RAND0M READINGS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 378, 24 May 1918, Page 4

RANDOM READINGS.

■;] HISi'ORiC I'UNS. English history records various Jokes from sources military, literary, noble, and v.-veil royal, which have occasionally enlivened momentous eveuts. The sober historian who writes fully of the disastrous Battle of Cullodtn. which decided the final fall of the royal House of Stuart when he relates that the advance of General' Cope, Wade, and Hawley was delayed by the snow-filled glens and icy slopes of wild Scotland, condescends to record in a t'ootnate that the opposing forces drew mirthful encouragement from this punning couplet— "Cope could not cope, nor Wade wad# through the snow, Nor Hawley haul his cannon to the foe" When, in 1757, the fleet of Admiral Duncan was about to engage that of the Dutch Admiral de Winter, the British captains came aboard the flagship for instructions. They received t hem in an address of memorable brevity arid point. "Gentlemen " said Admiral Duncan, ►you see a severe Winter approaching: 1 have only to advise you to keep up a good tire." Perhaps the briefest and wittiest Of historic English puns was the, Latin announcement in a sinjffe word of the conquest of Scinde, attributed to the conqueror, Sir Charles Napier-

"Peocavi" (" I have sinned"). CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT RUSSIAN ICONS . There is not a home in Russia that does not possess its icon, the devotional tal>!et in the mystic power of which evr.-y Russian believes. These icons vary in size, quality, and decoration. many of Ui.mii being of great value and antiquity. The word "icon" is really the Latinized form of • Greek word signifying portrait. i The portrait may be small enough to carry in the pocket, or it may IM life-size, and The icons in the RussoGreek churches are often of wonder* ful workmanship and costly design. The raised halos of the portrait figures are specially enriched with precious stones, and Tn the case of the portraits of the Virgin the robes are encrusted with seed pearls and the fingers and neck adorned with jewels. Some icons take tie shape of ft square or oblong box, set in metal , thickly enamelled and hinged, which, when opened, reveal figures of religious interest. Some curious examples of icons of flnely-carved horn are also to be found, the effect being most beautiful when hung in a position which admits of the light being seen through the carving. A small but exceedingly fine specimen of the horn icon is minutely carved with a series of episodes in connection with the "birth of Christ. Us mounting la of silver-gilt, chased in a cord pattern, and the whole Langs from A suspensory bead. One may also coma across the icon of carved boxwood, fitted for the sake of the protectiM «f its fragile beauty into a case precjous metal, enamelled and studded with precious stones.

ORIGIN OF "QOD SAVE TBI KING." Many people are familiar with tIM first verse of "God Save the King," but few know the whole of the three verses which comprise our national anthem. Since the words were firat printed in Arnold's opera, "Two to One," in 1784, there have been general variations in the lines, and they were then much different to the now generally accepted version. The origin of "God Save the King" is a very obscure and disputed point. Some have attributed the music to John Bull, an English composer and organist, who died at Antwerp in 1628, and the words to Ben Jonhon, who. so the story goes, wrote them specially for singing at a grand solemn entertainment given by the Merchant laylor*i Company (o celebrate King James's escape from the gunpowder plot of 1605. Others claim that the real author was Henry Carey, an English poet and composer of musical farces, born near the end of the seventeenth century, who not only wrote "God Save the King," but aiao "Sally in Our Alley"—his best known poem. There is not, however, suilcient ground for attributing "God Save the King" to Henry Carey, and perhaps the most likely solution is that the words were written by Dr. Schuokburgh, an army surgeon, and published on May 12. 1755. soon after which, during ihe American Revolution, it caml* extensively info vogue. It wouM seem, however, that the real autho* of our national anthem must ever Im a matter of doubt. Incidentally, it might be mentioned that "God Save the Kins" is the same melody aa that of the German national anthem, and similarly of the American, "Mj Country, 'Tis of Thee."