SNAPSHOTS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 18, 16 May 1896, Page 3

SNAPSHOTS.

[I>Y KOUAK.J I ailit great shakes (as the Coelaipy would say) on polities, who is? I think the word should be spelled politics (/»■//, many) these times, llow different our days to those of the Romans : M'licu none wore for the party, 'mi all were for the tilate. To prove what a little people really know about our Government one need only go so far as to ask two '[notions : 1. How many members are there in Parliament "? 2*. What are the names of the Ministers, and what positions do they hold? I wouldn't mind bvi.ti 1 1 r _c that 19 people out of Couldn't answer two questions correctly.

Strolling down the street la ;t Saturday, my peregrinations brought me pie-t the "Army"—encamp; d in their usual -pot close; to a wood yard. One of the members was announcing in stentorian tones a piece of music was to be discussed. The appeal to the public by these f be mu>icians, to make allowance for <!ix,■<,,■<!*, was certainly rather discourteous, to say the least of it, to the owner of that firewood yard. On the merits of the performance I need not dwell. Sutlic.) it to say that when a bass viola, an A Hat cornet, and a. J! natural liddle start to wage war and murder time and tune int< r *<•, the music (?) produced miturdti) falls Ik's, and f/efon the ear ; and the wave-sound- being of unequal length, a jarring effect is produced on the drum of thai organ. Anyway, " It's a way wo have in the Army/'

Talking about music, it is strange bow unmusical some people are and what a delight they take in their —rejoicing in being able to say they don't know 1! from a bull's foot. To some of these people music is painful, if not revolting. Charles Land) was one of these individuals who prided himself on his and he said he would rather be in a small closed-in room at the top of a lofty building on a broiling summer's day, and listen to the incessant banging of a dozen carpenters'hammers —all this rather than go and listen to the most beautiful music in one of the grand Italian operas, lie further expresses his sentiments in the following verse :

Some cry up Ilnvden, some Mozart, just as their whim bites, For my part I do not earc a farthing candle, for either of them or for Handle. Cannot a man live free and easy, without admiring I'erjolesi Or through the world with comfort go, That never heard of Dr. Blow?

There are, however, different grades of unmusicality, and one cannot help being taken with the man who has only one note in his voice, but uses that note lustily and strong through psalm, hymn, and song. With regard to musical people an old Latin poet has correctly divided musicians into two classes—those who cannot summon up courage to sing -when asked, and those who when asked never stop.

Y\"hen arc the Town Council going io provide sufficient lamps for our fair city "? If there was only a little less sa» at their meeting* ami a little more in their meter, there might be an increase in the number of lamps. Things must be pretty bad, anyway, when old ladies have to carry about lanterns with them to sec where they are going.

This is really the case however, and it was only the other liiglit- when going down the Karamu road, an old lady might be seen lantern in hand iiotmderiiig through mud puddles and adroitly dodging the manifold ditches in that neighbourhood—plucky old soul! That part of the town would be an unpleasant place to end a night's bacchanaling forsooth !

While on the subject of bacchanaling, recollections of an Artillery social in a town not more than (500 miles from Hastings come to my mind. Bombardier X. had been enjoying the evening t» the />''/, and when it was time to depart was as lively as a cricket. What a time he had yetting

home ! Somehow roads, hedges, and footpaths would keep bumping into him. When lie got to his o-.vn gate, however, ho was decidedly off, and ended by partially undressing, resting his rilie and hat rgainst the gate-post, and going to sleep on the footpath. When the milkman came in the morning ho wanted to bet him us that he had been in bed all the time. \\ ith gunners iial£ and Alf tie. was ciiiieront. Their journey he; o t-u:>k uiom past a fruiterer's garden. Somehow they managed to get through the surrounding hawthorn hedge, aud jjalf was soon among the glass frames, stamping through pane after pane, and shouting out as he went on; " I shay, Alf, itsh a heavy frosht to-niglit." Needless to say those two worthies kept quiet for some time after this. It is reported that the captain, after hiring a c-ah, got the j.-.hu to drive to the ocean bench, where he diovo into the sea and turned his vehicle into a Lathing machine.