Excerpta.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 736, 8 May 1894, Page 2

Excerpta.

One Link.

For me—to have made one soul The better for my birth ; To have added but one flower To the garden of the earth : To have struck one blow for truth In the daily fight with lies : To have done one deed of right In the face of calumnies : To have sown in the souls of, men One thought that will not die— To have been a link in the chain of life Shall be immortality. Edwin Hatch.

The First Irish Potato.

Sir Walter Raleigh failed as an administrator and coloniser, but he had a most commendable taste for planting and gardening; and in these branches of effort his influence remains potent. Three hundred years have passed since he lived in Ireland, in the county of Cork, on the vast estate which had been bestowed upon him ; but the yellow wallflowers which he brought to Ireland from the Azores still flourish and bloom in the very spot where be planted them. Near by,- at Youghal, near Cork, on the shores of the Blackwater estuary, stands the Affane cherry which he planted. Some cedars which he brought to Cork are still growing at a place called Tivoli. Four yew trees, whose branches have grown and interlaced into a sort of summer house, are pointed out as having sheltered Raleigh when he first smoked tobacco in his garden at Youghal.

Raleigh tried to make tobacco grow in Great Britain, but the climate was not found suitable to it. He succeeded, however, by introducing the habit of smoking it, in making it grow in plenty of other places. More important to the world than the spot where Raleigh sat and smoked his Indian weed is another spot in his garden at Myrtle Grove, in this same Youghal. This spot is still bounded by the town wall of the thirteenth century. It was here that Raleigh first planted a curious tuber brought from America, which throve vastly better than his tobacco plants did.

This tuber Raleigh insisted was good to eat, though common report for a long time pronounced it poisonous. Some roots from his vines he gave to other landowners in Munster. They cultivated them, and spread them abroad from year to year. This plant was the Irish potato. Before many generations it became the staple food of the Irish people—almost the only food of a great many of them.

It was the ‘ Irish potato ’ which went back to America and became the groundwork, so to speak, of the American farmer’s and workingman’s daily breakfast and dinner. Sir Walter’s curious experiment in acclimatisation became an economic step of the very first consequence; and the spot Jat Youghal which was its scene, deserves marking with a monument much more than do the places where the blood of men has been shed in battle.

Persian Tales.

The story teller is a popular character in Persia. He can always gather an enthusiastic audience about him, and sometimes his most familiar tales receive the most delighted appreciation. In her account of a journey in Persia, Madame Dieulafoy relates a tale which she heard warmly applauded. The learned priest Nasr-ed-din one day received as a gift a gazelle which had been killed by one of bis friends. Much pleased with this attention, he invited the sportsman to dinner, and gave him a fine banquet. The friend told all of bis friends about this magnificent entertainment. Tempted by his description, one of them, a gourmand, presented

himself the next day at the priest’s house and said, ‘ I am the brother of the person who sent you the gazelle yesterday.’ Nnsr-ed-din invited him to dinner. The next day another stranger came to the door and said, ‘ I am a cousin of the brother of the hunter who sent you the gazelle.’ Nasr-ed-din invited the cousin to dinner. The reputation of his banquets continued to grow. The next day two travellers presented themselves, saying, * We are friends of the cousin of the brother of the friend who sent you the gazelle.’ The priest invited them to dinner, hut he went to his wife and said, ’ For dinner serve a little grease lin some hot water.’ At dinner the guests exclaimed, • What, priest, have you engaged the evil one for cook ?’ ‘Do you not like the soup ?’ replied Nasr ed-din. ‘lt is the friend of the cousin of the brother of that which I made from the gazelle sent me by the friend of the cousin of the brother of your friend.’

To Remove Grease from Matting.

If you have been so unfortunate as to drop grease upon the matting, do not try ammonia or benzine or grease extractors. You will only make the spot worse, says Jenness Miller. Sometimes brown paper and a hot iron will be effective, but the best eradicator is French chalk and benzine. Cover the spot thick with the chalk and moisten by sprinkling pot pouring the benzine upon it. When the benzine has exaporated, brush off the chalk, and, lo I the spot has vanished also.

An Old Bird.

A game dealer had just received an addition to bis offspring. His soo, a small boy, who was taken to see the new arrival, whom he eyed very critically. * Why, he’s got no hair, father,’ was his first remark. The fact was admitted. ‘ And he’s got no teeth, father,’ was the next comment. The circumstance could not be denied.

* I tell you. what, father,’ was the final observation, ‘ you’ve been ‘ had ’ —he’s an old ’un !’

Unique Mechanism.

A unique, old fashioned clock stands in the hall of Mr D. L. Goff’s house at Brooklyn, New York, which never runs down so long as the house is occupied. Whenever the front door is opened or closed the winding arrangements of the clock, which are connected with the door by a rod with gearing attachments, are given a turn, so that persons entering and leaving the house keep the clock constantly wound up.

LASSITUDE, HEADACHE, BACKACHE, AND INDIGESTION ARE SYMPTOMS OF A DISORDERED LIVER. CLEMENTS TONIC IS THE ONLY RELIABLE AND RADICAL CURE. HAVE NO OTHER. Mr J. J. Langridge, Tabaha, New Zealand, who writes on May 25th, 1893 :—I have much pleasure in saying that I have used Clements Tonic and do so now. I am a storekeeper and often feel that tired and done up sort of feeling peculiar to our trade, and I find by taking two or three doses of Clements Tonic occassionally that it puts me right again. I have often tried doctors, but not since I have used Clements Tonic, and I find it sells well, and people who once use it invariably purchase it again.—J. J. Langridge, Tahaha, New Zeeland.