General News.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3747, 30 December 1880, Page 3

General News.

An amusing scene was witnessed in Ashburton last Wednesday evening, which is thus described by the Press :—A poor old man named Charles Hay, who ekes out a precarious living by selling.books and papers at the railway station, some time ago erected a little whare, in which he lived, on a section belonging to the Borough Council. The section is in the vicinity of the railway station, and, like many other sections in its surroundings, is unfenced and vacant. The Borough Council served a notice to quit on Mr Hay, and so. he was obliged to look out • for a new site for his domicile. Mr Hay is an extremely honest, industrious, and respectable old man, and evidently the people of the town regarded the action of the Council as an unnecessary piece of ofßciousness. Another section belonging to Mr Orr was found, on which the *" old man was allJwed to eretot his humble, home, and on Wednesday evening a large portion of the population of the town turned out to assist at the removal, A procession of all the expresses and cabs in the town was formed, headed by Highland piper and a drummer. After parading East-street, they marched to the whare, where several hundred people had assembled, and immediately the little house was lifted bodily into a dray—lawyers, bankers, journalists and all classes lending a helping hand. On the sides of the whare were the words " Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn," " PiLy the sorrows of a poor old man, who was forced to remove against his will by that big hill!" After a collection had been made the procession was reformed, and it marched to a section on which the whare was deposited. The principal streets were afterwards traversed, stops being made at certain of the councillors houses, who were the cause of the removal, and a good deal of ydling and hooting indulged in. The utmost good humour prevailed throughout, and the proceedings terminated quietjy. The following is not at all bad :—" In novels the hero asks the heroine to become his wife in most romantic and flowery language. In real life, the request is made in very halting words, and often in a very common • place manner. The following is the quaintest method of making a proposal which has ever come to my knowledge:—A gentleman had been long paying attention to a young lady whom ha was very anxious to marry, but could not screw his courage to the sticking point. At last he resolved to take the first opportunity which presented itself of asking the momentous question. No sooner, however, had he formed this resolution than fortune seemed to desert him. He often met the fair one, but never could get a chance of speaking to her alone. Driven to desperation, he one day succeeded in accomplishing his purpose at a dinner party. I may here remark that it is very easy to hold converse with the person who sits next to you at a dinner-party, provided you do not look at that person, speak in an even tone, and abstain from mentioning names. In fact, I do not know a better opportunity for a proposal, But it is of course indispensible that the lady should sit next you. In the case to which I refer, the lady was on the opposite side of the table. He was however equal to the occasion, and tearing out a leaf from his pocketbook, wrote on it, under cover of the table, " Will you be my wife? Write Yes or No at the foot of this." Calling a servant, he whispered to him to take the note —which he of course folded up—to.." the lady in blue opposite." The servant did as he was-directed and the gentleman, in an agony of suspense, watched him give it to the lady, and fixed his eyes, with badly-disguised eagerness to try and judge from her expression how the quaintly-made offey was received. He had forgotten one thing—namely, that ladies seldom carry pencils about them at a dinner-party. His love was however not to beJjaffled by so trifling an obstacle, and, after reading the note calmly, the lady turned to the messenger, and said, "Tell the gentleman. Yes."' They were married in due course. j Idiomatic—" By the pow'rs ! " has hitherto been a peculiarly Irish exclamation. Henceforth it will be adopted by the Turks.