THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1902. Notes and Comments.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 161, 4 February 1902, Page 2

THE WAIMATE ADVERTISER. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1902. Notes and Comments.

11 The click of the reaper is heard in the fields." “ The a whirr of the machines mbw echoes through bill machine, and dale." “ The grain is falling in yellow swathes before the swift onrush of man’s ingenuity." “ The golden corn bends before the knife, yielding itself in the fulness of time to the needs of the human race." This is not a sample of school paraphrasing, but an example of the writing which may be found in most papers of New Zealand on the fourth day of February, 1902. For it is the “ silly season," when subeditors scratch their heads and rave wildly about the scarcity of " copy," when the editor goes out counting the number of grains in big ears of eorn, or measuring ruddy-cheeked apples, and the nimble comp, “ slapping up ” his reprint, wades into the refreshing river, or equally refreshing "bath." But there is one fearful and wonderful machins which has not yet been described, although several have been on view in Waimate. Last evening in front of us three people threw themselves into tbe gorse hedge and one boy lay prone in the gutter as if to escape some threatened danger. Then there burst into view a cyclist carrying a scythe. It had just been sharpened, and these good people did not want to notch its keen edge and give the cyclist unnecessary trouble, so they effaced themselves without delay. Kind people! Who shall say Waimate people are not good at heart. But to Return to the cyclist. He sped along the footpath as if the Borough byelaws were not. Bat Nemesis, in the form of a »tont hedge, was on his track. He skimmed too near It and the point of the scythe caught in a branch. The hedge resolutely refused to be mowed and the cyclist met the ground with i suddenness that, to say the least, (rtartlihg. Had he not

Oti.tbe handle wbuld have held him while the blade out him neatly in halves, bat as it wai they grasped him by the waist* belt and lifted him oat of big shirt. The unfortunate cyclist sat on the road a space and then, gathering np his scattered senses, (bat not the scythe), he wheeled his machine to the nearest repairing shop. Evidently there is uo use patenting the bicycle in ■flfrKiunction with a scythe as a means of harvesting the f raits of t|te earth; it is too much affected %circumstancif, and its ‘extras' include parts tor the human Frame as well as for the machine it drives.

‘lf you were to wreck twol Englishmen atf taa one end of son e exclusiveness long outlandish or the English, island in the Pacific Ocean, and two Scotchmen at the other end) and you happened to pasal that way again a few years afterJ wards, yon would discover that! the two Englishmen had never spoken a word to each other, because they wejre not jut rod ace I, but you would find that the tvvoj Scotchmen bad started a Caledonian Society.” Thus Max O’Rell in an article on “The Exclusiveness of the English.” He continues:—“Why does an Englishman 1 always frown and! generally look askance at every-! body right and left when hoi enters the dining room of anl hotel? Why does lie preferi travelling in a single compartment to entering one of the Pullman cars now attached to almost ail English trains? Why, on hoard a steamer, does be smoke, read books upside down, walk up and down the deck like a wild beast, all by himself ? Simply because be does not like to eat or travel in the company of people who Lave not been introduced toi him, At any rate, before ha associates with "you 4 this man, who, when you know him well, is the most charming, hospitable, and considerate of men, wants to know who you are, wh it you are,! what your father is, and what! your grandfather was. Well, by| the time all these inquiries a rep satisfactorily settled the steamer! has arrived, you have gone, and ill is too late. And a journey! which, otherwise, might have! been a very pleasant one to him| has bored him to death. Jostl imagine the cheek 1" exclaim^! 1 the Englishman just rescued; from drowning by an unknown compatriot. “We had not beeh introduced I” I

“Go to a railway station. Ini France, you will see a man alone! go from one end of the train to| the other in search of a carriage! containing some pleasant, cheer*! ful-looking person likely to enjoy! a chat with him on the way. Thel Frenchman cannot keep silent! for long hours, Whether hel travels or eats, be likes to talk,] and that is how bis digestion ll better than that of any other! inhabitant of the globe. In Engl land, you will see a man alone go! from one end of the train to the! other, frowning at every carriage as he passes it, until he finds an| empty one, and looks happy. H<| smiles and enters it. He his belongings on the seats] settles down, and hopes to remain by himself the whole journey. “ I know of one exception only! t When, in France, a man observe! an attentive couple already settledj by themselves in a compartment,* he avoids them. He is full of| human consideration. He sayil to himself: ‘lf I were myselfj suffering from the same indis| position as this man, and had* such a pleasant companion with! me, I should like to be left alone| Dear couple t Fwill respect their! wish for solitude.’ And he keep* away. In England, I have often noticed some lonely old ‘cat,! male or female, choose that carri* age, and make a point to enter it< Mere cussedness I A French*] man.and an Englishman were oni day occupying a first-class sraok*' ing carriage in an English train! The Frenchman was at one end! looking in the direction of bit fellow traveller; the Englfshma! was at the other end, lookioa towards his own window ami turning his back to the French mad. The lattelr was wouderinj if bis mute companion was not going, by-and-bye, id give him > chance to open bis mouth and say something. The Englishman dropped some ashes from bit cigar on his trousers. The good Frenchman thought that, at lad his chance had come. “ Excuse me, sir,” he said, “ you must have dropped sous ashes on your-——” “ Oh,” coolly replied tbll Englishman, ‘-for the last tea minutes I have seen a box ofl matches on fire in your bacn pocket, and I did not iuterfeie with you.” I