WHEN WE ARE AT OUR BEST.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 253, 4 December 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

WHEN WE ARE AT OUR BEST.

In tho thoughts of every man the prime of his lite is always a few years ahead, 6ayß a I/one'on "Times'' essayist. " Twelve" looks -forward to eighteen, when he will be "'grown up'; eighteen regards thirty as maturity, and everything beyond it as old-age. Thirty thinks thirty-five the prime and fortylive a little sere and yellow. Forty-live is now and then seized with twinges ol apprehension; young men begin to address him a< 'Mr.' and charming girls 1 seem unable to call him by his Christian name without the preface ot 'uncle'; | but he leels certain that ho will not be. j -jt the top ol his powers till he is fitly. ,» it goes on through the decades. 'lhe I prime ot life is always u little ahead.'' i Few things are more pitiful, declares j the same writer, than the surrender ol ■ a man who uses his years as a pretext lor spiritual suicide, who looks constantly back, bemoaning the days when i he, too, was young; who laps himself in I solfishness on the pretence that because I lie is old he has nothing more to give to anyone.

A line "old boy," who is keenly interested in his own life and ready to be interested in yours, is one ot the most exhilarating influences that can be encountered. The past was good (and would have been better if he hadn't been such a young fool); the present is good ; please Heaven, the future—the prime of his life —will be best of all. And so he goes forward to his grave with his .-ails full set and his flags flying.

A SHIP'S WONDERFUL RIDE. Knglisii naval engineers have just performed one of the cleverest things ever achieved in the annals of the saving or wrecked ships. The Red Star liner Gothland ran on to rocks neaj» the Sicilly Isles, and ripped away the fore ! part of her hull. Standing on her 1 dock, it was possible to see right through the ship to the sand and rock Iteneath her. The engineers treated the ship as we treat the tyres of a bicycle or motor-car—filled her with compressed air and made her float. Pipes for conveying compressed air were run run through the deck, the deck was made airtight, and compressed air was pumped into the hold. , Tho effect was splendid. The pressure of the air drove the water out of the damaged hold —drove it out and kept it out. Air compressors were kept at work, and the ship, like a tyre, l»e----came buoyant, and floated. .She had gone down by the head. The compressed air raised her head seven feet, and. sustained in this manner, the Gothland got up steam and rode on a cushion of air in safety to Southampton.

MAN WHO SOLD HAPPINESS. Four years ago a young Spaniard called Catala arrived in Pans with the fixed determination to make everybody happy at a rate of about a sovereign each, tne total of which contributions would result in his own latitude. He styled himself " President of tho Knights of Mystery." ric offered also to sell the secrets of success, infallible love philtres, and the water of eternal youth and beauty, and these, being wares difficult to buy in the ordinary market, found a rapid and enormous sale. Tho "Cabalistic Institute" existed only on paper, but the correspondence addressed to its manager at various postes restitutes was prodigious. One day the great magician vanished, leaving his disciples lamenting, for the desired miracles were never produced, and tho gold pieces had been juggled out of their oiigiual pockets never to return.

Some 50 complaints are now lodged against Catala, hut the majority of the dupes arc too ashamed of their folly to publish it. The Spaniard has now' returned to Spain, and all traces of him ha\e been lost.

ADMIRAL BEATTY. Admiral David Beatty, who was i& charge of the brilliant dash bv part of the British I'lwt off Heligolnd. is only forty-throe. His climb up tho nava] laddor of promotion has indeed been amazingly rapid, for ho was made a captain when only twenty-nine, and an admiral at thirty-eight, the youngest admiral tho Navy haw bad for nianv vers.

On tin' Nile, under Lord Kitchener, bo performed wonders in getting gunboats over the cataracts, and commanded the flotilla which bombarded Dongola. being mentioned in dispatches and receiving the D.S.O. During the Boxer rising he commanded the Barfleur, and led a splendid attack with a couple of hundred bluejackets against two Chinese guns, which were causing a lot of trouble. He got tho gujis, but was twice wounded in doing KO.

Admiral Beatty is a great personal friend of the King, aud was for s'une time, indeed, Aide-de-camp to his Majesty.

GERMANY'S FORTRESS. Heligoland, the chief naval forties of Germany, once belonged to England. bnt in ltfiA) \\c handed it over to Germany in return lor concessions made to Britain in East Africa.

It is an : slaud in the North Sea. guarding the entrance to the River Elbe. It is only 1} miles long and hall a mile broad, and the sea preys upon IV to oiieh an extent that it becomes smallor cverv year.

Heligoland's coast iis, to a considerable (.xtent, sheathed in concrete to protect it from Father Neptune's ceaseless attacks. Special cables have been lad linking the island with important German naval centres.

In the preparation of the depot for destroyers and submarines alone ovei fcIUOU.UUU has been spent.

Sir Frederick Bridge the organist of Westminster Abbey, lolls some cxoelJeui storie*

"Two ladies." bo once b aiJ. "were, in Westminster Abbey, when one of them suddenly raised her hand. 'Hash! Listen !' she said. 'There's the organ. Isn t it splendid? \ always love to beat Sir Frederick plav.' '• 'Beautiful, dear.' replied the other• 'for a moment I though' if was Sir Walter Parratl. but of course bo can't plsv like that! One ran usually distinguish I hem bv their touch.'

"As a matter of fart." says Sir Frederick "it was the vacuum cleaner buz/in- iMay hi prcpar.ilicti lor the Coron.itluu."