The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 8 June 1911, Page 1077

The Family Circle

WISDOM IN RHYME A Why is all this toil for triumphs of an hour? T ., , , , - —Young. into s a short summer—man is but a flower. Dr. Johnson. Dy turns we catch the fatal breath and die; - : • -» ——j Pop 6* The cradle and the tomb, alas, how nigh ! m ... . , ' "■ '■ . 1 Prior. lo be is better far than not to be, " - • • . Sewell. though all man’s life may seem a tragedy; _ . ■ Spencer. | But light cares speak when mighty griefs are dumb. . . " — Daniel, v. .S The bottom is but shallow whence they come. • . ■' - v - - — Raleigh. thy fate is the common fate of all. TT . , , . - Longfellow. Unmingled joys no man befall. ; '. ’ # * Southwell. Nature to each allots his proper sphere, • —Cosgrove. fortune makes folly her peculiar care. • —Churchill. Custom does not reason overrule. - • ; —Rochester. And throw a cruel sunshine on a fool. T . . , , . — Armstrong. Lave well; how long or short permit to heaven, mi . „ Milton they who forgive most shall be most forgiven. ‘ ' — Dailey. HOW TO MEET TROUBLE Answering a knock at the door one afternoon I found a neighbor with a very woe-begone face (says ‘ Teresa ’ in the North IT est Review). 1 Let me in quick, I’m going to cry; I was afraid I’d meet a rig on the road and disgrace myself for ever.’ * Why, what’s the matter ’ said I. ‘ No, don’t sit in 7 ”, chair, you never could cry comfortably in it, and take off your cap, a fur cap is a pretty hot thing to cry in. . . how don t you try to make me laugh, I’ll never forgive you if you do.’ ‘ Certainly not, I’m going to cry, too, of course, when I know what it’s all about. What is it?’ , n Oh, most everything. I’m nearly worked to death, tor one thing, and the children are so dreadfully aggravating, and that hired girl is no sort of use at allr Only in the morning I got the cream all ready in the churn, and put the top on without fastening it down for I hadn’t put the color in yet, and I went to the pantry for the color, and just as I got back into the kitchen there was Selma with her hand on the churn handle, and before I could stop here she d turned it and off came the lid and out’ came the cream slop all over the kitchen that had only been scrubbed the day before.’ _ ‘Well,’ I said, sympathisingly, that certainly was too bad is that what you want to erv about ? Wait till I get a handkerchief.’ ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she retorted. ‘You may be sure I gave Selma a good talking to, and she’s been sulky all day. I suppose she- will take herself off now, and I can t get another girl.’ ~ * Suppose you had tried laughing instead of scolding, said i.. ‘ The idea! as if anybody could laugh at such carelessness; besides, she deserved a scolding.’ ■ ‘Are you sure of that? She did not think of looking to see if the lid was fastened down, but then you should have left it off while you went for the color.’ ‘ Yes, and have the baby come and grab hold of the churn to look inside and tip it all over himself. Besides what difference would it have made if I had laughed? Selma would have thought it didn’t matter.’ - 1 don t think so, she would probably have felt sorry for the mischief she had caused, and been more careful in future. Anyway, scolding does very little good.’ I really don’t think I could have laughed, or any one else either.’ ‘I don’t know,’ said I, ‘I knew a woman once who absolutely never lost her temper no matter what happened. She always tried to see the funny -side of everything and always succeeded, but that did not make her husband and children careless. One day she had made a cake, a three tier layer cake, and it was a beauty. She had just finished icing it and having to look at something in the oven that was in danger of burning, she put the cake down on a chair and threw a cloth over it. The next moment in came her husband, a two hundred , pound man, and without a moment’s warning down he sat on that cake.' Did she cry or scream or scold? Not a bit of it, she simply told him what he had done and then sat down on the floor and

