THE CLUB WINDOW.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 1797, 18 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE CLUB WINDOW.

No man has yet been ' found to ratify with . certainty that he has ever seen a grouse drinking. Most great men have a love for animals, and it is told that Sir Charles Napier ordered, a .day or two before bis death } his favourite charger, Red Rover, the faithful companion of many hard-fought fields, to be brought to the window to take leave of him, and wished to have him in the room by his bedside that he might pat him for the last time ere ac left this world.The school books of China are translations of ma.nuels used in Japan, and the latter are translations from German and English works. When quite a hoy, King. George was noted for his disregard of that spick-a-nd-span appearance usually associated with Royalty. One day Queen Alexandra was giving a children's party, and the young Prince camel in from his games with rather a dirty and -undignified appearance. "Be sure and- wash before you meet your guests," was the command of i! his august mother. "Oh, all right," • j said the' ladj and mumbled some other 1 words. "What were you saying?" • inquired the Royal lady. After a - little hesitation the future King replied, "I said are you sure that 1 need to wash, for I thought the party • 'was going to be quite an informal ■ affair !"•- ' '■ ! Forks are quite a recent innovation. 1 The seventeenth century bad nigh : .terminated before they were used- in England. The naif-barbarian Persians now take up their meat with their fingers just as the English before that period. When Lon Corgate, the traveller, introduced from I Italy the practice of eating with a . fork, he received the nickname of Furcifer (Forker). Thomas Carlyle, though a great talker on occasion, did not talk with j people who-, in his opinion, were not I worth, ihis talk. A young man once called on "The Sage of Chelsea" I with a letter of introduction from a ' , friend. Mr Carlyle talked with him j long enough to get the impression } that the young man had no l ideas to j exchange for his own, and then rej lapsed into sullen silence, gazing the j while steadily into the fire. Tlie visit- ; or, who was much awed by the pres- • ence of the great, man, sat in similar j silence for several'minutes. Then'it • occurred to him thaib his host, was j waiting for ,him to say something. I "Ah—Mr Carlyle " he began, fa-L teringly, "what, a fine old neighbourhood—ah—Chelsea is——" "Don't interrupt me!" thundered Mr Carlyle look tip angry. "Ah, but, Mr Carlyle," said the young man, in astonishment, "you weren't, saying anything!" "Saying anything? No, you blockhead; you : interrupted my silence!" ..-..., A German scientist says that married men live longer than bachelors, and are less likely to become insane. ' Another argument for matrimony is. i found in the fact that there are ; | thirty-eight criminals among every 1 1000 bachelors, while among married ' j men the Tatio , is only eighteen per ' ; 1000., , ' , Since the return of the Popes from j ( Avignon to Rome seventeen of the ' occupants of the Holy See have pas- J | sed eighty years. The youngest of ' the octogenarians were Gregory XVI. - who died in 1846 arfe the age of eighty l . years and eight months. Gregory ' XII., Calixtus IT., and Benedict XIII . completed their eighty-one years. .' Alexander VIII and Pius VI had ac- j complished eight-two years at the ( time of their death; Gregory XIII., i Innocent X., Benedict XIV., and Pius VII were over eighty-three ■ years. Paul 11. was eighty-rfouT and Pius r IX. } Clement X., and Clement XII. £ were eighty-five. The pope (post f Avignon) who was longest lived was a Clement XL, who died at the age of r •ninety two years, Paul IV. was £ ninety-three. Gregory IX was almost a a centenarian, and the late Pope; n wanted only seven years to complete, d his century. The present Pope is only: ij seyenty-eix years of age. a Mark Twain did not cheriVh n. foi-y ; n ness for the average office boy.-.. He a had an that the genus was in- J 1;

rl■>' I J * 9 sufferable, and invariably when ,the [ humoiist sallied forth into some business office there was immediate aimed hostility between him and the boy, One day Mark v,ent to see a iriendjthisofh.ee, and the offico boy on guaid m icy tones said* "Whom do you wish to see?" Mark mentioned ihis friend's name. * "What do you want to see him about?" came next from the boy. Mark Twain immedi•itciy froze up, and then with a genial smile he said: -'Tell him, please, I want to ask Ihis hand in holy matrimony." There are some parts of Paris which have neither gas nor electricity as street illuminaats. The Rue j on, he said, "I wonder now " aad j petroleum oil lamps, the reflections of which give the place a weird appearance. In the twentieth arrondiseineat they are still more behind-. Go into the Rue Ohamplain and there will be found oil lamps almost going back to the time of the founder of Quebec, or some other remote period. In walking through -these districts of ancient, lamps, one fancies he is m some little faraway provincial town wftere they are still indifferent to the achievement of progress. Stag-hunting, which lasts only two months in England, is the shortest of the regular hunting seasons; harehunting, continuing for eight months, is the longest. Mr George Robey tells a good story about an experience he had during the Royal visit to Edinburgh. He was sent for to' amuse their Majesties and the Court, and when he arrived he began to look about him. Seeing the riionogram G. R. very much in evidence on ithe furniture and so oh, he said, "I wbnde mow " and then stopped. The King, seeing tlie joke, added quietly, "Probably the initials stand for your name, Mr Robey." A good story is told of Dr. Boyd Carpenter, late. Bishop of Ripon. Once the was officiating at a wedding, and the bride experienced difficulty in removing her glove. There was an awkward pause, and the bride became flurried. Bending over her, the "doctor" whispered: "Don't be flurried ; there's plenty of time, and they are bound to wait for us, you know."' And the bride looked up with a'smile. Dr. Boyd Carpenter for thirty years has, bean an intimate and valued friend of the Royal family. Not only his eloquence and scholarliness, but his -wonderful voice, his fascinating personality, ihis kindly moderation, and his happy wit have/ endeared him to the people. ' He is of Irish descent. ■__■■■-■■■«_»-■■■■■■.