A NEW-YEAR CHAPLET.

Otago Witness, Issue 1832, 31 December 1886, Page 14

A NEW-YEAR CHAPLET.

Baby year from a far land — A cloud-lauo, h star-land I w »v y v a garland O' ros s nnd rue. Of the sweet and the bitter Whtt emblem were fi ter— The gloom and the glitter That lie before * ou ? How memory lingers I Likewrea<hß, twined by fingers . Of long-silent singers Crowned years that are dead. How sad were their closes The rue, clinging, show* us, But— alas for the roses 1 — The roses are sped, But a wreath you inherit FreiLly-pluckt; then so wear it That) th 8 raise you may merit from foe aa from triend~ " The rue served aa Bhading, Bach weary eye aiding, While the roses, unfading, . Glowed on to the c dl" And, what, time you are leaving Us. lang id and grieving, And our minstrel is weaving * Elegiacs for you, When your reign he rehearses May he twine in his verses More blessings than cursesMore roses than rue ! G-.G.

J. TALE OF STRONG THINGS. How A Mite of limburger Cheese

Caused a Sensation.

When a citizen of Toronto left Berlin the other day, some kind friend secretly placed a piece of cheese in his valise in case he Bhould get hungry before he got to Toronto — Limburger cheese. He bought a Globe, and read an article headed '• Ventilation in Railway Cars." This made him nervous, and it seemed to him that there was a curious smell somewhere in the car. When the conductor came up the passenger told him that there were 4344 decimal 88 cubic feet in the car when empty, and that if occupied by 50 passengers it would be reduced to 4164 decimal 88ft, and that the air ought to be changed eighteen times an hour, and he didn't believe this was being done, because there was a queer smell around there. The conductor, said he did smell a kind of a funny smell— didn't know anything about decimals or cubic feet, but thought may be, some of the truck people carried around wanted to be changed instead of the air. As he said this he

GLANCED DABKLY at the passenger's valice, but the passenger had not the slightest idea that this article was suspected. However, thinking that the smell was, perhaps, localised m his part of the car he moved himself and his savoury valise to another seat. Now, by this time the Liinburger had begun to feel the effect of the heat, and was emitting an entirely new and still more pungent variety of smell. The man who occupied the new seat with him intimated that he was a commercial traveller.

" Travel for a drug store 1" asked the Toronto man sharply. "Well, yes, I do; hotfr did 'you find out,?" asked the traveller.

" I don't think drug samples ought to be carried in passenger cars," said the owner of the valise with considerable severity.

•• If you are referring to me; sir," said the traveller, "I haven't got any samples on this car. But there are goods that smell worse than drugs," and he left the seat, carrying his satchel in one hand and holding his nose with the other.

The puzzled passenger leaned over to the seat in front, and said to a thin man with a long face. " I think there must be a skunk outßide."

"I wish it was outside," said the longfaced man, with gloomy emphasis, moving over to the other side of the car.

And now for the first time the owner of THE FRAGRANT VALISE

noticed that he was surrounded by a quarrantine of empty seats, and that people were casting most indignant glances at him. All at once the horrible truth flashed upon him that he was suspected. His face burned so that it seemed to singe his whiskers, and he was the most relieved man on the train when the Union station was reached.

As he walked up York street the dreadful smell followed him. Seized by a sudden inspiration, he opened the valise, and turned the contents out on the sidewalk. A small boy, who with great courage Btood close by and watched the operation, states that the man did not laugh when he found the cheese ; probably his sense of humour was defioient, as there is no doubt the joke was an excellent one. He also is willing to depose that the man left the cheese which is another strange thing, as It is not likely he forgot it.