SNAPSHOTS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 29, 30 May 1896, Page 3

SNAPSHOTS.

[By Kodak.]

The tale about George Washington and the world-famed apple tree is one of the very few yarns that has stood the test of ages. Nobody else but little george seems to have cut down a tree and told his father all about it. The tale stands without a compeer. A innstory is now running the newspapers of the colony. A schoolmaster in the town of Pahiatua asked a class who it was that found work for idle hands to do. One of the boys mistaking a whisper of •' Satan " surprised the class by answering '• Seddon." The first little boy to have the honor of the story came from Nelson about two years ago. Lads all over the South Island were credited with the same yarn. A bright youth at Petone was the nexrtieard of to give a similar reply. Pahiatua has now laid a claim to its originality. It is due at Waipukurau in a few days, and Hastings should have a turn in about three weeks. By this time it should appear in a slightly altered garb, but 110 doubt the story will be told with the same relish. Evidently Mrs Partington is not dead yet. • It was in Hastings, and the subject was a hot one—dynamite. A gentleman, who evidently knew all about it, gave it as his opinion that if the explosive were thrown in a lire there be 110 result. It required a " deathonator," he said, to lire it. Evidently he connected the explosive with funerals. A better thing, however, reaches me from a southern port. All unconscious follower of Mrs P. had been taking a look at the hydraulic cranes on the wharf, and meeting a friend said : —'• I have just been <•'•/ >r< h tintj the car/mlir c-rane. It is the most nm/ixrati,! hit of mixrhhi' r<! I ever saw in my life ; why. there's one wheel there makes SCO a minute." Fact! The italics are mine. I don't think the author of Trilby wrote Sage Stalling for Green Goslings," but whoever wrote it must have disciples in the newspaper line in Hastings. It is the easiest thing in the world to get news, especially if you are not particular as to the truth of your items. The joke about the bullet being extracted from the walls of the Maori printing office after a reported terrible shooting affair had scarc-ely died out when another rumor is heard of a reported This time the culprit happens to belong to another paper; and there turns out to be as much truth in the latter yarn as there was in the former. "With some people a grain of fact added to a bushel of fancy makes startling reading.

Talking of newspapers and newspaper writers, I heard a short time ago of a certain member of the Fourth Estate, who, three years ago. when it was thought that a certain politician of repute was about to shuffle of! this mortal coil, laid himself out for an obituary notice, and in the course of a three column article brought out many of the good qualities and heroic actions of the" deceased statesman. That night's work was completely lost, as the gallant knight rallied and has not yet passed away. In a little church not many hundred miles from here a happy couple were being married. While the nuptial knot was being tied one of the contracting parties happened to smile, for which ho was rebuked by the officiating clergyman. '' I wouldn't have stood it," said a friend. '• I would have taken the job to the opposition man."