Some Passing Notes.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 30, 4 August 1894, Page 2

Some Passing Notes.

(By GJi.B.) There must surely have been some mutual understanding between Jupiter Pluvius and the Wesleyan trustees who had the building extension in hand, for he was sloshing around with his watering can in the most reckless fashion, right up to the very eve of the foundation block laying. Con* veniently pitching the vessel into the tool- house pro tent, he admitted of beautifully fine weather being experienced on Arbor day, and Mayor Carthew got through his share of the building operations in comfort and with dry feet Every thing in fact went off as merry as the proverbial 11 marriage bell," right away to the close of the concert. Then the cantankerous old lunatic "Jupe," exhumed his can again out of the toolshed, and he has been fooling about with its aqueous contents ever since more or less. The dry rot afflict him ! # # # # The foundation block ceremony recalls to mind an incident in my own experience which will perhaps be found of some interest. I was editing a weekly journal in the back blocks of New . outh Wales some four years ago, when a local resident stalked into my sanctum with a face beaming like a Bishop's benediction. " What do you think Mr Editor " ? " I've got a Brahma Pootra hen that has laid a double-yolked egg every day for more than a week past ! What do you think of that for a local 'par'"? "I'm glad to congratulate you on possessing a fowl which attends so as3idu ousiy to business," I returned, adding " I should put a white enanelled door knob under her when she wants to sit. fine might possibly succeed in hatching the knob into a four-roomed cottage for you. But seriously my friend, I don't perceive anything particularly clever or extraordinary about your hen laying two eggs in a day. Why I've known a mare (Mayor) to lay two thumping big blocks of stone weighing nearly a ton and a half in a day." (They were foundation stones). My visitor rushed out of the office disgusted with what he probably con sidered my want of veracity, and I question very much whether he has succeeded in realizing the "go&k" even unto this day. One of the Australian weeklies just to hand, states that Mr Talraage's Brooklyn Tabernacle which has recently been cremated, was built largely on the " faith " system : sans cash but plus unbounded belief that Providence would in some mysterious way liquid ate the debt. Dr Talmage told the builders when they pressed him and his committee for payment, that he would see them paid if they would consent to "one half of their claim being given to the funds of the church »nd the glory of the Lord." To thia they rightly demurred, but whon the " doc " explained that if they persisted in their refusal they would get noth ing, and he would ultimately get the building on his own terms, they caved in. " Unbelievers," says the Australian Journal, " will no doubt regard the destruction by five of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, as a judgment of God on Dr Talmage." Still harping on foundation stones, I am further reminded of an interesting incident, which happened a few years back in the Old Country. Paper money, gold, silver, and copper coins and other valuables were deposited in the cavity of a stone, on which wasto be erected a handsome Roman Catholic edifice. During the night, a trio ol sacrilegious but enterprising tbievec determined to annex the money placed in the cavity. Two of them succeeded in finding and fixing the block and tackle for lifting the stone ; and when they had raised it sufficiently from itt bed, third man thrust his arm undei it and endeavoured to extract the coveted treasure. His ungodly limt proved too short however, and lie fetched one of his confederates whe was a much longer and lankier fallow The third man held the stone in post tion while the other two tried to «ffecl the robbery. The latter had aluost succeeded in scooping out the booty, when the rope snapped and down came the 9 cwt block with a crash on their anno and hands ; pinning tih% v both to the wall| of course. Like a coward the third accomplice fled the scene ; believing the mishap due to a direct interposition of Providence. The cries of the two others brought assistance to the spot, and after what seemed to them an age of torture they were extricated and conveyed to the local hospital, where their badly fractured limbs and fingers were set. Believing they had been sufficiently punished for their misdoing, the church dignitary declined to prosecute, and let them go — sadder and it was believed thoroughly repentant men. For a beautiful specimen of English "as she is wrote " in some country journal, commend me to the following "ad " which appeared in a Marton contemporary the other night ; — " Unless the person who took a black fan with orange ribbons attached from the Drill Hall on Friday night 27th July, return it at once to the office of this paper, it will be put into the hands of the law to secure it aa it is well known who took it." Apart from the full-blown tautology (5 " its " in 4 lines) embodied in this precious item ; "it" would worry a reader into con vulsions before "it " could be discovered with absolute certainty whether the " it " meant the black fan, the orange ribbons ! or the Drill Hall which had been taken away, and DUt into the hands of the law to secure " it." The person who built that " ad " ought to patronise the State School again.