WATCHING FOE, LONG TOM

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 234, 25 July 1872, Page 9

WATCHING FOE, LONG TOM

There is no generic sobriquet for a digger. Jack stands for shellback or sailor all the world over. ' We affect to despise the Chinaman, and perhaps it is with a satire of which we are unconscious that we dub the heathens " John." That great tmitical lyrist, Dibdio, has it that A neufc Kfcil- t'u-'ob t'nt si! 3 np nloft Keeps watci> oVr i^3 1 i f a c f p^a- Jack. But is there a figure of any form that keeps watch over the digger? The answer is miner ! No one was ever so well watched as Tom Long. He is looked well after, he is. The week may hang slack, but Tom is in Ibe tunnel and in the shaft, before the face and in the drive, and over the sluicebox." The tools will keep up the polish on his horny palms ; you can bet on that. He'll come "in " again, pound your life on it. The cherubs will not sit up in vain. Now there be cherubs and cherubs. The proprietor or tbe proprieties s of the shanty on the way is one of Tom's cherubs, and it is a remarkaMe feature in Tom's cherubs that they are not at all particular where tbey sit. Aloft or below is all the same to them. The man who has got the house '•'just outside," and who having got too lazy to work, paints his name over his door, and calls it a hotel of some name that annouuees himself a countryman of, if not of Tom, of some of his mates, is watching for him. So is the tobacconist. So is the soft goods man, who imports flanuels expressely for the climate. This ot course is legitimate. So are the syrens who decorate their shops with green arsenical paper, although they have nought to" dispose but empty cigar boxes. Yes ; there are lots of cherubs waiting. The pub who daubs his front afresh, and in his anxiety to forestal the possibility of being recognised with a clean face, notifies that although his appearance is changed the old welcome still remains, is still watching for Tom. So is the young lady behind the bar. The glittering drops in her ears and that massive brooch on her bosom were presents from Tom, for Tom is not a a bad sort, when he is properly killed. So is the billiardmarker, lest Tom should get drowned in the " Devil's Pool." So is the man in blue, of whom Tdin politeLy inquires, as far as hiccough and liquor will allow, to informed of his own address, and

who, with a go on there, a shove, a push, and perhaps a trip, makes Tom drunk, disorderly, and assailing, before Tom knows anything about either one of the three. However, another boy in blue is waiting for Tom. So is the Magistrate next mornino ; . he is something like a cherub, he is indeed. He isthej^raaZcherub, and Tom automatically pays the damage, or, if stuck, his mates see him through it. But there is another cherub sits up for Tom, it sits up aloft, aye, very high, so high that it is beyond the vision of very many Toms, yei Tom in his toiling, in his prosecuted search for the means of future comfort, leisure, the power of assisting those whose blood runs in his own veins, and possibly a desire to provide for the time when his manhood's strengih will decline, or the hope to have his children's faces reflecting the light of a father's love. Fom is working up to the cherub aloft — the destiny of our adopted land. The following from the Melbourne 'Argus," may be worthy of the attention of the agriculturalists :—": — " It is a custom when sowing down grasses to put a pound of. rape and a bushel of rye-grass to the acre. The rape supplies abundant feed at once, so that for months together during the flush of the spring and summer, land thus cropped will carry 16 sheep to the acre. Ihe rape usually disappears the next year, by which time the grass has got a firm and close sole, but a few plants sometimes linger another year. This is capital, because cheap and effective, manner of getting land into order again, but like many other remedies, it is most in vogue where it is least required. Eape is not so subject to blight as turnips, and may, therefore, without much risk, be sown by itself at any time, but we are inclined to think that the flook would do better upon rape and grasses than upon rape alone. Two young English noblemen were staying with the late Lord Panmure, at Brechin Castle, when he wrote to a I tenant named Panlatbie, to come and dine with him, and bring a sum of money. After dinner, Lord Paninuro gave the first toast, which was " All bats in the fire, or £10 on the table." Four hats vvi-re immediately in the fife. One of the Englishmen gave the next toast, " All coats in the fire, or £50 ou the table." Four coats wore committed to the flames. The oiher Englishman gave "All boots in the fire, or £100 on the table." The whole of the boots were committed to the flames. Panlathie's toast came next, " Two fore teeth in the fire, or £200 on the table," when Panlatbie pulled his two teeth out and threw them in the fire. They were artificial teeth, and be went home without coat, bat, or boots, but with £600 in his pocket. What, after all, is the end of most wars ? Nothing but this — that a number of elderly gentlemen mett together, in an official room, and, sitting round a table covered with green cloth, quietly arrange all that might just as well have been arranged before the war began.