THISTLEDOWN.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1730, 13 April 1895, Page 2

THISTLEDOWN.

“ A man may jest and tell the truth.” —Horace.

« Easter is at hand, the most joyous festival of the Christian church, though as a feast older than Christianity. As the Primitive church took advantage of the good point of the Homan Saturnalia, the equality of all men, to supplant its license by the purer rejoicings over our Saviour’s birth, so it chose the northern feast of Eostre,goddess of the spring, to connect the resurrection of our Lord with its annually recurring type, the resurrection of nature from the death-like sleep of winter. The change of seasons in this hemisphere, while robbing Christmas of much of its sentimental charms, steals thus from Easter all its native significance I may be wrong, but it seems to me that this engrafting of the best elements of Pagan and Heathen life into Christian ceremonies is a striking proof of the wisdom of the early rulers of the church which might well be imitated by those who make the converted Polynesian discard his graceful native garb for our far from becoming European costumes. It has often been asserted, though I must refuse to credit it, that this policy has its foundation in financial considerations, and I am glad to see that the Melanesian mission sets its face against it. t

Easter cards promised once at Home to be as general favourites as Christmas cards, but on the Continent they give the more appropriate present, Easter eggs. _ From the earliest Egyptian times, of which we have record, the egg ha 3 been the symbol of our resurrection in a future world aud of the immortality of the soul. These eggs are often elaborate works of art, containing valuable jewels and may run to fabulous sums, but the poorest family can exchange among its members the gaily painted natural product of the hen. At school I remember we used to save up our weekly sixpences of pocket money to buy eggs for Easter Sunday, and held it a point of honour to eat as many as we could for breakfast. One glutton actually devoured a goose egg and sixteen hen eggs, but could not manage the full two dozen he had ambitiously provided, which cost him far more genuine sorrow than all the canings he weekly received.

The effect of everything depends largely on contrast and much of the spirit of Easter i 3 lost to those who neglect the observance of Lent. The girls must especially welcome it as bringing to a close their forty days compulsory abstinence from weddings, either as principals or assistants. Tney have, however, this year but a brief respite, as May will soon be on us, and May is proverbially an unlucky month for matrimony. Seventy-one days, a whole fifth of the year is a large slice out of a girl’s life, and must considerably discount her chances of wedded bliss. The pretty darlings have made a great mistake in this country in letting the time-honoured pancakes of Shrove-Tuesday slip into oblivion, as they might rivet a chain that might be strong enough to bear the test of forty days’ constancy, or give them the consolation of a breach of promise suit.

Geese ought to be in their prime just now so that matrimonial proposals would be no let or hindrance. Far be it from me to insinuate a paltry joke on such a sacred subject ; my ‘ tow ,’ie3 ’ understand to what I allude. It is a popular delusion that Irishmen are slaves of love and whisky. It is true that a judicious combination of the two may sometimes hook a shy but eligible swain, but the regular routine is far otherwise, Mr Eothwell, a ‘strong’ farmer, holding some forty acres, has a marriageable daughter, whom he is desirous of settling in life- He comes to the Bee;or and says, * I’m thinking, your Beverence, its about time May Jane got settled; sc if your honour knows of a likely boy whose father could give him a hundred, I’d put another to the back of it to stock a farm for them.’ A few weeks pass and the lads and lasses going to church from Sunday-school see a stranger waiting uneasily at the gate. His changing colour, shifting from one foot to another, and whole attitude betray his consciousness of the whisper that goes down the advancing rank's, 1 That’s May Jane’s young man.’ He is introduced to the farmer by the rector and invited to dinner where stern etiquette decrees the sacrifice of a goose. If the mutual inspection be favorable the parents open negotiations, which they conduct with as keen an eye to the main chance as the sale or purchase of a heifer. I’ve known a match broken off at the last moment by a dispute over a clutch of chickens or the difference between a dry cow and a springer. Once on a time there was more sentiment, but the famine and the landlord have crushed that'out. Then it was a point of honour for a girl to be carried off by at least a show of force, and I can remember an instance where love defied the parental barter and young Lochinvar carried off a not unwilling bride from the very middle of his rivals’ wedding procession within half-a-mile of the church, The disappointed lover promptly transferred his affections to his false love’.: sister, and the previous pecuniary arrangements ■ being confirmed by the respective parents, took the rather hard featured Leah to wife without delay with apparently as much satisfaction as Bachel’s younger charms had looked. Iypax.