SCRAPS FROM OUR NOTEBOOK.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 37, 24 October 1868, Page 6

SCRAPS FROM OUR NOTEBOOK.

No. 6.— ON THE NOSES OF PUPPIES.

'When Lavater- was asked which feature of tho face had most to do with the character, ho replied — " Tho noso;" and his usual penetration was implied in the remark. Were I not convinced that the world is as yet incapable of appreciating the profundity or enduring tho .dazzling brilliance- of my great work on this important foature, I might bo tempted to favor a. publisher with my manuscript; aa it; is, I am content to treat of so simple and trivial a matter as tho "noses of pups." If tho proverb, " JVbii cvi curique datum est hibere nasnm — (everybody is not blest with a nose) — bo true in some instances, Nature- compensates by making others nil nose, and nothing elso. Carefully trimmed whiskers and a delicate moustache, may bo present, but the nose is literally the man — ov, rather, tho puppy. I'ho wholo "mind " is bent on clovating this feature, and very high would he like to carry it. He'intrudcs it with a shameless effrontery into everything — no subject being too profound, no confidence too delicate, to bar its entrance. He lifts it over the heads of his belters, aiul is " ever ready to give a piece of advice " without being acquainted "with tho facts of the ease." ITe has wtw-trums for tho cure of everything, and will rectify all diseases of tho body political, if his nose bo only allowed the foremost place. He envies tho savage. who decorates tjie organ of smell with a golden ring ; nay, ho looks longingly at the vory piss, and grumbles at tho " aesthetic failings of tho age." Ho patronises the fair sex with his lordly attentions, nnd is disgusted if tho ready roasted larks do not fall into his mouth. He is willing to creep, to cajole, and to flatter — finds, indeed, no meanness or servility too base if ho only can contrive the introduction of his nose into good company. Tis pitiful his only causo for blowing should be so often out of joint, nnd after a few years' use, so limp and abject that a paper screen proves too sli'onej a barrier for its power of penetration. The pup Advanced in years delights in dogmatism, which has been truly called the- maturity of puppyism. Should he get a timely snub, his feature, contrary to the ordinary course, may be improved into something useful, if not ornamental. But too often he ends in,, becoming a bottle-nose, decking with tho fairest blossoms Martell and Hennessy can produce, the shrine of his divinity. The horrors, D.T., and a hempen cravat end the tale — his youth being spent in statu pupi-laxi, for an elevation he had never dreamt of.