Fireside Scraps.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 449, 26 February 1890, Page 3

Fireside Scraps.

Growing Old. —“Every one desires to live long; but no man would be old.” It is amusing and amazing the way we try to fool ourselves about the approach of old age. We comb our back hair over the bald spot more carefully, shave off the beard that has grown so grey, and do a dozen things to hide our age that we used to laugh at others for doing, and then imagine no one notices our subterfuges. And so we fancy we are deceiving old Father Time himself sometimes, until there comes a rude awakening. We can best judge what old age will be to us by looking at the old who are around us.

Wiiat we Say or Do,—We count trifles as little things, and very often pass them by without a thought, but life is made up of trifles. Sometimes a word, a look, or a gesture, small in itself, may cause us to do or say a thing that will affect all our future lives. When we think of this, and of how the trifling things we do or say may affect others, how careful we should be ! This is especially true where children are concerned. The little ones look up to mamma and papa as the embodiments of wisdom. They drink in what they hear, and as soon as they begin to talk lisp the words of their elders.' How if these words are not what we would care to hear from baby lips ? If we hear something that is nob right, said by baby, and know that we ourselves said the very same thing not long before, can we punish the little one for it '! No, for if wo do we are cruel. We must be careful.

The Greatest Depths oe the Ocean.— The greatest known depth of the sea is in the South Atlantic Ocean, midway between the island of Tristan d’Acunha and the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. The bottom was there reached at a depth of 40,236 ft, or eight and three-quarter miles, exceeding by mot*® than 17,000 ft the height of Mount Everest, the loftiest mountain in the world. In the North Atlantic Ocean, south of Newfoundland, soundings have been made to a depth of 4,580 fathoms, or 27,480 ft, while depths equalling 34,000 ft, or six and a-half miles, are reported south of the Bermuda Islands. The average depths of the Pacific Ocean, between Japan and California, is a little over 2,000 fathoms; between Chili and the Sandwich Islands, 2,500 fathoms ; and between Chili and New Zealand, 1,530 fathoms. The average depth of all oceans is from 2,000 to 2,500 fathoms.— Iron.

Lady Smokers in Railway Carriages. —The other day a gentleman and two ladies were travelling from Stourbridge to Birmingham (says the local Times), and the gentleman made cigarettes for the three, the ladies puffing theirs with modest assurance. They evidently whiffed because they liked it, and because they were accustomed to it, and not out of any mere bravado or desire to challenge attention. At an intermediate station,' where the train was delayed a few minutes, the sight of smokers in petticoats—daintily puffing away with an apparent sense of real enjoyment—drew nearly all the porters to the carriage window ; but all one of the ladies had to say to this act of rudeness was, “Fancy ! these men don’t seem to have seen anything of this kind before.” They hadn’t either.

A French Heroine. — A noble story is t e caieer of Marie Ther&e, the French Sister of Mercy, who has just received the cross of the Legion of Honour from the Governor of Tonauin. Marie was only twenty when she received her first wound at Balaclava. She was wounded again at the battle of Magenta.-' Later she pursued her chosen mission under her country’s flag in Syria, China, and Mexico. From the battlefield of Worth she was carried away with serious injuries. Before she recovered she was again performing; her duties. On one occasion a grenade fell into her ambulance ; she seized and ran with it for a hundred yards. Her patients’ lives were saved, bub she herself as severely injured;; The French trooi who were called out to wit-; ness the unusiva scene ot the bestowal of this honour upon a woman, presented arms to the heroine of the ceremony.