A Mandarin's Dinner.

Evening Post, Volume LV, Issue 101, 30 April 1898, Page 3 (Supplement)

A Mandarin 's Dinner.

M«n almost always eat alone, and in any case it is not respectful for either a wife or a son to sit and eat in the master's presence. Though mandarins occasionally give expensive ' feeds,' in which birds' nests, sharks' fins, sea slugs, and other luxuries take a prominent part, still in their private life they are usually very simple. Even a Viceroy will occsionally squat on his heels with a plain bowl of rice in his hand, and shovel it down with chopsticks like a common coolie. The usual course, however, is for the meal to he served io the ' library * — so called from having no books in it— or other vacant apartment in the private court. There is never a regular • set ' repast — no knives, spoons, or forks ; no tablecloth, cruet-stand, mustard, pepper, salt, bread, or napkin. A large bowl of hot rice is set down on a tea-poy or book-shelf, another bowl containing soup or rice-water, with, perhaps, a pigeon's egg floating in it, and a couple of small saucers containing "an ounce or two of pork, sour cabbage, salt duck, smoked ham, shrimps, &c.,are placed near ; the mandarin, placing a tiny morsel of tasty stuff on the end of his tongue to encourage the rice down and give it a zest, proceeds Bolemnly to shovel away. Occasionally he may take a glass or two of wine, or rather rice spirit, always served hot, but half -a - dozen of these would scarcely amount in bulk to a single glass of our sherry. The meal usually winds up with a long pull at the soup or rice water ; then a few cups of tea, and a pipe or two, and finally a snooze. — Cornhill Magazine.

FOR LASSITUDE, TORPIDITY, SOUR STOMACH, INDIGESTION, HEADACHE, BACKACHE#&o\, Take a couple of Fletcher's Pills every second night ; they are a prompt and sure cure and give certain relief. FLETCHER'S PILLS are a quick, sure, and reliable remedy for all complaints arising' from torpid liver, indigestion, weakatomach, and impurities of the blood. They are prepared on rational and sensible lines, and do not contain a particle of calomel, gamboge, or any drastic purgative, but operate by perfectly natural means, by stimulating the liver and increasing the flow of bile, and thus producing easy evacuations and natural catharses without the annoyance and pain of griping and purging. Beware of the many harmful substitutes on salo in many shops. None ai'e genuine unless they bear the signature of F. Moore Clements on the outside wrapper. CLEMENTS TONIC and FLETCHER'S PILLS have become such household words that imitations are frequently offered. "We contend that this imitation is the sincerest proof of their virtues, so see that you always get the genuine, bearing the name and address of F. M. Clements, Newtown, Sydney.

The Abyssinian forces, which, until Menelik's accession, wexe organised on. a feudal basis resembling that of mediaeval Europe, now include a standing army of 70,000 men. The total strength is about 210,000 men, mostly armed with rifles. The wealthiest church in the world is, without much doubt, Triuity Church, in the Broadway, New York, for its possessions are at the present time estimated to be of a value of nearly £2,000,000. This enormous property has come to the church 'owing to the great increase in the value of land in New York, an old farm on Manhattan Island, which was two centuries and more ago made over by Royal grant to Trinity, being now in the very heart of commercial New York, and a succession of maguificent thoroughfares are now to be found where onne tha nattla arazed.