Up-to-Date "Carrolls."

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIV, Issue 7494, 18 April 1899, Page 4

Up-to-Date "Carrolls."

(Chriatchnrch Press.) The Journal of Education has a special genius governing its competition page. Not content with propoatni* the more scholastic problems, translation teats, etc., for which the Journal id famous, he continually beguiles the educational .vorld by suggestions of a graceful trifling; and since learned professors and headmasters, as well as their naturally light-minded students, taku part in these contests, the result often make* an amusing column or two. In the bst number, a selection of verses is given upon the Lewis Carroll model, "He thought ha saw." Here is a specimen from the prize trio : He thought he saw the "opan door" That politicians seek; He looked agiin and saw it was The middle of nest week. "And this is the result," he said, •• Of learning modern Greek !" Some carry almost too distinct a mord in the tag to preserve the proper artlessness, so with this otherwise excellent effort: He thought he saw a Christmas tree, Decked with a shining star ; He looked again, and found it was The rescript of the Czar. *' The end of this will he," he aald, •' A European war." There Is rathsr a eood hit at that great conglomerate periodical literature, and there Is another at that greatly believing person, the modern spiritualist : His thought ha heard the plumber's man At work above his head ; He listened hard, then found it was The spirit* ot th<* dead. •'lf this goes on," he moansd aloud, •'IH send for Mr ctead." Here i 3 a strictly professional joke : He thought he saw an ample boa-d. Laden with eggs and ham ; He looked again, and saw a room Prepared for aa exam. 44 To-day," he smiled, " will taat results Of forty weeks of cram " Even the victims would hardly fail in appreciating this. But parhaps our last example will appeal to an even larger audience He thought he saw an avalanche, Come charging down the hill; He looked again, and found it was His little bill ••'Tis very, very hard," he said, ** To pay for being iil." This again has not the trne Carroll s artless inconsequence, but on the whole the page of selections should confirm the opinion held by Columbus, Alfred Tennyson, and other illustrious persons, that there la no great difficulty about doing things when soma originative genius has own the way.