AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 308, 27 November 1883, Page 2

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING.

. ~ — ■■ — • — . By Cyclop. s I I fancy I hoar El Majuli^the-Fulse \ ' Prophet, chanting, " Q^hpfshaH rf.{' turn to tell Egypt thfe' story?" — B]L»tJ perhaps he doesn't read ',Mr.s. HemansJ Anyway I suggest it as; (in appropriate (jubtaHon for mhVtp .ii^bri bjb vpoh^he uionuineut by which Ke wilT'c^lebrate. the slaughtering of Hicks Pasha and his 10,001, Poor Hicks Pasha, who no doubt often wished himself plain M<vj"i'General riicks again, had with him in his march, struggle, -and death tsvo , colonels, four majors, four captains, \ one surgeon-major, and one gentleman ' of the • Intelligence 'Department — all Biritish. Besides these there wero artist Band correspondents representing various European journals.. Of the whole army only one is sail to have escaped. You bet be was a newspaper man.- He had his despatches to post and his notes to write up, and hadn't time to stay to be killed. I would like to claim all credit possible for the profession and to account for the escape by swiftness of foot, cleverness of strategem, the better part of valor in. leaving in time, or valor as a whole in cutting his way through a few v thpusa'nds of true believers. But I have a misgiving that he may have been caught and let go just to " tell Egypt the story," and to strike terror into the infidel. i How grand is the effect . of there being only one survivor — just enough to tell the story. What a lion he will be! A greater hero for successfully running away than are any for standing till they fell. There are several paaes of there being only one survivor. Strange to say one of them was reported only a few days ago in. the case in which 500 Egyptian soldiers were said to have been cut d£E by some rebels — one man of them escaped to tell the story. Another instance was that ofilieietreat of the British from Cabul in 18^3. Some 16,000, I think, started on that retreat, and one man, a doctor, reached Candahar. In any of the cases I would rather have beeu that one man than all the rest of the army.j On several occasions on which T haves referred to the king of Spain I,. have done him some injustice 1 and curtailed him of his fair proportion. His name 1 is, I find, " Don Alfonso. Francisco tde Assisi Ferdinando Pio. Juan Maria de la Ooncepcion Gregorio de Borbon." That, I take it, is a lot for one man to be. I fancy 1 hat the priest must have practised some before he christened his Majesty. It was a great triumph, I suppose, for Salvationists in Australia to get such a genuine case of conversion that the convert was willing to put his head in the noose for conscience sake. It turns . out. now that Knowles the convert was mad and innocent. He has consequently . gone down in the opinion of the Salvation world. The poor fellow heard a,p many exhortations prefa^d by edifying confessions of crimes, real and imaginary, that he felt if he was to do any- good lie must have & suitable history ; ao like Topsy he 'fussed. It; would bi± uuerestingto^ knovf how: aian^-iiave. J^eif js eonf^oa| ou tho strength o£ his edifying lie, and 1 whether the" con version, is. vitiated by ! the discovery, of the" lie. Dunedin is greatly elated over the visit of the <Te Anau to the Rattray street wharf. The vessel is 1650 tons ssgister, had 700 tons of cargo in her, and was drawing 15|ft. This is certainly a refreshing change from the croaking that we have heard lately about the Otagp harbor. Visions of forests of masts fcow open again before the rapt vision of the Duriedinites. Already they talk about wharf accommodations. They: have had one vessel up and they .want more wharf ! They have brought up 700 tons, and it has cost three or four shillings a pound to get it vp — but of course there's more to follow, which will reduce the average of cost. . . ••>*• Speaking of a I* forest of masts," that's the p'atform upon which Mr Thomas Middleton is standing for the North Ward, Invercargill, " Not asphalt paths, but a water-way. . A forest of masts in the New River ; that's toy policy." The election will be over before this appears, and the result will hardly be telegraphed *o me. But I may say that Mr Middleton at the head of the poll, and the forests of masts, are equally probahle sights. Invercargill is a Mayor's nest just now, and there is some excitement to know who shall sifc on the eggs, : as there are three candidates. Mr Moir is said to be the favorite, though I can't see, for the life.ot me, why he should be. When Mr Moir was asked if he wquld not act as Mayor for love of his country, without Ll5O, he replied "Yes." But he added that another gentleman had asked -him that question, who was,, on the Waste Lands Board, and' gets a guinea a sitting. The gentleman was always present. That was paid patriotism. The same gentlenian was on the Athenaeum Committee, and attended 5 meetings put of 16. That was unpaid patriotism. ' 11 Editors and Papers " was a trifle hot; they say. The 'News*' quoted it whole, as an example of the "gall" that it/condemned. The ' News'' tben can do a generous and smart thing in a civil way, after all. Pray, don't : be so hai k d, for if -the « News' should review you how shall I escape ? I observe that Mr Bain, late M.H.R., has not read the " rag " for five years, and | yet he seems fat; and contented. Bub then, he does 'the ' News.' The aurora Dn Friday evening was a very 'peculiar one. About . half past eleven" there were a long series . of flashes, iDthej clear sky, Very like sheet lightning,^ but flof course it was part of |the auroral display. Sometimes the flashes "tfere varied with! a H<*nt : au v ' tuir " 3 S *° ow over tn ® S W like- sulphur -fum*> tIiQ r ! r '^ ne aurora is a purely electrical pheu? l^ 6 " non and the magnetic needle is always greatly agitated . during such displays, tt is also supposed to be associated i. mth pup : spots J believe, for wb^ i

