Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 24 January 1895, Page 3

Notes and Events.

Everybody should read, if they haVe iiot already doiie soj " John" Bull & Co." We purpose giving some cullingß from the book, illus* trative of the crisp and. accurate remarks of Mr Max O'Rell. France is the foremost country in the world"; this is a fact tvhich it were puerile to seek to prove, sfeitig that the French admit it themselves. The Englishman somewhat despises foreigners ; the Swiss loves them as the sportsman loves game ; the German looks upon them as heaveti— sent blessings, tbftt permit him to earn a peaceful living far from his Fatherland, now turned into a huge garrison. The Frenchman looks upon the Belgian as a dear, good simpleton, the Italian as a noisy nobody, the German as a heavy, pompous pedant | he thinks the Americans triad* and tbe English eccentric and grotesque^ Max O'Rell says " Of one thing, at all events, I am firmly convinced, and that is, that one nation is not better nor worse than another ; each one is different from the others, that is all." Writing about the United States, he says " a country especially interesting from the feverish Activity which, in a century, has developed it and made of it a shining light to the rest of the world in the matter of practical ideas. A people straining every nerve in the race for dollars, suffering from bile and billions, and who have learned most things except the art of good self-government; unique women, the most intellectual and interesting in the world, who I can admire all the more because I have not the honour to be the hus band of one of them, and therefore have not to pay her dressmaker's bills, nor work by the sweat of my brow to cover her with diamonds."