Varieties.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 406, 18 February 1904, Page 7

Varieties.

CHINESE PROVERBS. JKN a recent number of the' 'Golden p Panny' were examples of Chinese g proverbs. The following are taken from the * Straits Settlements Echo,' which remarks that ' proverbs show the charaoter of the people and their way of thinking better than any mere description ':~' A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it'; ' The error of one moment becomes the sorrow of a whole lifetime' j 'A vacant mind is open to all suggestions as the hollow mouatain returns (echoes) all sounds'; 'He who pursues the stag rega< da not hares'; 'lf the roots be left the grass will grow •gain'; 'The gem oannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials'; 'A wise man forgets old grudges'; 'Riches come better after poverty than poverty after riches'; 'He who wishes to rise in the world should veil his ambition with the forms of humility '; 'The gods oannot help a man who loses opportunities'; ' Dig a well before you are thirsty (be prepared for contingencies) '; 'Borrowed monby makes time short; working for others makes : it long' j ' Large fowls will not eat small grain* (great mandarins are not content with little bribes) ; • The best thing is to be respected, and the next is to be loved; it is bad to be hated, but worse still to be despised'; ' One lash to a good horse; one word to a wise man.'

A MISSING JUDGE. Hundieds of impatient pereon.—counsel, solicitors, jarymen, and witnesses—waited recently for the coming of the judge to White chapel County court, shut by order of Judge Bacon since April 12. A special messenger was despatched to his residence, and he returned with the information that his Honour left home in his carriage shortly after; nine o'clock. Ashe did not reach his court by 10, those in attendance were informed that no business wonld be transacted that day. The judge, it was afterward explained, had been en a Continental holiday, and had quite tor ■jot hie appointment in the pleasure of a drive in the park. AFffiß TWENTf-FOUR CENTURIES. For nrarly twenty-four centuries the Greeks and Persians have been at loggerheads with each other, and now at last they have decided to become friends again. During this entire period there were no diplomatic relatione between the two countries, and for this reason unusual interest attaches to the news that an envoy from Persia has been sent to A. then % for the purpose of presenting bis credentials as Ambassador to King George. The rupture between the two nations occurred in tho y ear 491 before Christ,' when Darius, Sin of Hystaspae, sent an embassy to Greece, with instructions to demand homage from the highspirited Athenians. The latter promptly refused to offer the customary earth and water to the Persian monarch, and war was at once declared. From that time 2 392 years ago, until now, the Greek and Persian Courts have had no official intercourse with each other.