SATURDAY GOSSIP.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2897, 8 July 1882, Page 2

SATURDAY GOSSIP.

Business men, no matter how inscrutable they may be, cany a tell-tale. A glance at the genial countenances, of our “ leading citizens ” this week shows that there is no fearful excitement on just now, but that trade is depressed. Especially is it hard to “ get in money.” No oho who is not in the ranks of commerce knows the fretting and worry to be borne, and vigilenco to be exercised by business men to “keep the ship afloat." I suppose it is on the principle

that one admires most the gifts one 1 does not possess, that I admire “business faculty." Where that bump ought to be there is in my pericranium a great cavity. The remnant, fast decreasing happily, who affect to despise business, I are simply fools. The art of conducting a business profitably is like the poetic art, born, not acquired. Eyerybody cannot be an artist but everybody can have common sense and prudence, by acquirement; everybody can learn to look at money in a proper light. It may be dross, but it is the ballast that keeps you off your beam ends.

The P.R. has, in proportion to the population, more admirers in Timaru than in Dunedin. I think this true statement is to the credit of the latter city. Messrs Mace and Miller have their admirers down south, but they are mostly gamins. The Scotch core of the Dunedin heart has no fancy for fisticuffs. If a Scotchman fights he wants blood ; and unless he is a “ Tonalt Mclvor ” or some other bare-legged ranger from the Highlands, he is generally a man of peaceful proclivities. Whisky doesn’t inflame his flesh, it stimulates his brain. He will argue witli you to the crack of doom," especially on theology, in which he is ever ready to break a lance. There is something latent in porridge and whisky that moulds the Scotch character. I believe that if Scotchmen fed on potatoes and butter-milk for a generation ,or two, the gaelic mind and body would undergo a complete transformation. Whisky and porridge! Well, I won’t make a foolish statement. I merely remark that I don’t object to one of them, but the other, oh, Lord! I don’t think you can make much of that confession.

The tragedy at Oamara just raises the curtain that hides the dark corner of society. It is only now and then it is raised, and then what ghastliness is revealed ! We little think, we little know how many among us are on the road to ruin. There seems to be an inequality in the sufferings of humanity. Woman gets rather more than her share of it, I fancy. A good deal of the suffering and the misery attending life may be traced probably to hasty and unsuitable marriage. Such unions end in the downfall of one or both of the parties, and a reproduction of miseries in their progeny. How are we to avert this ever widening circle of misfortune, this perpetuation of suffering, crime and misery ? It is the problem of the age. Vermin are but nobler creatures degenerated. Must our human race go on degenerating as it multiplies ? Is the flesh to govern us for ever ? Wo must confess (what has been often denied) that in the cultivation of the mind lies the only hope of gradually weakening the government of the flesh. This sad end of the poor creature at Oaraaru is only one more tragic shipwreck of hopes and golden dreams, one more warning against unlawful unions. When do they ever turn out well or happily ?

Not a soul to follow her remains, but one or two officials and the publican ! The last was right. The poor creature had been a drunkard, I will wager that publican was a true mourner, now. His appearance in that capacity did him infinite credit, and I can quite comprehend that he suffered a good deal of painful thought, as a conscientious man dispensing the instrument that heightens the misery of the wretched and forlorn.

Mr Barlow had better “ move on ” I think, as far as possible from the many friends of Wiuiata. The Maoris say you may trust a white man,you may trust a Maori; but you cannot trust a half-caste. This proverbial philosophy receives new force from the clever capture of the Native murderer. And if I am not very much mistaken, Mr Barlow, though he is six feet nnd some inches high, stands just now in very considerable danger of occupying a hole in the earth.

The Borough Council have broken out into a perspiration of zeal! Shingle is the cry. For about twelve months wo walked in muddy soup or puddles with Christian fortitude and uncomplaining patience. Now, we trudge over miles of shingle. The change has been so sudden, however, that the. Christian fortitude, etc, hasn’t come to us. We are in the profanity stage, _ which will be followed by the groaning in spirit stage that immediately precedes the fortitude and patience.

Speaking from observation, I think the shingle preferable for courting couples. It shakes them up ; his manly arm can help her over the stones. To help your girl over the stones is a great matter. She’ll never get over them unless you help her. It is an earnest of your future life which you will devote to helping her, metaphorically speaking, over the stones of this world. It seems to me, however, that life is a perpetual climbing over boulders.

Pop! phiz ! can it he true that the Perth owners are having a ‘ bust?’ It is whispered that they are “ knocking down their cheques ” at a great rate. It is further whispered that they (ire going to give a champagne spread to which they will invite, among other distinguished persons, Puck.