The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 17 August 1911, Page 1605

The Family Circle

A CURE FOR THE BLUES _____ * What.! Moping just because the skies Are dull and dark and gray ? Dejected, long-faced, just because The rain beats down to-day? * .Why, bless you, child. It doesn’t help To let the tears drip, too, Just wipe your eyes and look "around For some good work to do. There’s nothing helps when you are blue Like helping set things right, Kind service fills the darkest day With sweetness and with light, And when you’re feeling out of sorts The very wisest plan Is to find out what others want And help them all you can. , So look around and study up Some helpful thing to do You’ll find that cheering others’ lives Will brighten life for you. Look up the real unfortunates. And ease their aches and pains, And while you feel you’re doing good You’ll never know it rains.

THE BRAVEST GIRL t Elsie is the bravest girl I ever knew/ said Norah. ' They are tearing down the old bridge and she walked right across on one of the string-pieces this morning. It s awfully narrow and it shook every minute, but she wasn’t scared a bit.’ , ‘What did she do it for asked Uncle John, looking up from his newspaper. ‘ Oh, just for fun, to show that she wasn’t afraid.’ ‘I don’t think that was brave at all,’ said Uncle John decidedly. ‘ Suppose the string-piece had broken and she had fallen into the river She risked her life for nothing.’ Norah turned on him in surorise. Why, you thought Jessie Hayes was brave when she ran in front of the trolley-car after that baby. She risked her life, too!’ sa id Uncle John, ‘that’s the point exactly. She did it for something—to save the baby. But Elsie had no reason like that; she crossed the bridge just to B h°w off. Do you see the difference?’ _ , suppose so,’ Norah admitted reluctantly; ‘but Jessie was awfully afraid. She told me it seemed as if she couldn’t do it, only she knew she had to.’ Uncle John nodded. ‘ And she did it. ‘ The brave man is the man who is afraid and doesn’t run.’ Tom was on the couch, buried deep in a book, but apparently he hadn’t missed anything, for he bobbed up now to say: 1. bravest girl I ever saw was in our room at school last week. She knocked a plaster cast off Professor Jacobs’ desk while he was out of the room and it smashed to bits. It was an accident, not even careless, but we knew he would never understand— never does. The girls are afraid of Professor Jacobs, and Nell got as white as a sheet. We were sorry for her, and John Stuart spoke up and said: “Don’t say a Nell. The Professor need never know who did it. _ If he asks too many questions I’ll say it tell off it did, you know, when you hit it. Im not afraid of him.” Nell looked him squarely in the eyes and said, Well, I am but I never hid behind a lie yet. Thank you, just the same, John!” And when Professor Jacobs came in she just marched up and told him without waiting to be asked. He gave her a good scolding, too, just as we knew he would. I call that plucky. Sh® was only a little slip of a girl, you know.’

‘I guess girls are as brave as boys any day,’ flashed Norah. I don’t know a girl who wouldn’t have done the same thing ’ ■ - • ‘So you see, little girl,’ said Uncle John, patting Norah’s hand, ‘ there; are different kinds of courage, and the kind that does .foolhardy; or dangerous things for nothing stands pretty low down in the scale.’ ‘And the kind that does right things when it hard stands pretty high up,’ said Norah softly.

TOO CLEVER Let me do the shopping this week, my dear,’ said Mr. Knowall .firmly, ‘ and you will' see the difference in the expense. That baker of yours, for instance, only allows you six buns for sixpence. I shall get —watch me.’ Round to the baker’s went Mr. Knowall. On .arriving, he pointed at a pile of buns on the counter and said fiercely; ‘I want seven of those buns for sixpence.’ ‘ But ’ ‘No buts, please. I want seven of those buns for sixpence. Here is the money. Put them in a bag.’ , The girl hesitated, and finally took the sixpence, handing over seven buns in exchange. e See, my dear,’ said Mr. Knowall to his wife. I knew I could do it. Here are the buns. Seven for sixpence.’ Yes, dear, cooed Mrs, Knowall; ‘ but those are halfpenny buns!’