laughed until he was so scared he thought she had hysterics. Of course the cake was a sight but the children insisted on eating it, which made her laugh more than ever.’ my visitor 11U " : °‘ P l, tting a cake on a chair 1’ exclaimed • Well, you see the -table was ; full and she had to look in the oven it was only a moment that did the mischief. But it would not have mended matters, or . the cake either tlm cbndl Storme l+ n nd BCl i de . d - .After all: the cake was for ; much haS^ they “ ud U ; Was Eood ’ s » there » aa -ot f nr. s ' Perhaps not, but that is a \ different matter from dosing ton or twelve pounds pf butter, to say nothing of a floor : covered with grease that will take - weeks to scrub off I 7 don t feel much like laughing I can tell you.’ ; ’ i i -J. . r" 1 ■ ■ e ? httle hard at first to acquire the launhinu it ™'u Xl 'S ‘ but bc,iore me - *2™ToKvl hear of Sr T?r?c n 3 ?v°n v . a i Y account. Did- you ever ■Aim 'u eres a • Well, . whenever she encountered . a (hfflcnitr or a trouble or a setback, she.laughed; One can always find something or other to latin’h h• if J+ • hundred y’ars frum now.’” y ’ ,U be all “ e same a A GOOD DINNER STORY ; vhat Ta t? i: f n rsass like madame’s butler. f:The lady had invi+o/J i tactful Isever mind,’ she said to her butler ‘ n mo oysters, I will decline them.’ ‘ Wlien s° u offer * Thereupon the dinner began, and when the oysters were passed the hostess had forgotten +bL fmnge* ment and took one of them from the plate. The servant uas equal to the occasion. V iile servant oysters?- )le m asko“r the doctor', advice about P The lady took the hint, replaced the shell unon tlm plate, and so no guest lacked one? upon, the ; A VALUABLE CURIO : 5 A Scottish woman who was spending her holidays in odd d to + l l t A f d a h n c-a-brac shop l in search of something odd to take home to Scotland with her. After she had inspected several articles, but had found none to suit her “-f a i , aint fig ure / the . head and shoulders of inch appeared above the counter, ‘What is that Japanese idol over there worth?’ she inquired of the salesman. •; £ A ]J'! e i St B eSma Mi- re} * , was given in a subdued tone: About half a million, Madam. That’s the proprietor.’ - WORKING BACKWARD A Japanese house is built quite differently from an ST* The i ro °/’ which with us is the last important pait of the outward structure to be completed, is with the Japanese the first thing to be finished. All the tools used by the carpenters and joiners have a reversed action. The tTS Hlowafd hi™." 04 I,l ' sh a plaM a " ay fro “E hi “- o The gimlets are threaded in. the opposite way to ours • the saws are made so as to cut on the upward pull, and not on the downward thrust; screws have their threads reversed, and keyholes are always made upside down and keys turned from backward. In the house, if the clock is an old one, it will have stationary hands, with the face revolving backward and the hours marked 8, 7, 65 4 3 and so on, reckoning onward from noon. ’ ’ ’ ’ CHANTICLEER TO THE RESCUE . Every schoolboy knows the tradition,.famous in -Roman history, of the geese which saved the Capitol bv quacking -an alarm when the Gauls approached in the night. Modern history furnishes an interesting parallel the bn n ++ln Dm famous victories of England on the sea was lH ttle oft Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, in 1797, when a SffiiftSuSS? deStroye!l “ Spa,,isl Mi “ f almost +l.O Sum lo ?r Dme the struggle was doubtful, and one. of the Bt itash ships, the Marlborough, was so severely crippled waste 1 of lffe tam WaS thlllklns of surrender to save further The ship’s, mast had gone by the board, the chief officer was mortally wounded, and so many of his subordinates were disabled that the discipline of the crew beean to give way. They grew-sullen under the terrible X which they could not return with effect. e nre *

Suddenly a shot struck the coop in which a few fowls had been _ confined. One cock alone was still alive, and, finding himself at liberty, he flapped' his wings mightily and, fluttering upward, perched on the stump of the mainmast, and surveyed the scene of carnage about him. Then, raising his head defiantly, he began a long, strident crow. The crew answered with- three cheers, and even the wounded smiled. With renewed spirits the men worked the few remaining guns, and soon a favoring turn of battle drove away the last thought of surrender. AN ARTIST’S JOKE Holman Hunt, who began life as a clerk to an auctioneer and estate agent, was constantly drawing portraits when he should have been drawing up leases, and in his chosen profession he was never slow to seize the flying moment. The window in his room were made of ground glass, and as he had little to do he spent much of his time in drawing flies upon its roughened surface. A blot of ink sufficed for the body and some delicate pencil strokes for the wings, and at a distance the deception was perfect. Day by day the number increased, and one morning his employer came in, stopped before, the window, and exclaimed: ‘ I can’t make out how it is. Every day that I come into this room there seems to be more and more flies. And taking out his handkerchief, he attempted to brush them away. *■ NOTiGOOD LATIN] Jack returned home from college, where he had won high honors as a student of ancient languages, but he pleaded ignorance one day when his young sister asked him to translate a sign she had seen at an optician’s which read thus: ‘Con sultu sabo utyo urey es.’ Jack struggled manfully with it for several minutes and gave it up. ‘lt isn’t good Latin,’ he said. ‘ There are some words in it that are Latin; the others aren’t anyhow. It does nit make sense.’ ‘That is what I said,’ replied his sister; ‘but cook translates it without any trouble. She says it means “ Consult us about your eyes.” ’ ' " —— , jf LETTING OFF EXCESSIVE NERVOUS ENERGY A cat never actually wags its tail. Why should it when it can purr? But, nevertheless, it seems to serve the same purpose in permitting a temporary expenditure of excessive nervous energy when the animal is under great strain. For instance, when carefully stalking a bird or man, and in the case of a kitten or a lion, the tip of the tail is never still for a moment curling and uncurling. We may compare this to the nervous tapping of the foot or fingers in a man. When an angry lion is roaring his tail will frequently lash from side to side, giving rise among the ancients to the belief that he scourged his body with a hook or thorn which grew' from the end of the tail. , THE POLICEMAN AT FAULT A Dublin eccentric a short time ago entered a purveyor’s shop and bought a ham. Having paid for his purchase, he requested that it should be hung outside the shop-door, saying that he would call back for it. The customer then paced up and down outside the shop till a policeman came in sight, and just as the man in blue caught his eye he grabbed the ham and bolted. The constable, however, soon collared the thief, as he thought, and hauled him back to the shop. Having explained the nature of the alleged crime to the shop-assist-ant, he asked the latter to charge the offender. ‘But,’ said the assistant, as he realised the joke, ‘it’s his own ham ! He was quite at liberty to take it in any circumstances he chose.’ FAMILY FUN An egg encircled by a wedding ring. Soak an egg in vinegar till the shell is flexible. Pull it half through a ring, and leave it to get hard in cold water. If varnished, ft will make an interesting exhibit. Warmth of Different Colours.—Place upon the surface of snow', when the sun is shining brightly, pieces of cloth of the same size and texture, but of different colors; say, black, blue, green, yellow, and white. The black cloth will soon melt the snow beneath it, and sink downwards; the next the blue, and then the green; the yellow but slightly ; but the snow beneath the white cloth will be as firm as at first. To Make an Egg Stand Upright. Shake it violently, so that the mixed yolk and white will make the centre of gravity of the egg lie in the lino of direction; and set it on its small end on a plane surface such as a looking glass.