ITEMS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8288, 17 September 1903, Page 3

ITEMS.

A clever young man who was not making the proirresfi to which his talents and industrv seemed to entitle him, went to & much" older man for advice. "The trouble with yoa," slid, his friend, "is the company youkeep. You associate with young fel-. iows who know about as much or less, than yon do. The result is that you jrive and get nothing or little in return." . To associate with those who are less than one is : oneself is both easy and satisfactory to one's, vanity. But it is" beyond question a waste of time. And it encourages a man to be content with cheap, spark makes a great showing in a dark-room. Th? Surgeons-General of the American Navy and Army are completiag reports wherein they recommend a one-year limit for service in tlic Pliilippines, tccause of \ tba striking physical, mental, and moral j deterioration of United States officers and. j *oW»ecs quartered there. 15ley instance] the large numbers of trials before tbee 3'ui-

tary Courts which show pculations, bigamy, suicides, and other examples of moral irresponsibility. An old-time coaching party was given the other day at Delhi, IStew York, by Mr. E. T. Gerry. All the gu£6ts, coachmen, and footmen wore coaching garments fashioned after tho style of one. hundred years ago. At the, various inns where stops were made old-fashioned English dinners, says the New York Herald, were served, with accompanying tankards of ale. Relays, wliich were provided at the various stations, added realism to tho trip. A new safety hansom cab has just made its appearance on the streets of London, for which the inventor claims that it is impossible for a passenger either to be thrown oufc or to put his head through the glass in case of accident. In place of the usual dropping window the new safety cab is fitted with two glass doors, which fold up in three sections. When the passenger in the cab the first section is closed, and it Ls absolutely impossible to open the lower doors. Should the horse fall when the windows are closed, the centre sections immediately fly open outwards, thus makingit impossible for the passenger's head to go through them. There is a man of seventy named Wallace Supernau who still sleeps in the cradle he was rocked in when a baby, and he has never slept one night of his long night in any other bed. The youngest of the family of boys, Wallace detained his place in the cradle as he grew older. He soon became too tall to lie in it at full length, but he overcame this difficulty by drawing his knees upward. Each night to this day he rests his feet squarely on the bottom of the cradle, sways his knees to and fro and rocks himself to sleep as he didwhen a small boy. The habit was formed in babyhood and never broken.

There is a custom in vogue in Dublin that is most objectionable, and certainly ought to be put a stop to. I refer (says a writer in, the (Irish Field) to the practice of hiring suits for use at a levee. There are a hundred and forty reasons why it should not be done, and for myself I would as soon think of hiring a eecond-hand shirt as a secondhand suit. There is no obligation on anyone to go to a'levee', or if they want to go they ought to go decently or stay away. It is a poor compliment to his Majesty to pay your respects in a hired suit. You might as well go to a dance in a hired dress suit.