A GOOD TALE OF THE LAWYERS On one occasion the Zoo Gardens required some expenditure of money, and Judge Ross, being chairman of the committee, repaired to the Bank of Ireland, where the account of the society was kept, to ask Mr. Macmorragh Murphy, the secretary of the bank, for a little temporary overdraft until the subscriptions came in at the beginning of the year. The bank secretary naturally inquired what collateral security the Zoological Society proposed to offer; to which his Honor Judge Ross replied, “Simple deposit of two Royal Bengal Tigers and a Boa Constrictor !” ’ Here is another ‘ Colquhoun, a well known member of the Lity and County Conservative Club, told us that he had had a rough time when getting examined in connection with a life-annuity; “ The doctor,” he said, asked me at least fifty questions; had I had this disease; had I had that disease ; until he tired me out. t last he said: “I have only one more question to ask you, Mr. Colquhoun; what do you usually drink?” And what did you reply?” I queried. “Oh,” said Colquhoun, “I simply said: Whatever you’re taking yourself, doctor.”’ • J b

HENRY IRVING ’S VERY DEAR FRIEND Mr. Rasmay Colles tells some good yarns in his new book, In Castle and Court House: Being Reminiscences of Thirty Tears in Ireland. Here is one of them:— My friend, John Fergus O’Hea, the artist, told me a rather amusing story of Irving. When Irving paid his first visit to Ireland, he was called on b ? it. Hea, who wished to make some lightning sketches °l , thG gr nm aCt ° r ; Having made a few thumbnail sketches, O Hea asked:. “May I ask, Mr. Irvin*, if you can give me a photograph? It may assist I’me 1 ’me m completing these sketches.” “Certainly,” replied Irving, choosing a couple of dozen photographs of himself, you can have which you like.” O’Hea chose a photograph and then, as he was taking leave, said: . Wll J you add to your kindness, Mr. Irving, by signing this photograph?” “With pleasure,” said Irving, and taking up a pen, he wrote across the foot of the photograph: “To my very dear friend ” he paused, and, turning to O’Hea, asked in the charming manner which all lovers of Irving will recall with a sigh, What name did you say?” -

THE GREAT WALL IN CHINA

This gigantic work, the great wall of China, is called in Mongolian the White Wall, and in Chinese the Wall of 10,000 Li. While at the present time much, of it has been allowed to fall into decay and is only a mass of ruin, the wall was once 1250 miles long, stretching over high hills and deep valleys, and even across wide rivers. When it is remembered that the height of this defence, for such it was, is thirty-five feet, and its thickness twenty-one feet, and that it is surfaced with brick faced with granite blocks, some idea of the stupendous magnitude of the construction may be formed. As to the date of its building, recent researches indicate the latter part of the fourteenth century; although three centuries before Christ, an earthwork which in parts corresponded to the course of the present wall was thrown up against the incursions of the Tartars. The direction followed in the construction of the great wall was from the western frontier of Kiang-su, eastward, with great bends north and south, to the sea at Shan-hai-kwan.'

ADVERTISEMENTS The first newspaper advertisement appeared in Great Britain in 1642. In Greece advertising was done by public criers. The first printed advertisement in England was got up by the celebrated printer Caxton. It announced the completion of a book called The Pyer of Salisbury. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans were the first to use bill-posters, some of which were found on the walls of buildings in Pompeii. It was not until the eighteenth century that magazine and newspaper advertising became the recognised medium between manufacturer and buyer.

SOMETHING TO BE THANKFUL FOR After a short meeting a little singing was indulged in by some of the members of a social gathering, and half-way down the programme the name of Miss Augusta Brown figured. Alas! however, when the time came for her to appear a messenger arrived to say that the lady was suffering from a very bad cold, and therefore the chairman had to excuse her to the audience. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he said, ‘I have to announce that Miss Brown will be unable to sing, as announced, and therefore Mr. Green will give us “A song of thanksgiving”!’

WHERE THE LAUGH CAME IN A comedian was rehearsing his part in a new play, the author of which was present. The actor departed once or twice from the book,’ and ‘ gagged,’ or inserted jokes of- his own. The author was horrified at the idea of such tampering with his work, and he told the comedian he must desist. ‘My dear boy,’ he said, ‘be good enough not to “gag,” please. Speak my lines and wait for the laugh.’ ‘All right,’ said the comedian, sorrowfully, ‘ only my last train goes at midnight.’

FAMILY FUN ■ To Empty a Glass Under Water.—Eill a wineglass with water, place over its mouth a card, so as to prevent the water from escaping, and put the glass, mouth downwards, in a basin of water. Next remove the card, and raise the glass partly above the surface, but keep its mouth below the surface, so that the glass still remains completely filled with water. Then insert one end of a quill or reed in the water below the mouth of the glass, and blow gently at. the other end, when the air will ascend in bubbles to the highest part of the glass, and expel the water from it; and if you continue to blow the, quill, all the water will be emptied from the glass, which will be filled with air.