Cleanings.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 803, 28 December 1894, Page 7

Cleanings.

Effect of a Poem.

Aitor tbe battle of Balaclava, when the wounded were in tbe hospital, a chaplain read to them Tennyson’s stirring lines, ‘ I'he charge of the Light Brigade-’ So delighted wore the invalids that they manifested their pleasure, notwithstanding their wounds. The chaplain wrote to the poet, telling him of the circumstance, and for reply Tennyson sent him two hundred copies of the poem beautifully printed, with an autograph letter. But the most extraordinary story associated with this poem is told in Mr Walters’s ‘ Tennyson : Poet, Philosopher, Idealist.’ A new England preacher, in the middle of a sermon, recited ‘ The Charge of the Light Brigade.’ The congregation listened breathlessly, but after the service many murmured at the profanation of the church by the reciting in it of a war lyric. r lhe minister, depressed by these criticisms, went home saddened, thinking that his sermon had produced but one effect—the irritation of his people. Early the next morning he was told that a man, looking like 'tramp, wished to see him.

‘ Show him in,’ said the m nister ■ and the stranger, as he en cred the room, said : * Sir, I came to thank you for saving my soul.’ * The minister stood in silence, wondering what the tramp could mean. ‘ I was all through the Crimea,’ the stranger added, ‘ and I was in the thickest of the fight at Gettysburg ; but never till I heard you recite that poem yesterday did I know what I had to thank God for. From the hour I heard that poem I determined to change my life, and I want to thank the man to whom I owe that resolution.’

The Wisdom of the Serpent.

In many of the bouses in the villages jn Egypt a snake is kept as a guardian of the dwelling. These creatures are fed on milk and eggs and are well taken care of. At night they may be seen coming out of their holes for food, and though they often have to crawl over the bodies of the sleeping inmates thev never think of harming them. Should a stranger snake appear, it is war to the death between it and the house protector. A guardian snake once missed its female mate, and thinking it had been slain by some one in the house determined to be revenged. Accordingly it slipped unseen into the water jar and poisoned the water. By and by the female came in quite lively, and her lord discovered he had made a mistake. What was to be done now ? If the family drank of the water, they would all be poisoned. Creeping into its bowl of milk, it afterward crawled about among the dust on the ground until its body was covered with dirt clotted by the milk. Then it went into the water jar. Of course the dust dirtied the water, and the people saw that the snake had been in the jar, and the water was therefore dangerous. So it was poured away and the jar broken. They say the serpent is wise, and this one at least displayed something more than wisdom, if we may believe the story.

Bon Mots by Douglas Jerrold.

' Man,’ said Jerrold, ‘owes two solemn debts—oue to society and one to nature. It is only when he pays the second that he covers the first.’

A very matter-of-fact man was being discussed, when Jerold summed up bis characteristics, saying, ‘lf you were to speak to him of Jacob’s ladder, he would ato nee ask the number of steps.’ Of a mistaken philanthropist Jerrold said, he was * so benevolent, so merciful a man—he would have held an umbrella over a duck in a shower of rain.’