TO ROBERT BURNS.

Manawatu Herald, 12 April 1904, Page 4

TO ROBERT BURNS.

Bweet singer, that I lo’o tho malst .0’ ony, Bln’ wi’ eager liasto I smacket bairn lips ower the taste O’ hinnieJ sang, I hail thco, though a blessed ghalst In heaven langl For, wcel I ken, nno cantie phrase, Nor courtly airs, nor lairdly ways. Could gar mo freer blame or praise, Or profiler hand Whero "Uautin Robbie” and his lays Thegithor stand. And sue these hamely lines I send, Wi’ jinglin words at ilka end, In echo of tho Bangs that wend Frao thee to mo Like simmer brooks, wi* mony a bend O’wlmplln glee. —James Whitcomb Riley, Chinese Women and Their Feet. Tho small footed Chinese women usual* ft make thoir own shoes of bits of silk embroidered in gold and colors. Very dainty work they make of it, too, a shoemaker simply soling these bits of embroidery. In curio shops the globe trotter may sometimes pick up a secondhand shoe. The tiny feet must be often and carefully washed and disinfected. Many of them are perpetually swollen and inflamed. There are women whose business it is to go from house to house bathing, bandaging and treating these maimed members. A woman of rank has sometimes one amah whose special duty it is to care for her tiny but troublesome feet. Chinese women who possess small feet are, while proud of them in a way, very shy and unwilling to exhibit them to foreigners. I had great difficulty in coaxing a Chinese woman of rank to give me a glimpse of her wee foot. Tho four smaller toes are pressed under the sole, and the whole weight falls really upon the great toe in walking. The ankle is very largo and distorted, but the leg is thin and wasted from inadequate exercise. Tho tout ensemble from a western point of view is far from npt absolutely repulsive.— Slamming a Door. To slam a door may be an evidence of bad temper or bad manners, but it is also a popular superstition that slamming a door is wicked. This belief is undoubtedly due to a supposition entertained,by many nations that the souls of the departed hover about the place where they departed from their bodies. The Indians of this country frequently howled and boat the air with brushwood in order to drive away the spirit of the pris- - oner they had just lulled. The negroes of the Congo abstain from sweeping out their huts for a year after a death has occurred for fear that the dust may interfere with the spirit of the departed. It is in northern Europe that the superstition concerning the slamming of a door arose, the fear being entertained that some spirit might be caught in the slamming... v ~ I>e Musset’s Childhood. Nerve ? 9 irritability and a desire to distinguish itself were plainly visible' 5n Alfred de Mussed the age of 3 years. Once he got a pair of red shoes, and he went into raptures atymt them. He was so Impatient to. show himself in his new shoes that he could scarcely wait to he dressed. While hia mother was dressing his hair he was trembling with impatience, and at last he exclaimed in an angry tone, “Make haste, mamma, or else my new shoes will get old!” The precocious boy was pampered and spoiled and allowed to become a despot In the house.* Old Custom Handed Down. How many can tell the origin of the habit of closing the eyes in prayer? Par hack in the past tho sun was the universal object of worship. As it rose above the horizon the devotee thanked It for its return to bless the world. As it set Jn the west he Implored its early return, fils face was always toward the sun in prayer, and hla eyes were closed to prevent blindness. The habit has passed down from father to son for thousands of years. Though the object of worship has been changed, the custom survives. —Progressive Thinker. Horaepower and Speed. Horsepower does not always mean speed, for the City of Rome—very little smaller than the Teutonic—is of 11,800 horsepower, against the Teutonic’s 13,000, while the Paris, which is only 500 feet long, as against the Great Eastern’s 680 feet, is of over 20,000 horsepower, IBuph comparisons show the wonderful development in late years of ship and engine building* Precarloua Indeed. Tourist (at NiagaraHA coroner must have a pretty good thing of it around here. Coroner—Well, it’s rather precarious, you know our Income depends upon the floating population. One of the hottest regions of the earth’s surface is in the immediate vicinity of the Dead sea. Experts in the science of hydrography declare that the sea loses not less than a million tons of water a day through evaporation. The muscles of the forehead and scalp should be regularly exercised several flmna a day. It is said that the Individ-; nal hairs of the scalp can be stimulated hy rubbing the nape of the neck with a coarsely woven glove. Even if we have only a dinner of herbs • to offer to our guest, if it be served in the spirit of true hospitality it will be better than a stalled ox where pride and envy are, and with them the spirit of contention. __ It is stated that the daily supply of mliTr for the New York market amounts to about 19,000 cans of milk, over 170 cans of condensed milk and upward of 400 cans of cream. It is an old story that the slow modes of travel of, say, 70 years since gave perhaps only too favorable opportunities for studying the natural features of a counter.