A TRIBUTE TO WATER.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 1 April 1920, Page 3

A TRIBUTE TO WATER.

At^a meeting of a bar association in Arkansas, says an American exchange, some of' Colonel Bob Maxe's friends thought to confuse him by proposing that he respond to the toast, "Water." Dashing off a bumper of the well-known liquid, he spilled this:.

" Mr. Toastmaster, ladies and gentlemen, you. have asked me to respond to the toast, 'Water,' the purest and best of all the things God created. I want to say to you

that I have seen it glisten in tiny

teardrops on the sleeping Jids of ' infancy; I have seen it trickle down the blushing cheeks of youth, and

go in rushing torrents down the wrinkled cheeks of age. I have seen it iiv tiny dewdrops on the blades ~3jp%rass and leaves of trees, flashing like polished diamonds when the jnorning sun burst in resplendent glory o'er the eastern hills. I have glen it trickle down the mountain glde in tiny rivulets with the music of liquid silver striking on beds of polished diamonds. I have seen it In the rushing rivers, rippling over pebbly bottoms, purling about jutstones, roaring over precipitous falls in its mad rush to join the mighty Father of Waters, and in the mighty Father of Waters I have seen it go in slow and majestic sweep to join the ocean. And I , iaveseen it ■in the mighty ocean, xin whose broad bosom floats the battle fleets of ail nations and tho commerce of the world. But, ladiei and gentlemen, I want to say to you ' now that as a beverage it is a damned failure !"