BRIEF MENTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 105, 1 May 1909, Page 5

BRIEF MENTION.

" A little nonsense, now and then, is relished by the wisest men."

May Day! The festivities in England have gradually died out. But the day is still marked by a 1 celebration well known to every resident in the metropolis, in which the chimney-sweeps play the sole. part. What is usually seen is fa small band, composed of two or three men in fantastic dress, one smartly dressed female glittering with spangles, and a strange figure called Jack-in-the-green, being a man concealed within a tall frame of herbs and flowers, decorated with a flag at top. All of these figures or persons stop here and there in the course of their rounds, and dance to the music of a drum and fife, expecting, of course, to be remunerated by halfpence from the onlookers.

May in England brings with her the beauty and fragrance of hawthorn blossoms and the song of the nightingale.

Our old poets delight in describing her as a beautiful maiden, clothed in sunshine, and scattering flowers on the earth, while she danced to the music of the birds and brooks.

"Hail! sacred thou to sacred joy, To mirth and wine, sweet first of May! To sports, which no grave caves alloy, The sprightly dance, the festive play!"

May is the time of the sweet music of the nightingale and the melody of birds.

"In time of. May the nightingale In Wode makitli miry gale (pleasantmelody) ; . So doth, the foules grete and smale, Som oil hulle, som on dale."

How enraptured must good old Izaak WaltoiL have been with the song of the nightingale, when he exclaimed: "Lord, what music hast Thou provided for the saints in heaven when thou affordest bad men such music on earth?"

May Ist.—Born: William Lilly, astrologer, 1602; Arthur, Duke of Wellington, 1769; Dr John Woodward, naturalist, 1665..

Died: Maud, Queen of England, 1118; Pope Pius V., 1572; John Dryden, post, 1700.

The joy of the suffragette was immense. She had gone into court with a neat straw hat on her close cropped hair, and the policeman had shouted at her, "Take your hat off." ■■

Old Lady (rather deaf): Are you any relation to aMr Green ? Green: lam Mr Green. Old Lady: Ah! Then that explains the extraordinary resemblance.

The effect of the wild speeches of Socialist M.P.'s in driving trade from the north-east coast of Britain was shown by Sir Christopher Furness in a speech on March 13.

It was stated at a London inquest last month that while Edward Bedford was dying from pneumonia his wife sold the blankets from his bed in order to obtain drink.

Husband: I pity the 'poor milkman this morning; he looks awfully discouraged since those inspectors were appointed. Wife: Yes, but the milk doesn't look half so blue.

A man called at an undertaker's shop in Lauenberg, Germany, and asked the proprietor to ta'&e back at half-price a coffin he had ordered. He explained that he intended to commit suicide, but had changed his mind.

"Really," said the callow youth, "I am no longer a mere boy. I've got a little hair on my lip now." "Yes," replied Miss Peppery, "and perhaps in a few weeks you may have another one."

There is but one mate for each man and woman in the world, and until they recognise the fact, and learn with patience to await that note of absolute conviction which is one infallible guide-to happiness, marriages will fail, as they fail now, and the Church will give its empty blessing to those ill-assorted pairs whom God for ever leaves unblessed.—May TB«teman.

What Was It?—"I say, D'Orsay, have you ever.heard that joke about the guide in Rome who showed some travellers two skulls of St. Paul, one. as a boy and the other as a man?" "Aw, deah boy no—aw, let me heah it."

The men who ride in motor-cars, For better highways clamor; The ruts and boulders give them jars And wounds and katzenjammer. And now another new crusade By airships men is bolstered; Uneven fields make them afraid— They want the earth upholstered.