What Everybody Says.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2580, 14 April 1877, Page 2

What Everybody Says.

" In multitude of counsellors thero is safety."

—OliD PROVBRB

Everybody has been talking about " them stocks " for another whole week— not alone at the Corner, but in all places and at aU times; and one reverend gentle- ' man has "improved" the theme at a soiree, instituting invidious comparisons between mine managers and some other managers. No doubt some very good moral lessons might be deduced from the present scrip racket. Anyone going to the Corner at night, between the hours of*six and nine, might dilate for a week thereafter on the evident disposition to Mammon worship evinced by the people of. this community. Then, again, the teachers who two or three times a day on one day in seven utter mild platitudes or denunciatory passages from the pulpit to persons who are all the time thinking of a rise iv the market might make a point and secure attentive auditors if they would but let out a bit at scheming directors and unscrupulous mine managers. -They have taken to praying and preaching for the Press ; why-not open out in the direction of " those who have charge of our mines ? " Everybody knows that some of them require it as badly as-any class, for if you may believe half you hear, directors generally are a bad lot, and mine managers their plastic tools. But about the soiree. It is no doubt edifying, under the influence of a cheering cup of tea, to hear' that some managers (not mine managers) are " unimpeachable," and to hear people disclaim any wish for good scrip, but nobody would like to test their sincerity next morning. Besides, everybody knows that successful dealers in scrip are often liberal donors to churches, and nobody ever heard of their donations being declined because they might have displayed a " leetle " extra sharpness in acquiring wealth. There is a saying somewhere about being "diligent in business'" and another about "doing with all your might what your hand findeth to do." Some persons should remember, these things, and not draw long faces because they see the dealers in scrip acting diligently, engrossed in the various manipulations connected with "them stocks."

Any attempt to " rob a poor man of his beer" is a proceeding Vigorously. denounced by the British workman. Good Templars do this—not in the sense of taking from the poor man his beer, but in endeavoring to prevent him from getting it. If they ever succeed in this the poor man will not suffer, because he cannot feel the loss of that which he has never had. But there are some who would deprive men of their beer when it has become almost a necessity, and they don't; mind literally robbing.. A case occurred the other day. A "kit with some bottles of beer for the family dinner and supper were planted in a certain place, to be left till called for; but somehow the wrong party was there first, and appropriated the " plant." His meanness is aggravated by the fact that up to the present time he has failed to return the kit and the empty bottles, thereby causing inconvenience as well as loss. Perhaps he will take this hint.

As everybody knows, this is the season for water parties and sporting excursions, and very pleasant little affairs they are under certain conditions.. A taut little boat, for instance; fine weather, an agreeable party, a snack of something nice to eat, and a flask well filled. Above all, plenty of sport, and a well filled " bag " on returning. Some of these conditions were secured by a party of amateurs the other day on a trip to Piako, but they were not successful sportsmen, and were returning to Grahamstown slightly crestfallen. Pulling along for some time, a bit of a breeze in their favor sprung up, and it was determined to make sail. Oars were unshipped, the sail set, and pulling again resorted to to make haste home, the night being cold. The tide was running out, and the rowers worked hard. The sail was kept "full and by,'-' and for two mortals hours was Grahamstown in sight but not reached. A conviction suddenly seized the party that something was wrong, and this conviction was followed by a determination to find out what it was. The rowers stood on their oar?, and one struck a light, when a light dawned upon the sportsmen. In hoisting the sail the anchor had dropped overboard unheard and unobserved, and for two hours they had been fruitlessly endeavoring to make headway against it with sail and oar. Some of the party object to be reminded of this trip, so nobody need expect any further information which might lead to identification.

Anybody or everybody who are anything at figures may perhaps be able to understand a curious case which was reported in an Auckland paper the other day—a case of " smashing up," and as everybody may not have seen the said paper, some have lost a good thing. The case purported to refer to the smashing up of a buggy in the temporary charge of "three young gentlemen." In proceeding to state the names of the " three young gen* tlemen " the paper gave four names, and everybody naturally wants to know whether it was a part of the smashed buggy that made the fourth young gentlemen, or what. It may be that the three young gentlemen went up three and came down four, or one may have been a twin, or, well, everyßody can work it out and send correct answers to the N.Z.H.

Everybody may not know what an infliction it is to sit near g small b,oy or big lad at a place of amusement when said small boy or big lad delights in expressing hi* approbation of the performance by means of a shrill whistle or a shriek. Anybody who has once'been subjected to the nuisance will, in going to ordinary places of amusement, choose that portion of the house farthest removed from the boy element; but there are occasionally: entertainments at places where do choice js allowpd^—first come fi:;st served—-and the " boys " judiciously distributethemselves throughout the audience. An " ppen 1; Ige " entertainment sby" the Good Templars furnished a case in point the other r;ght. The entertainment was above the ordinaiy, and sdght hare been enjoyable but for -he nuisance ajluded

to, some of the perpetiators of which were said !o be Good Templars, but were undoubtedly very bad ones. The remedy for tlic rniisitnce on such occasions is simple. The larrikin element should be excluded altogether, and the young Good Templars should have a few lessons in mauners "before biing' admitted to entertainments ostensibly designed to make the order popular.

Mr Severn must have wonderfully improved his n icroscopical apparatus, been fortunate in finding some very accommodating animalcule, or else be has found favor in the eyes of ah imaginative reporter. In a notice of one of Air Severn's lectures occurs this passage:—"Following these views came an amusing series of microscopical illustrations showing anilnalculse as large and lively as mice, and huge larvae—the inhabitants of a drop of water—all sporting about more lively than kittens, drinking the atmosphere through their tails, then suckinw these aj.pendages, projecting their tongues, and smacking their lips." They are a spotting people in the South ; perhaps the animalcule had been in training for the occasion.