All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, 22 October 1908, Page 38

All Sorts

Judicious praise is' to children what the sun is to flowers. Qaller : 'I am sorry your mistress is out. Do you think she will be at home this evening?' •" - Maid: 'She'll have to be ; it's my night out.' - - " A musical dictionary defines a shout to be an ' unpleasant noise produced by over-straining • the , throat, for which great - singers are paid well and small children, are punished.' An honest reputation is within the "reach of all men ; th y obtain it by social virtues and by doing their duty. This kind of reputation, it is true, is neither brilliant nor startling, but it is often the most useful for happiness. We smile at the ignorance of the savage who cuts down the tree in order to reach its fruits. Bur the fact is that a blunder of this description is made by every person who is overeager and 'impatient in the pursuit of pleasure. A North Island butcher was somewhat surprised a few weeks ago to receive the following note of instruction from a customer : ' Dear sur, please do not send^ me any more meete yet. I have butchered miself. ' ' A word to the wise is sufficient,' remarked the man with the quotation habit. 4 Wrong again,' rejoined the contrary person. ' A word to - the wise is unnecessary.' Medium "• (at the seance) — 'Is there any question you would like to ask your first wife's spirit?' ' Yes, please ask her to give my second wife that recipe for the currant jam she used to make.' ' I tell you, golf is going to be the salvation of the nation. It's going to make athletic men and women of our puny offspring and lengthen our days by decades.* . ' But our ancestors didn't go in for golf! ' ' And where are they now? Dead, all dead ! ' ' Some of the greatest classical composere did not make any money,' said the guest at the musical gathering. ' Yes, answered Mr. Cumrox. ' That thought is about the only thing that gives me any comfort when I listen to the things they mad<; up.' The self-made man was in a caustic mood. ' These schools, ye know,' he said, ' they're no good. Don't give a boy no practical knowledge; see what. I mean? Now, my son, he's supposed to be learnin' Greek an' Latin an' Algebra. An' the other day I asked him to tell me the Algebra for fried potatoes, an' 'c couldn't.' In England money is characterised by the word sterling, because in the time of Richard Coeur de Lion money coined in the east part of Germany was called Easterling money, as all the inhabitants of that part of Germany were called Easterlings. Soon after that time some of those people who were skilled in coining were sent for and went to London to bring the coin to perfection that was the foundation of the practice of designating English amounts sterling. The Parsee, untrammelled by his surroundings, is seen in Bombay in all his wealth of height and dress. The men are, without exception, tall, finely formed, and stately, and possess a robustness and beauty quite at contrast with their Hindoo^ neighbors. Their street costume is a peculiar long white cotton gown, wide trousers of the same material and color, and a tall mitre-shaped hat. They have a general reputation for sobriety, frugality, and sagacity, and they seem to thoroughly understand . the. accumulation of fortunes. The wealthiest residents of Bombay are Parsees. The banyan trees in India are very curious. After the branches are about 20 feet long they bend and strike root in the ground. These send out branches whicTi in turn bend down and strike .root. In this way a whole forest has been made from ' one tree. The cow tree grows in South America. Its branches are bare, and appear to be dead. This, however, is not true, for if you cut little notches in the trunk there .will flow put a . liquid which looks and tastes like milk. People living , in t!m neighborhood go every morning, to get their supply of milk for i:he day. _ -*