BRAVE HEARTS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 430, 21 December 1889, Page 8

BRAVE HEARTS.

FAccording to the la«t rennrt of the Koyal j Humane Society of Britain, nil the I principal medals and testimonials for saving life nnd for bravery were awaided to •women.} How oti we talk of woman s wiles, Her hennty, gentleness, and grace, -Spenk only of. her pleasant smiles, -Her symmetry of form and face ; We court her with a honoyM phrase, And for her love and favour woo F- roetting, while her sex we praise, She has a woman's courage too. She tends our pathway as wo go Vrom cradle omvaid to the &rave ; But seldom do we seek to ki.ow Tlie dan&eis that herhoait will brave ; For man. with sense of loid'.y mii»nt, And pnde of muscle and of mind, Think* his alone should be the rinht To shield and save the weaker kind. How sweet her voice, how soft her touch, How lijiht and dancing in her Head ; It seems she could not dare as much As strong-armed man in hour of dread ; But Duty whensoever it call, On lowly or on high estate, Will find a woman, after all, As brave and feailess as her mate. With dainty hand she trims her dross. And decks herself with gracious art ; But shall we hold her valour less Because her petticoat issmait ? The payest gown pei chance my hide A soul that feai> net flame or wave ; A woman with a woman's prido Is ne'er a slattern or a slave. How often we are sadly told That faith and chivalry are dead ; In days of old the knights were b<.ld. And d.nnes Weie fair—least, "0 'tis said , Eut shall we o'er the past make moan, And ne'er of present h r o< till ? Isny, na\ ! to Hay let it l»e known That we have heioinesas well,

■" Civis," in the Otago Witness, declaims as follows abon^the loss of the s.«. Centennial in Sydney harbour :— " Competition i> «aid to" be the life of trade. It is sdso sometimes the death of competitors. There is a t-tiugule for existence: the «tron<rer smvives, the weaker goes under. The Centennial has gone under in a very literal sense, though the event was not, stuetly speikinsr, a consequence of the Centennial's audacious competition with the Union Company. But it' the struggle liad continued the same remit would have lieen reached in another way. By a anorcifu* interposition of Fute— in the form of n Newcastle colliei— the agony has Keen fJsoitenrd, and the Centennial enjoys peace with Jionor at the bottom of Sydney liarbour. That is better than sinking an the deep waters of hopeless competition — better for her owners, who let us liope, were decently inmred, thouch not so well for the tiavelling public, Thanks to the Centenni d and her sistrrship the Dupleix, the Union Company have been currying passengeis to Sydney at fares •«hieh ex.ictly cover the cott of giease for the engine*, "and before long they would h> ye been paying people to go. Tl is a lucky thing that the instruction" of Providence -which gave the Centenni.il hf-r quietus was not a boat of the U. S. S. fleet. It might Ijnve been, and, if it had, an illogical public would have drawn one inference. On presumption less stiong, juries have convicted for murder, and Chemis, aftt-i aiarrowly escaping the gallows, is held in prison at thi« moment."