LEAVES FROM AN OLD NOTEBOOK. (Eastward-ho!)

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1913, 9 October 1884, Page 3

LEAVES FROM AN OLD NOTEBOOK. (Eastward-ho !)

Down one of the dreadful courts that have lately yielded such splendid material for the journalist, the essayist, and the philantlnopist, there lived a man— a labourer — who, sober, was a decent, hardwoiking fellow ; but who, diunk, was a fiend. Foi weeks and weeks he would go to his woik and bring his money home to his wife and childien, and never have a cioss word for either. Then suddenly he would be tempted to take a holiday and "goon t\v> dunk." The phiase is euncnt .unoug the poor To go on the "boo/o " they c.ill ifc. Once staitcd. there was no stopping him while he had a sixpence left; and when that was gone he would pawn his own clothes and his wife's and h,s eluldien's; then the liLtle thm^ nboul the pl.ice would go— all foi the diink ; and at la<-t he would, unless the fit uo>. ovi'i, cill in a biokei and sell evety stick in tin. p'ue, fo. icady money, put it in Ins po/ket, and be oIF to the public-house with it. Oui climate, outlaws, our ti.iditioi's — ill seem to have (Onspnul t.igethei to pieveiit the very pooi getting 1( 01 eatiou and distiaetion, except in the gin pil.iee So, hung un able, like lus foicign hrcthien, to get music, and collee, and fies.li an, and innocent pastimes, the London toilet, tin own foi aw hile ofl his balance by some u nu -iii.il impetus, tails into the opci aims of the di mi sellei, and "goes on the drink'" Now tlieiei 1 - good dunk, and tliPio is bad dunk. At, any jate, theie aie degiecsol dunk. Hood biandy will not do a 111.111 as much harm, in a given time, as bad bi.mdy. I'uic beer will not put muidei in a man's hcaifc as quickly as beei which is a vile compound ot things that cause a slakele.s-, thnst nnd things that pol'on the blood. 13ut the awful decoctions that ate allowed to be sold to the looi as beer and spnits in some distnets would in time make the kindest man a buite— the quietest man a ravi'm maniac ; and these poisons aie fo mixed that they cieate a desiie for moH. They tin insches hi cak down the bauieis ot the, will, and the poor fool vv ho lushed to thun fiom his plcabine becomes their .slave, and dunks in the vain hope ot easing the toitiue they cause. lam all foi tempei nice. I believe that dtink is the cause ol half the misuy fiom which the masses aio now -utlein.g ; but 1 aKo believe that the nii&ci) [,oin whieli the masses aie now faiilJeiing is the canoe of half the dunk. Tin, stoiy I am going to tell of Inn h.ippmed duting one of his di lulling bouts. He had come home without a penny, and lie demanded money oi his wife. She had a s.ck child who wanted menu me and food, and with a motliei's instinct, she tiled to save the shilling ot two she had kept Irom the wieek, toi her little one. Theic was a quancl-- ficicc on both sides ; foi the wives ot these men, like nouns, can tmn at last and the diunkaul's wife told him pictty plainly whit she thought of him. He boiled over with i igo, and caused hci, and at 1,-sfc, m.id with passion. I sluieked aloud, " Stuke me blind, if ever you shall see me .■"gain !' Then lie turned on his heel ami went lo.ii mi.' raid i. iv ing down the stalls, and out ol tin house into the stieet Now tor the plain unv.unished fact". The man sulked humc-lf sob' Tin a day or two, but he did not go honv. In the sullen fit lie mused the haul things his wife had '■aid, and the one that hit home, and eat auaj at Ins pnde was this, "You're a good-foi nothing \agibond —we could g< t on better w ltliout you. ' lie said to Iniii-self--tlns slowly. sobci ing duinkard — that " lie didn't want to be a, diag on an.v.body. Let 'em get on without him." Topicvcnt his wile following him, ho shiltel i J uaituo--'\\ont to \\o>l) in a difleientquutu ot London, and got taken on a w hari fleie one day theie happened a dic.uliul acciduit. A caiboyof \itnol tell wink' being swung fiom a b.nge. The contents wete scotteied about, and two men wcie sr i loiihlj' mjuied. One of them wasmyheio. He was taken to a hospital, and lecoveicd at last with hi, eyesight thicah ncd— the i (.suit of the, iupuies he had lecened. Out of the hospital lie had to go at last His late employ cis ga> c him omctlnng to do The old stoiy was t"ld ,i-nn ; he di.iiik to diown his "»voi i y '- to ki e]i Ins " pluck "up 11. di.ink hiiii^il,- out of emp!p\ mctit— ho diank him-clt into a condition th.it haste nod the thieatencd catastiophe, and he became paitially blind. ... It was n w nitei's night A man was shiveimg on one of the stone recisses ot London P.ndge. He was making up his mind for the casual w aid. Hg had spent his last copper for a bed at a low lodging-house the night before Undei the gieen shade that coveied his e\e& he could just catch a irlimpto of the outer wot Id— enough to e.iablc him with a fiiendly hand heie and theie at mossing? to get through the stieets. He got to the end of the biidge, and he wanted to ciossjhe asked one and another ot the people who blushed by him. They were too busy. He tried again— " (Jive a poor blind man a hand act oss the ioad." It was a woman who stopped at his lequcst— a woman who staittd at the sound of his \oice — »avp a wild look at the weathei stained, pitiable face, and then called his Cliiistian name aloud, and, Fobbing, clutched his aim and moaned ' Husband and wife had met : he lind been stiuck blind befoie ahe loohed upon ||i,s Lug again, f'oilu ! I point no nioi. il— I adoiii no talc, Thpse aie the simple facts told to me of a blind man and his wife, who, with then childien lived in one of tlicplaee^ I visited. They weie happy enough, foi the woman had found friends u ho gave her w ork out, and who had jntciested themselves m her penitent and reformed husband, and found him woik too, that the blind may do.

