had won ! And to make it worse, he was a member of the AntiGambling League!

THE COUNTERSIGN. Mr Booker T. Washinton, the wellknown negro preacher, recently told a gathering of darkies that one of the great faults of his race was a disposition to exhibit knowledge in any and all circumstances, and that, until the negro learned not to display his vanity, he was useless in any confidential capacity. 'By way of illustration he told a story which, he said, might be or might not be apocryphal, but which was good enough to be true. A certain general had been told that the soldiers of a negro regiment in his command wsre very lax when on sentry duty, and showed a fondness for passing doubtful persons through the lines just to indulge their power to do so. To ascertain if this were so, he muffled himselt.one night in a clcak and tried to get past a black sentry. After the «Who goes there?' the *A friend,' and the • Advance, friend, and give the countersign ' had been exchanged the general replied : 'Roxbury!' ' No, sah!' was the polite but firm response. ' Medford!' * No, sab !' •-Charles on!' he next tr.\od. ' No, sab! No, sah!' Baid the negro determinedly. Then he added: 'Now, seea heah—yo" can go fru th' whole pggrafy, but General he done say that nobody can get pas' me without saying 'Cambridge!' ' FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 3 lss Florence Nightingale is the only survivor of the three founders of the Herbert Hospital at Woolwich, which the King and Queen visited last month. In spite of the fact that a London newspaper published an obituary notice of ' the late Mies Nightingale' a year or two Ego, Miss Nightingale is still living at her heuse in Park-lana, where Bhe receives constantgifts of fruit and fbwers, which remind, her as sbe ließ in bed or on her invalid chair that she is not forgotten. The name of Florence Nightingale, it is safe to say. never will be forgotten. Sue is 'the moiher of the, trained aurse,: and the story of her heroic seiuice on the battle fields of the Crimea will be an inspiration to women for all time Sir Robert Bawlinson, the engineer sent out by the Government to investigate the condition of the hospitals at Sevastopol and Scutari, declared that if the people of England could -have seen these places they would have torn 1 the Government to pieces; but Florence Nightingale lived among these scenes by day and night, battling with disease which was killing men like flies. In those beds of fever and discomfort the Lady with the L*mp came like an angel from the skies. When the war was over some soldiers at a banquet in London were asked to write down the name which had most endeared itself to them in connection with it, and when the papers were collected there was only one name on them all—Florence Nightingale. Queen Victoria proposed her health in a toast, which she gave them back again in the form of a training school foe nurses.