WISE AND OTHERWISE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 104, 3 May 1911, Page 8

WISE AND OTHERWISE.

(By "OLD SALT.")

Many readers may remember -that dear old implement of torture devised by polite society, and known as a. confession album. One question in the list of sometimes impertinent interrogations ran, '"Who is your favourite character in.history?" and I never faced that fair white page without regretting that the space left for the reply did not permit one to pay another tribute to the young gentleman of Irish extraction, who, when invited by his hostess to favour the company with a selection upon the violin, replied, "Certainly; I have never tried before, 'but I'll give it a go!" In much the same spirit I approach the task of answering a correspondent, who wishes mc to explain what is meant by the word "sabotage," which occurs co frequently in reports of the wine riots in France. Well, a "sabot" is a wooden shoe (Ouida wrote a tale afiout two of them), and "age" Oh! everybody knows what that means, although they may fail to recognise its responsibilities. So there you are, my fair unknown, an aged wooden shoe, and no doubt a symbol for good luck, just as "sans culottes" is a symbol for hard luck. Nert, please 1 Bright conversation is not common; in proof of which statement let one observe the eager welcome that is given to the sometimes trifling repartee in the book of that gorgeous production, "The Whip." Even in popular novels the dialogue is often very, very weak —there are not many Anthony Hopes; so quite as a pleasant surprise came some pleasant passages in a short story of Dominion manufacture that I came across during the week. The protagonists are a steamship officer and a girl passenger —Jacfc Goldbraid and Nancy Delaine. The latter has been examining Jack's portrait gallery, and has been struck by the varied types of feminine ibeauty contained and the officer's claim to kinship with each of the originals. "'All relatives, Jack," she says; "no friends?." "I have no girl friends," he replies, impressively and mendaciously. "What a pity! One can choose one's friends, but has to put up with one's relatives." "Put up with them?" he says wonderingly. "Yes," explains the girl, with great lucidity; '"I don't mean that one has to board with them, 'but to be bored by them." This is another rather smart passage, and readers will please imagine the context preliminarj'. "If I can do any service for you, Nancy, I will do it so gladly, and never apeak or think of it again. For the rest of my life I will go muzzled " " "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads the corn,' " quoted the girl mischievously; "and you did tread on my corn mercilessly on the night of the fancy dress ball." "Well! I apologised, did I not?" '"'Yes, but you could not have done so had you been muzzled." "Perhaps, then," was the reply, "I should not have 'played the ox.'" The quotations are from memory, and do not perhaps do justice to the author; but their lightness appealed to mc as a very welcome relief from electioneering speeches. When a minister of Teligion. quotes from records of church bazaars by way of a shocking example to those bitten by the gambling mania, it seems to be certainly time that somebody's house was set in order. The Rev. J. J. North, speaking last week in ChristchuTch, told of a charity fete in a Southern town at ivhich the raffling of a framed five-pound note produced fifty pounds, and an ordinary sac suit, worth about ]four guineas, brought no less a sum than a lundred and twenty pounds —I wonder bow those cheap clothes wear; and I ivonder, too, were they of the pattern snown as a "large check"! Although the game may not be quite legitimate, lobodv can deny that the prices realised ivere good, and 1 doubt if the public of Auckland would prove as liberal. Assuming that tickets for the five-pound raffle ivere a shilling apiece, the odds against each individual holder were a thousand to one, even given a straight ,run for the money; but most modest punters will igree with mc that the field was too big to be tempting. Last Saturday a correspondent gent mc some copies of Honolulu papers, in which was announced the engagement of M. P. T. Cleghom, grand-nepliew of the late Hon. Archibald, and formerly a resident, of Xorth Shore, where he was <nown and esteemed as a good footballer md good fellow all round. My correspondent asks mc to pass the news over ;o the Society Editor, but I can't find it n my heart to do so, and beTe is the reaion. Quoting from an account of a feast ;iven in celebration by the mother of the jrospective bride: "In the centre of the able was a large fancy basket filled -with sherries; at one corner was placed a niniature cherry tree, with George Washington, also in miniature, hatchet in land, chopping it down." Alas! gone is ,he old romance, for in that very evenng's "Star" I read that the story— ipon the authority of the American Con-sul-General in London —is the fabrication >f an unscruploua author, and that poor ild George's memory has suffered much rom the repetition of the lie. So, my iar-off correspondent, your, news item nust be suppressed. You cannot induce tie to spread slanders about a dead man, for can you argue mc out of my belief hah it is a safe course to let lying dogslcep. That's one for the poor old chap's lalumniators.