GLEANINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 809, 2 September 1887, Page 5

GLEANINGS.

COMMON SENSE V. EDUCATION. ‘lt is common sense and not education that makes a woman,’ said an old man mournfully. ‘ I spent a little fortune educating my daughter, and when her education was completed she went off and married a dude who died of blood poisoning caused by sucking the head of his cane.’ Queen Victoria’s Jubilee fund in Paris is a complete failure. The committee wanted 300,000 francs, but only forty were raised. There is general chagrin in the English colony. The lady who writes under the name of John Strang Winter, author of ‘Bootle’s Baby,’ is a Mrs Stannard. She is said to be a direct descendant of the celebrated Hannah

Prichard, whose monument is in Westminster Abbey, close to that of Shakespeare. A widow’s cap is to be sent to the Queen, as a Jubilee gift from tbe widowed Queen— Regent of Spain. It is made of priceless old .Spanish lace, with an embroidered veil at. the back, and pearl diadem in, front, the jewels being embroidered on the lace by Queen Christina herself. The holy well, known as the Well of the Cratches, five miles from Trim, is being visited by a large number of people. Around the well devotees are seen daily on bended knees and barefooted, most of them having travelled long distances to drink the water and pray for the removal of bodily infirmities. Several cures, it is asserted, have been effected. A society has been organised among Japanese women to cultivate a taste for foreign cooking. As many Japanese women of good birth are invited to dinner by Europeans in Yokohama, Tokio, and Ngaaaki, they find it very difficult to accept the hospitalities offered. Foreign art, however, has already seriously injured the art of Japan. Donkey parties are the latest rational amusements of provincial gatherings across the Atlantic. A huge donkey, minus its tail, is cut ont of calico, fixed against the wall, and all the company are provided with pins and calico donkeys’ tails. Each guest is then blindfolded in turn, placed opposite the figure on the wall, twisted round three times, and left to pin the tail in its right place on the donkey. As the blind man scarcely ever hits the right place, the company get plenty of fun out of their game. A bevy of little children were telling their father what they got at school. The eldest : ‘ Reading, spelling, and definitions.’ Aud wbat do you get, my little one 2’ said the father to a rosy-cheeked little fellow, who was at that time slily driving a tenpsnny nail into the door panel. ‘Me 2 Oh, I gets readin, spellin’, and spankin’.’ A pink of propriety—Ethel—Oh, mamma, I’ve got such a pain. Mother—Where, dear ? Ethel (a refined child) —In my sash, mamma. The Brooklyn, N.Y., Normal School for Physical Training is fitting girls by a course of rational work and study to be competent instructors in physical training and take positions, which are rapidly opening to them, as heads of women’s gymnasia and teachers of the proper training of the body in girls’ schools. Two thousand and tiventy-one domestic servants, of from 7 to 62 years’ continuous service, enrolled members of an association established by way of recognising the real worth of servants who remain in one family from decade to decade, and of which society Princess Christian is patron, have presented to her Royal Highness a pretty gold broochmedal, forming the badge of their order, accompanied by a beautifully illuminated address, the whole being the outcome of a penny subscription. In acknowledging the gift, the Princess wished it to be made known to the donors how much she valued those marks of kindly feeling, and how greatly she appreciated the thought that prompted them to make her the offer of the brooch, which she much admired.