MISCELLANEOUS.

Bush Advocate, Volume XVII, Issue 2, 4 January 1905, Page 6

MISCELLANEOUS.

k. GKNEROUS BXJKGLAE. After all the children had been put to bed on Christmas Eve, Mr and Mrs Bteubea placed the tree in ite standard and epe«t aeterol honrs decorating it and tyinjr prtcenta to the limbs. Then, about midnight, they, too, retired for the night. About 1 o'clock in the morning, noises wer« heard downstairs. !%© first one to v&kea the father and mother was succeeded by seVeral other alight sounda, as though whoerer was moving about was rwy careful not to be discovered. Mrs Steuben whispered: "It is George, putting presents on the tree for na." „. There wm a aouad of a drawer being opened, aad this made the identity «e«m , juore certain. - V "He is getting' aome string from the ■ideboard. I think I will play a jok© on aim," whispered Mr Steuben, stealthily ; rising. "1 will go to the head of the stair? and drop one of my shoes over the bankter ! and make him jump." ■ So saying, he stole into the hall, Bhoe ia hand, aad just as he heard another shuffling sound Lelow, he let his shoe fall with a crash on the hardwood floor ia the reception room. The result was a great deal more effective than he expected. Immediately there was a r ush of hurrying feet in the diningroomi and footfalls were heard on the kitchen floor, followed by a double thump on the back eteps, as someone leaped down into the yard. . This brought Mrs Steuben to the hall, and as she riewed the surprised face of her husband, she grapsed him nervously by the arm and spoke the one word: "Burglars.". | Mr Steuben nodded his head «* he promptly hurried back into his room to tho, chiffonier '-for his revolver, while his ! wife ran. to George's room, and finding him in bed, shook him vigorously, ac she exclaimed: "Burglars! get up, quick." That was enough to bring him to a sit- *"»£' position, and as his brain comprehended iully the situation, he slid out, asking;., • ■ \ , •, ■. "Wherer ' - V '-V:..- ■ *Cojn«"on," called hia father, from the hall, "I am going down." And with that, he turned on the recep-

tion room electric lights from the upper hall and descended the front stairs, keeping a careful watch on all sides as he went. A blast of cooler air met him, and as he turned on the lights in the parlour and looked through to the dining-room, j he saw a large package on the diningi room table. | His son joined him, and together they went into the kitchen, to find the outside door wide open, and not a person in sight. They closed the door and locked it, and then made a tour of the house, finding all the^pther doors and windows locked and no strangers secreted anywhere. Mrs Steuben joined the search party, and together they returned to the diningroom. The drawere of the side-board were open, and in them were bent and broken knives, forks and spoons, which the intruder had tried in order to discover whether they were solid silver. Evidently ho had not had time to pack up any of them, for Mrs Steuben saw at a glance that none were missing . ' Then they turned to the bundle <m the table, at the end nearest the parlour door. Opening the package, tied in.\ luncheon cloth, they found heavy silver and gold spoons, large and small; a silver bread plate and the sterling silver tops from about a dozen individual salts and peppers. Nearly all the pieces were engraved with the initiah#"M. A. O." "What a generous burglar!" exclaimed Mrs Steuben. "Instead of taking our silver, he leaves us for Christmas the silverware of some other family.": "I wonder whose it is?" asked George. Mr Steuben, who had looked out of the parlour window, replied: 'Til bet I know. The Lindsay's house is all lighted up. They've probably had a caller, *oo« I am going to telephone over there, George, while you. put on the rest of your clothes/ for I'll, bet the stuff belongs /to them." . "The initials are not right," suggested JGebrge. . • ' • "Well, Mrs Lindsay was an -Osborne besforo she was > marriedi" remarked, hia : mother, "and these things are probably part of her wedding presents, engraved with her maiden, initials." "Sure/ said. Mr Steuben ; Til tele* phone, anyway." He came away from, the phone laughing. "George," he called, "you can take the things over there all right. They have just notified the police, and they wish to be sure that everything is accounted for." So the Lindsay family received a very welcome package in the middle of the , night before Christmas, and on the morning of/ the glad holiday, Mrs Steuben was handed a fine bpuo.net of roses, with Mrs Lindsay's card. . . Though man wants little here below, At Christmas they're full of woe, At Christmas theyre full of woe, •-"■ However much they get. . Ethel : Mamma, I wish you'd go to the other ond of the shop a minute; I don't want you to see' that inkstand I'm going to buy you for Christmas.

the height of indecorum for the gift t take the form of any jewellery. ; At th opera or theatre no well-bred person wouli direct an * opera glass toward the Boy a box, or, however intimate, venture to as! be receiyad during an entr'acte mnles specially summoned. Even the envoy o representative of Royalty was formerly treated with more ceremony than obtain: to-day at at funeral service, for' instanco the Court official representing the Sorer aig_ would invariably occupy a pew bj himself. Certain military traditions have al« fallen into abeyance . . In . former., yean even the junior Princes and Princessei were escorted to drawingrooma and leveci by detachments of household cavalry. Th< abolition of purchase ended the custom oi the Sovereign presenting' to the pages oi honour a commission in the Guards, but i1 is only recently that two of the household regimental have adopted, the practice oi drinking the King's, health at mess, whicl they always studioußly refrained from doing, as a sign that their loyalty „ was be> yond suspicion, and required no outwarc confirmation. It wag also considered irregular for an; officer, of whatever rank, outside the Boyal family to lift his <. hat in returning the salute of a guard or individual soldier. ,*