"ON BEING FOUND OUT.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3833, 11 April 1881, Page 1

"ON BEING FOUND OUT.

A LAY BEEMON

When I was a boy at a private school I remember the.master ordering us all, one night, to march into a little garden' and thence into a tool house, and put our hands into a sack which stood on the bench. I put my hand into the sack; it came out quite black. All the other boys' hands were black too. We came then,' and showed our little hands to the master; washed them or not—more probably not, I should say—and then went wondering back to bed.

Something had been stolen in the school^ that day, and Mr Wiseacre, having read in a book of an ingenious method of finding out a thief by mating him put his hand into a sack (which, if guilty, the -rogue would shirk from doing), all we boys were subjected to the trial. Goodness knows what the object was, or who stole it. We all had black hands to show the master. And the thief, whoever he was, was not found out that time.

I wonder if the rascal is still alive. Are you alive still, I say, you nameless villain, who escaped often since, old sinner. Ah, what a lucky thing it is, for you and me, my man, that we are not found out in all our peccadilloes; and that our backs can slip away from the master and cane now and then.

Just' consider what life would be, if every rogue was found outi flogged coram populo! What a butchery, what an endlesss switching of the rod! Don't cry out about my misanthropy. My pood friend Mealymoutb, I will trouble you to tell me, do yon go to church ? When there, do you say, or do you not, not, that you are a miserable sinner? And so saying, do you believe it or disbelieve it ? If you are an M.S., don't you deserve correction, and are'nt you grateful if you are let off ? I say,again, what a blessed thing it is that we are not all found out.

Just picture to yourself everybody being found out who does wrong, and punished accordingly. To fancy all men found out and punished is bad enough; but fancy all women found out in the distinguished social circle in which you and I move. Is it not a mercy that many of those fair criminals remain unpunished and undiscovered P There is Mrs Longbow, who is for ever practising, and who shoots poisoned arrows, too ; when you meet her you don't call her a liar, and charge her with the wickedness she has done, and is doing? There is Mrs Painter, who passes for a most respectable woman, and a model in society; and yet we know stories about her which are really edifying. I say it is be«t. for the sake of the good, that the bad should not all be found out. You don't want your children to know the history of that lady in the next box, who is so handsome, and whom they admire so ? Ah me, what would life be if we were all found out, and punished for all our faults.

And yet by little strange accidents and coincidents, we are being found out erery day! You remember that old story of the Abbe Kakatoes, who told the company at supper how the first confession he ever received was from a murderer. Presently enters to supper the Marquis de Croquemitaimi. "Palsambleu, Abbe!" says the brilliant Marquis, taking a pinch of snuff, " are you here? Gentlemen and ladies I I was the Abbe's first penitent, and I made him a confession which 1 promise you astonished him. How the certainty of being found out must haunt and depress many a bold spirit. The fear of discovery must haunt many a man while the trumpets are blowing his praise. It is a curious sensation to sit by a man who has found you out, and who, as you know, has found you out; or to sit by a man whom you have found out. His talent? Bah ! His virtue ? We know a little story or two about his virtue, and he knows we know it.

What a wonderful provision of nature it has been that, for tbe most part, our womankind are not endowed with the faculty of finding us ouf ! They don't doubt, and probe, and weigh, and take your measure. Lay down this paper, my benevolent friend and go to Brown's house, and tell his wife and the young ladies what you think of him, and see what a welcome you will get! In like manner, let him come to your house, and tell your good lady his candid opinion of you, and fancy how she will receive him 1 Would you have your wife and children know you exactly for what you are, and esteem you precisely at your worth ? If so, my friend, you will live in a dreary house, and have but a chilly fireside. Do you suppose the people round it don't see your homely face as under a glamour, and. as it were, with a halo of love round it? You don't fancy you are, as you seem to them? No such thing my man. Put away that monstrous conceit, and be thankful that they have not found you out. —Thackeray's Roundabout Papers.

Mr Collins, Reuters agent in Melbourne, sends to the Argus the following memorandum :—" As an instance of rapid telegraphing, it is perhnps worthy of being noted that the news of the assassination of the Czar was generally known in the Australian colonies several hours before it could appear in print in the English journals. Reuters telegram containing the announcement was despatched from London at 25 minutes to 9 p.m. on Sunday. It reached the Melbourne telegraph ollice at 4 minutes past 9 a.m. on Monday, thus occupying 2 hours 49 minutes only in transmission, allowing for the difference of time. It was published or posted outside the offices of the Melbourne papers by a quarter past 10 a.m., equivalent to 25 minutes to 1 a.m. in London. As no paper is published in England, on Sunday ' night, it thus appears that the news was made known in Australia at least 4 or 5 hours before it could be read by the public at Home." Plain dark stockings of wool or silk, ribbed are the most fashionable at the inomeut.