Week-end Chat

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 178, 14 August 1937, Page 13

Week-end Chat

"MUbEUM EiN jl ti UBIAST. ' '

f'LIBRA."

" " . COUSIN

ROSE.

COUNTRYANDf T0WN. '

Dear Everyone, Someone said he would like more humour in the newspapers. That makes cne realise that we are naturally ' a somewhat serious race, looking upon humour as "out of place" when we have a subjeet to discuss. That great numorist, "A. P. H.," of "Punch," put, his point of view very cleverly: — "Oh, it's hard to be funny for money, You '11 find, if yOu're that way intentioned, For most of the world isn't funny, And the rest . of it mustn 't be mentioned. ' ' • • • This letter has come in answer to one sent from Havelock Korth last week: — Dear Cousih Rose, I shake hands heartily with "Health Lover" over her disgust with roadside untidiness. I too| havo gathered up rubbish on tho roadside (with a pitch fork) antj bnrnt it in tfie garden-rubbish burning tiu. I also quite agree that children shoula be taught, as early as possible, not to l»#v« rubbish about — not to break bottles, either, a most dangerous game. I know a couple who were driven to put up a high fence instead of tho hioi e pleasing low oue they began with, because they could not longer iiear the sight of cigarette ends or tioxcs, empty chocolate boxes, bottles, unwantced bits of food, etc., dumped on to their flower beds. I wonder if it has ever come to "Health Lov-o-i 's ' ' notice that rents are of ten niised because the tenant has got rid vL the rank weeds, tidied up the back yard, and generally made his rented exterior more pleasing? Is that not a rotten state of affairs? "ALSO A HEALTH LOVER." • • » . It was cxtremely interesting to receive the fruit tree brauch on whicli was- a praying-mantis'' nest — as described in the following (beautifiilly neat) latter. Very many tlianks to the kind person who sent it, and for the excellent letter: — Dear Cousin Rose, My husband came aeross this praying mantis nest the other day, while . pruniug, and I thought you might be interested to see it. It is empty, as you will notice by the tiny holes along the top, where the baby insects emcrged. The mantis makes the nest with white, f ro thy stuff (ejected from its flat, square-ended tail) which afterwards dries, hardens, and turns brown. The nest is made endways, each little compartment being piled up against the wall of the last, rather like making folds of ribbon icing with a forcing bag. It was a most faseinating thing to watch. Don't you think it is astonishing to find how f ew people, relatively speaking, are interested in our neiv museum and art gallery? I have spoken to many friends about the l pictuf es and exhibits, and almost always the same reinark is made — "The Museum? Oh, 1'm afraid 1 haven't been yet; yes, we go into .Napier pretty often, but it never occurs to ua to go to the museum.?' .Now, why? Is it that people are really indifferent? If so, well, we don't deserve our good fortune in possessing such an institution. Perhaps it is that w.e need to beeome ••museum-minded'" in that caso, it may not he long before the museum will see a steady stream of visitors. Oue thing is sure — a iirst visit will certainly be followed by many more, and a day in Napier won't be cornplele witiiout at least half-an-hour spent arnong the picture and other feasures . of all sorts. The exhibition of needlework shown recently was a feast to the eye — 1 wonder how many Hastings women saw it? Congratuiatious on your coluinn, and best wishea for its continued success. — -Yours sinp.erelv.

Writing from Venico as a contribu;ion for this column, a Hastings resiient sends a very bnght dcscnption of ;hings seen there. Moihers may like to :ead this to their " boys and girls: — "I'found out that the boy who was blowing the horn in the Tyrol was the lierd-boy who. takes the goats up the A.lps every day to graze. He minds the goats for several iainilies and biovvs the hoi'n so that they will know he is i:omiug and so let out the goats. It is amusiug to watch tlicni come home in the evening. Every goat knows Kis uwn gate, and never has to be driven. Tl^ey just come tearing down the road and know exactly where to turn ofi. The cows are the same. I watched onp old girl walk right mto an open doorway and stand in the passage and bcllow. I waited to see her turned out again, but sho evidently had a l'ight to be there as no-one turned her out. Later, I saw a postcard of her with her head poking out of tho door, so she is evidently quite a celebrity. "We were lucky to be in St. Anton tHe evening the cows were driven up into the Alps for the eummer. There was quite a ceremony attaehed to it. Late in the afternoon all the cows and the men and boys who go with them colleeted' in the centre of the village. There was a little iservice in the chapel and then the priest farewelled each m'an and boy and all their friends turned out too to bid them farewell, Jt was very picturesque. "They all wore leather shorts and Tyrolean hats and immenso boots, and carried long sticks in their hands and P&cks on their backs. Every cow wears a bell on a very wide strap so — 'they have music wherever they go.' They stay up in the Alps, where the pasture is good for three or four months. There in quite a village up there. Men and girls go up to milk and make butter and cheese; then, when it gets colder, they come down again. It is a fivehour drive " • * # The following letter is quite a model of well-expressed English. Do other readers appreciate George EliotS D«ar Cousin Roae, Regarding your enquiry as to your readers' favourite authors. My own •lecided preference is for George MIqL I tbink I only express the 1

ripest fruit of sound critical enquiry when I affirm that what Shakespeare did for the". drama George Eliot has done for its modern substitute, the novel. She has for ever sanctified the novel by makiiig it the vehiclo of the grandest and most uncompromising moral truth. Nor is it only as a novelist that George Eliot has claims of our decpesf regard, for she was a poet as well, and is entitled to a foremost place in the ranks of British poets. Viewed either as an artist or as a teacher, and whether speaking through poetry or through prose, it seems to be admitted on all hands that George Eliot 's position among modern authors is equally distinguished and secure. There is to .be i found on almost every page of her writings some wise thought fineTy expressed, some beautiful sentiment tenderly clothed, some witticism ex- ' quisitely pointed, or some little bit of humour genially exhibited. — Yours, etc..

V w w A funny question was asked by a' small child at a southern school recently: "Why isn't the human body in two pieees all the way up?" — Your Frlend.

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