SNAPSHOTS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 12, 9 May 1896, Page 3

SNAPSHOTS.

♦- [By Kodak.]

After all, what's in a name ! 'Tis hard, though, to find a name suitable for a heading. Like the poet old Horace depicts, I've been scratching my head and biting my nails to the quick to get a suitable heading. Following that wise man's advice, it is necessary, in the first place, to ponder well over what one writes and to pay great attention to the l selection of subject and words, and not flow on in a muddy fashion like old—l forget his name, —who, it is said, used to write as a great feat 200 verses standing oil one foot. Poor beggar !

Mention of that muddy old poet puts me in mind of a man 1 once read about who wanted to be a poet, lie locked himself awav in a live-storey house in a big city, and after six months brought out the following : I pun a cold and stormy nijjlit A man stood in the street. His aged eyes was full of tears, His boots was full of feet.

"\\ hat a great old time Hastings in clothes must have l hael at the dance last Thursday, when mistress and servant, 'Arry and 'Arriet, .lack and his master paced the same floor. I was very disappointed at aiot being there, but had my -"is worth of fun in watching our trusty old domestic dyeing her ball-dress a delicate cream with xajh-ott. Oh, the pains she Look! Somehow the right color wouldn't come. If she could have churneel the color she might have got a butter tint in time l , there is no saying. ».v of dancing, I didn't quite agree with our worthy pastor when lie talked about waking up light in heart and refreshed after a dance. Probably he doe-s not know the song '• After the Ball." The Germans are not far wrong, too, when they say it is a case of putting on your hat with a shoe-horn the following morning.

While talking of ball dresses, a few words on modern dress. The society tittle-tattle of a northern journal comes before my mind. We will take a glance at the letter of Miss Flutterbuck, from Flimseytown : "Mrs Chimney - pot Brown gave a delightful afternoon tea last Tuesday ; Mrs Galavanter looked charming in an invisible green dress trimmed with black feathers and pink lace hat to match ; Miss Tinpot looked very becoming in a simple grey dress, boat-shaped hat, and sea-green slippers (mark the far-fetched simile, Oh gentle reader!). We were glad to welcome back Miss Flyaway, looking as young and charming as ever. Among the gentlemen the following were present, ive,, tic."

Last night in a restless mood I strolled out into the kitchen and was warming myself over the fire when my sight was arrested by black specks on the wall. A closer investigation showed they were cockroaches—beautiful large ones too. Well, thought I, here's a good hunting ground, and, calling the boy in, we started to wage war on the fleet-footed animals. Arming ourselves with a lamp, a knife, and a dancing-slipper, we commenced the onslaught. Oh, the excitement, and the bang, bang, of the slipper ! The knife brought out hundreds from the cracks in the wall—to be instantly despatched by the slipper. After an hour's incessant whacking we counted the slain—2,oo2 in all, men, women, and children. I have a grand patent cockroach and 'skeeter killer. It only consists of two smoothly-planed blocks of wood. The mode of procedure is as follows :—Take the animal and place on block No. 1; apply a gentle pressure with block No. 2 till the insect is flattened ; continue the process till the pest is exterminated.

Those who did not go to the lecture on "Japan" missed a good thing. It was a pity the entertainment was not held in the Theatre, as, apart from the views, the lecture was full of interesting information about the Mikado and his people. One astonishing feature about the pictures was the minuteness of detail, which without doubt places the .Japanese artists on the same footing as the medieval Dutch painters, whose pictures were more like photographs as far as detail went. The views were very varied, taking in from the old Shinto to the Mikado—from the village to the " million peopled city " —from mountain cataract to wide river—from wooded knoll to the sacred snow-capped mountain, Pusijama. The politeness and honesty of the Japanese was referred to. Fancy ! In Japan, shopkeepers don't even have to have glass windows, the goods being all exposed, and within easy reach of the passer-by.