ROUND THE WORLD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2082, 31 August 1885, Page 2

ROUND THE WORLD.

: "He has .read everything," isaremarfc frequently made when a scholarly man is under How absjffisuch a statement is will appear when xne fact; is mentioned that in the Congressional library at Washington there are oter side by side they would fill a shelf fifty miles long. If a man started to read this .collection at the rate of one volume a day, it would take him IGSO years to get ■through. And while the man woulJato at work on this vast library, the prinrers would be turning out more than 15,000 now books a year.' From these figures it will be seen that'it is idle to think of reading everything, or oven to read all the best books. The greatestreadersamong our distinguished men have had their favorite books which they read and re-read. Certain books in our language are called classics. They aro models of styles and full of ideas and illustrations. Modern writers go to these old authors ' arid get lumps of solid gold which they proceed to heat out, vory thin. Why should we take the gold leaf article when we can go' to the ordinal mines and got solid nuggets? The old I novels are the best. The old poets have i'not been equalled. Too many of our books are written hastily to They are of an inferior quality, cannot profit us in any way. A man, therefore, need not be ashamed to say that he hai riot read the last new book. When forty new books appear every day it is impossible to read tlwm all.—Atlanta Constitution, : flir-. The _ latest bit of gossip about Victoria is that she discovered in a son-in-law of Archbishop Tait a marvellous resemblence to the defunct John Brown ; and has since been inconvenient in her pressing attentions to him—calling on him, buying pictures of him, and sending for him post-haste to beguile an hour with his conversation.

. The old-fashioned curtsey, says an English contemporary, ii being revived in Paris, " Instead of a formal bow of the head only, young ladies now make a " cheeße" to their ciders. Perhaps it is the favor in which the cotillion it held which has led to the revival of it. This practising the old-fashioned reverence of the past generation is likely to mako quite a small social revolution in modern manners." ' We scarcely see how the young ladies with their Scantily made skirts, which fit tight round their legs, can make a "cheese" antheir grandmothers used to do in their fuUflowing dresses, Jff*