spots are many auroras uuy be looked j lam a lover of Goldsmith ;so when a zealous reviewer tells me, : as oneof • Jbbf m.^id in. yours oovaf v a week ago,that soirie .'vof the lines by'MrDugald Fergusbri' •'* read as well as Goldsmith.," I luoifed : *it those lines r carefully. There are three large points that Goldsmith, alwriys kept'in vifew : ( l)to be iVuV' 10 nature, (2) to be true to Snytax, (3) to he true to number. . I demand that anything that " reads like Goldsmith" " should be --true in- these particulars; and. if a poet is passable at all he ought not to find it hard in a short I' sample, carefully selected too, to keep i the law. But to break all three rules in , a uhort and carefully selected passage . requires almost genius both in poet and critic. The .sample chosen by the "reviewer for such high praise is the following :— The sun high in the cloudless zone llespienJeui. as a golden shield, That on a glorious prospect shone, Of hill and Like and brairding field. The joyous ploughmen whistling, clear As they lend out their clanking teams, Whose glossy hides and burnished gear Reflected back the tnorniug beams. Now are these lines true to nature? The sun is "high" and " resplendent " and in a "cloudless zone;" that's like suimner. But the fields are "brairding," spriuging, and so it must be spring. The sky is often "cloudless" in spring, and towards mid-day the sun is "high" and "resplendent" and looks fairly down on "hill and lakf\" So far, then, it is spring, and the day is well advanced. But then come 1 some troublesome ploughmen, with "clinking teams" that reflect the "morning beams." uf course the " ploughmen " may have been ploughing for late potatoes ; but we must . infer ! that the real ploughing season, winter. is meant, when certainly thie fields are not ." brairding." ; But bath in winter and spring fche/dayp are short and the ploughmen who should lead "forth their .clanking.; teams" when tha sun was "high irithe tflpud*; less zone" would very soon get the sick. . . ; •' - - ' i ! Now about .the syntax, /Read the first four lines of the quotation above. The sun is ''high in the cloudless f zone •rf splendent as a golden shield/ Whip}) is? Docs he; mean : th it the zone js resplendent as; a golden shield ? A shield . would be no new comparison for the sun, but fot\ the zouu it is* original. Stjill it is not an ordinary g-ilclvm shield that is r "meant, but oue "That -on 8 glorious prospect shone, &c." ; I defy aiiyone to make anything else butjjhe shir-Id do the sinning in'tb^s passage^ If iie second line were bracketed so' thait the reference to the shiejd could be^droppeil, ' then it would be the zone that would have to skine over the glorious; prospect. • ; As to number, I observe that the third line has nine syllables while all the others have but eight. Perhaps the poet . pronounces "glorious" " glor'ous," 'thus not murdering the Queen's English but only knocking its iS i "out. 1 may add that if the f bHat' i were dropped from the third lino and I tha wlxolo properly punctuated it; might yet make sense.