HALCOMBE

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 8942, 7 October 1907, Page 2

HALCOMBE

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

Mr Purkiss, who lias been in indifferent health for some mouths, and who recently went to Wellington for a specialist’s opinion of his case, and was assured that his was not a serious trouble, has since suffered from what appears to bo a complication of asthma and bronchitis, and last week lie decided to go into a private hospital, whore he would have doctors at hand to watch and treat his case, and his sincerely hopejthat such care and treatment will_ have beneficial results and restore him; to his normal state of health. The fare well social to Mr and Mrs Strachan, which takes place on Friday next, promises to be very largely attended. Special invitations have only been sent to distant friends and acquaintances, and to these who have been closely associated with Mr Strachan in his educational work here during the past fourteen years, hut recognising the fact that he has filled an important public position for so long a general invitation is extended to all who are in sympathy with the movement—and “that moans everyone. The first part of the prorgamme will consist of valedictory speeches, songs, etc., supper will follow those, and then the devotees of the light fantastic can clear the decks and trip it lightly till the lights grow dim. At last wo have a change in the weather, Sunday opening out beautifully, and wo bathed in and felt rejuvenated by the genial warmth, and all nature smiled in welcome to the great sustaiuer of life. I am afraid, though, the welcome change lias come too late to he of great service to the tillers of the soil, many of whom have been impatiently waiting for weeks to get in their crops, while their teams during that time have been eating their heads and harness off. The grass, too, is very backward and fleshless for this time of the year, and in consequence our dairy cattle have degenerated from a gold to a copper mine, and I heard a dairyman declare that if this excessive wet continued lie would dry off his cows aud take himself to pastures less pasty. Another old settler.declares that for 30 years he has never known such unseasonable weather.

I was particularly pleased to learn through the medium of your columns of qMlss Amy Remington’s phenomenal success, and most cordially do I congratulate her upon haying achieved such marked distinction. The Trinity College musical examiner’s emphatic pronouncement ‘•that with proper study she would develop into Jono of the finest musicians in the world, of that I am absolutely certain,” is something for her aud for us to bo proud of, and for the honour of onr Dominion and for the credit of these districts particularly I sincerely hope that nothing will ho permitted to bar the way to'the full development of such consi cuous musical genius. Do we talk enough? is a question asked in the “Rappdi” by Nellie Glasoo Wicks, ‘‘Barring girls’ schools and households whose wheels gie run on the nagging system,” she concludes that w'o do not, aud I am with her in that conclusion. The art of conversion, despite do Quiuoey’s teaching, is a lost art, that is, if w'o Britishers ever possessed it, which I doubt. Men of the stamp of Dr. S. Johnson used to be invited to dinner parties and such functions to do the talking, but it was, as Madame de Stael remarked, a onehorse show. That talented woman had been used to the sciutilatiug wit n-ud brilliant coversation that made the salons of Paris historic, and the mental atmosphere of London Society, as expressed in silence, was as depresisng to her as its fogs. Says Nellie: “I asked a young wife the other day to what she attributed this silence and apparent indifference to one another exhibited by English people in pnplio. ‘ Good Gracious, ’ she exclaimed, ‘when one has been married two or three years there is nothing left to talk about. What fun is there (or stimulent to talk) when dining out alone with one’s husband after having all meals with him at home?’ ” How different the French and American women! They talk, and talk admirably, upon a vast variety of subjects, and lam inclined to think that this it is that has helped to make the latter such an irresistible force i n inarticulate English society. ‘‘What a comfort to the hostess,” says N.G.W., ‘‘who has had hard work to drag a word from her guests when some one entres who can talk. A bright talker is an acquisition to any festive gathering. Have you ever been ou a long railway journey in a carriage with several other people, strangers—men aud women —who eyed each other suspiciously, and if you were to p„sk to have that window shut or opened, would glare as much as to say ‘How dare you; are you aware that you are addressing me without an introduction?’ The inodren man has to specialise, a business man talks business, an actor talks theatres, and the tailor talks styles—each has no time to gather information on other phases of life.” Ah, yes, that’s what’s the matter, and most of ns are silent because we are consicous of our ignorance of most things outside of our own business, and beyond our limited horizon, and hence it is that a still tongue may he accepted as denoting caution, ana not wisdom.

I have received 10s from the secretary of the Masterton Dorcas Society, Mrs Exoll, for the Halcombe invalid, and on his behalf I ■thank, those-kind hearted ladies for their very acceptable ght. I have also to thank Mr McMinn, of the same town, for collecting and forwarding another largo parcel of stamps, and not forgetting Master Rae McKenzie, of Carnarvon, for his carefully-collected and mneha,predated contribution of stamps.