STRAY THOUGHTS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 417, 20 July 1880, Page 2

STRAY THOUGHTS.

Contributed lo the Akaroa Mail by

Fabian Bell,

Author of « Stella;' "After Lonj Years?

BLOW PEOPLE.;

That it takes " all sorts df people to make a world" is* one of those trite sayings which admit of no contradiction ; yet I often wish that the number of genera—so to speak—was somewhat more limited. For instance, slow people —what a nuisance they are! Slow in mind, slow in body, slow in thought, slow in deed, by their very vis inertiaclogging the.wheels of social life. Have. you ever watched the slow man in company—seen him turn a joke over and over in his mind, and only perceive the drift of it when everybody else has forgotten it; heard him dwell on every detail of some particularly stupid story, dilating with.needless acCnracy on petty details, which no o»e hut himself could imagine ; or asking trivial questions at the moment when others are absorbed in some great subject of universal interest. See the slow nian On a npr preaches the pigeon.-. hole ■ whete the ticket clerk sits like an owl in an ivybush ; he asks for his ticket with grave deliberation, extracts his money first, out of one pocket, then Out of another, takes his change doubtfully, subtracts and divides, counts ant} counts again, while the clerk stamps with impatience, and a whole strhrg of intending passengers behind oscillate restlessly from aide to side. On the platform it is useless for the porters to assure him that the train is just on the move ; he cannot be. .hurried—he must count over his belongings, portmanteau, hat-box, walkingstick, umbrella, rug, two greatcoats— yes, they are all there, but he must have ' a paper ; goes in search of it at the last moment. Ask a slow mail'to run for the doctor, and he will delay a good five, minutes while you try and impress upon him the necessity of speed. Watch him when he shakes hands,or takes off his hat to. a lady; above all, watch him when some good story is told, the point of which has to be explained aWay before he can see it, and then agree with me that these people are a nuisance, and that slowness, though not a moral crime,, is certainiy a social' one ; for by slowness I do not mean sloth or laziness— very active-minded people are often lazy at times, because they think it not worth while to exert themselves—but these people cannot be active, it is to them as impossible as it is for a lame man to walk wjthout limping.

What an anomaly are slow women ! lii sick-rooms they creep instead of walking gently, and whisper instead of speaking low; where other women divine a half-spoken thought, they must have jit,aexplained,'mth mathematical : precision...: Watch aelow wOhi\in enter a roooi —she moves in'an automatic, way which makes you long to apply a galvanic battery to her elbov\ or to the , hem of her skirt ; her creeping step, aggravates, her hesitating movements set every nerve ajar. If she is n servant, she takes so long to wash'up the breakfast things that you long to do them yourseif; and to see her crawl round a cup makes your fingers itch to snatch it from her. She does not forget, but she has "no time " to fulfil your orders. Send her out in a hurry, and she takes so long to make her preparations that the shop or the office is closed before she gets there, and she is so slow in returning to tell you that you have no opportunity of arranging the matter in any other way. Slow children are the terror of their instructors. They are "not lazy, only slow"—only so hopelessly endowed, or mis-endowed, by Nature that in work and in play they a.ie always in the lurch, and it is hopeless to try and drag them on. Of course, slow people sometimes win in the race of life, and at all times they and their friends love to quote the worn-out fable of the hare and the tortoise, forgetting that it was not the slowness of the tortoise that won, but her perseverance, and the two qualities do not always go together. Slowness is not always sure, nor is speed always erratic.

I believe that the raiso7t d'etre of some creatures—shall I mention scorpions, mosquitos, and the whole race of serpents—and their use has not yet been discovered. Doubtless, they are created for some good purpose, and so are slow people. But I cannot divine what that purpose is ; perhaps it is just to try the tempers and exercise the patience'of their more active-minded brethren. If so, they certainly fulfil their, mission, which is more than can be said for every one.