l'l is. st.ited that a foolh.udy attempt to uoss the Atlantic hi a feniull boat is being made by Captain John Traynor. Not only is his tiny ciaft about the smallest that has been engiged in such a \entuie, but Tiavnor is introducing an cntiio!; new fe.ituic in Ins undertaking He intends to iov/ his boat acioss the Atlantic. Captain Tiaynoi 1 left Npwhaven, United States, at five o'clock on the aftci noon of July 7, and was lowed out into the Sound by a local yacht. His small ciaft is what is called a' dory, used by fisheimcn on the banks of Newfoundland^ It is iidined the Harold F. Bibber, and is only 17it. long. Traynor calculates that he will be able to row across the Atlantic in about ]00 days, and has provisioned his little vessel for a six months' voyage. The sole companion of the adventmei is a dog called Jumbo. In the dispatch containing the information it is not stated what coast in Bui ope he intends to make for first. Ouj Commodore Vandeibilt used to lide over his roads in a car that he thought was fine enough for a kin". Now people who do not ov\n as many pennies as the Commodore did dollars, can ride in more costly and elegant cars than the elder Vandei bilt ever dreamed of. There is nothing on the globe that can compare with our American lolling-stock. Any one w ho can pay his way in a bufietcar can to-day lide as luxuriously as the Empiessjot India ever does. If a party of a dozen wanted to go to Sail Francisco, the cost is no greater to hire an hotelcar, with cook and waiters, than it would be to ride in the ordinary coaches and dine at the eating-houses on the way. The car used by Win. H. Vanderbilt is Bfiventy-five feet long, nine feet wide, and about thirteen feet high. It has a kitchen in front j baok of it is Mr Vanderbilt's state-roqm. The 4' l " D g-room, i sitting-room, and card-room come next, I while the lavatory, of course, is at the rear. The fittings aie very luxurious, and on the sides of the caraie four views, representing the New York Central's bridge at West Albany, the Grand Central depot at Forty-second-street, Niagara Falls, and one other I don't exactly remember. The car cost a great deal of i money,