THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1882. GILDING THE ROSE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2640, 22 September 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1882. GILDING THE ROSE.

It Is natural enough for a faded beauty who has not eschewed the Tanities of the world to pay great attention to the~ artificial renovation of her charms. She misses the admiring glances once cast upon her. A touch or two of paint here and there, a little judicious false hair,, and a general care that the light she stands in is not too strong—in fact that she should manage as a rule to bo seen in “the dusk with the light behind her”' —will ensure no little attention from the other sex. But for a young and fresh beauty to take to the same tricks strikes one as peculiar, to say the least of it. To find rouge on the cheeks that are colored by nature as highly as they ought to be, and so on, disgusts instead of j attracts the onlooker. “ Nature when unadorned, adorned the most,” is the motto that all young ladies should taka to heart. If they do not, they pay the • consequence in the loss of much of those attentions which they are credited with desiring. It is just the same in other matters. Youthful reputations should, not want that propping up which older ones too often find necessary. Companies that have just come into life under the most favorable auspices may surely rely on their own natural charms. We have been drawn into makingthese remarks by the study of a very singular prospectus issued by a company which has lately started in Christchurch with a very considerable flourish of' trumpets. The said company has a capital of £1,000,000, and a subscribed capital of £500,000. The managers are eminent men of business. It bas extensive connections in England, France, Belgium, and elsewhere. It is stated to possess special facilities for handling consignments in London or Mark Lane, and in any of the Australian colonies, and altogether great things have been expected of it. But the circular we have alluded to states that the Leviathan company has adopted a singular method for extending and solidifying its trade. It has made special arrangements whereby all farmers, upon production of a ticket, to be obtained at the office of the company, may purchase for cash their requirements from certain houses in Christchurch at a very considerable discount. This arrangement, which is a common enongh one in co-operative stores In London, Co-operative Farmers’ Associations, Ac., has been adopted by this company, apparently as a bait to the country at large. The discounts allowed range from 25 per cent, to that granted by a judicious firm, which diplomatically asserts that the purchaser, on the production of the ticket, shall receive his a --J i. <1 1.-1 1. T—.4* —U. ” in most cases they are substantial enough, in all conscience, and the ticket-holder may fairly plnme himself on the arrangement. But, we may aek, if this is what we may call high-toned business P If the company wore on the wane we might look for such an expedient, out it is surely infra dij. for a new-born giant to resort to such tricks. Wo do not say that the company gains any pecuniary advantage directly from the tradespeople involved ; we should be soriy to think anything of this sort. Bat, none the less, the arrangement partakes of the nature of “ touting” for bnsiness, and it is not pleasant to think that one of onr moat promising institutions should take this up. As for the tradesmen who offer these advantages and more particularly as to the shop which offers a discount of 25 per cent., they supply the town as well as the country. Why, then, should farmers he blessed with the possibility of obtaining such reductions and not the townspeople ?: Taking into consideration, therefore, the reputation of the company and the claims of the inhabitants of Christchurch, the circular we have referred to is not pleasant reading. The unadorned charms of the company, as set forth in numerous prospectuses, are so dazzling that wo only wonder that it has taken to painting and false hair so early in life. The bloom is yet on its youthful cheek, and it is adopting all the toilet wiles of a Ninon de I’Enclos.