CRITIC CLUB

Otago Witness, Issue 2429, 3 October 1900, Page 66

CRITIC CLUB

Motto : They were critics always, and being cutics, they &poke their minds freely, and were not afraid.

Dear Dot, — Though silent so long as regards reports, the C.C. has been quite lively during the last two months, and last week livelier than ovei. Buttons says Justice can thank her lucky star she dees not know any correspondents. If she takes his advice she will net try to identify any, as in a short tune the desire to "find out" the wiiters becomes a disease, and is veiy disagreeable — ta others. When Dick came to Ocean May's poetry, he said: "Oh, Dot says this is a pathetic poem, co we'll nass it." Torn, who is a. lover o£ floweis, was greatly struck with Countess of Nithsdale's letter, and said: "Red and fawn primroses and violets ! I'd like to see them." When Dick read Rimbecco's reference to the uhoto she was going to send Dot and her reason'ior doing so, dally interrupted: "1 say, didn't those girls apologise, and wasn't their apology accepted?" On being satisfied on. that point, he added : "Then I have always understood it to be particularly bad form to refer; m any way to what has been forgiven." Then, one ot Tally's sisters chimed in, and in a plam-ti-e tone s<*id: "When I was making a boasfc oi hav.i-.g I.eo-T. magnanimous" (uhis sister likes to use big woids) "tuid doing some one a good turn, I was promptly told that the ones I had brxie&sed wore no "longer under any obligations to me, os I had' cancelled them by mentioning the matter. ' When Zulieka's quotations were re.icl _C:ck exclaimed triumphantly: "Aha! we baot hei this tims! We answered more quotations than those." The Critics can't uncler-

. tend, a HufrYio Bill beir.g afraid of mni, si.cl think the one m Dot's page must be a loax. Daffodil says she dcasn't want to ''give herself c wpy," and many other writ3rs haye 1 expressed the same sentiment. Buttons v/anta to know if they would rather be " sold." Alter reading Dandy's goa& yarn, Tom said: "That was a dandy. Buttons said: '"Turn that sentence round, Tom," and then there was an inteival, which ended in Tom paying a penny for slang, and Buttons twopence for sianj, and impudence. The membars wish to know if tho J. I. M. whose letter appeals in this week's X>aiDsr iz the artist who drew the xat at thi head of Dc-t's page, thereby insinuating that the L.F. are a plague. If t>o, ihey will hive a few remarks to make at some future time.' The club thinkb that a bo/ who stays at home, when he doesn't go to school must bo foiatv, hat of a novelty. Dick says hs is willing to intercede with the editor o:i behalf of any of the little folk who care to pay his expenses to town. All of a sudden, Sally, who was "looking over Dick's shoulder, called out: "liangi Moki!" and the girls, who had been sittingvsry quietly, jumped up and screamed out : "The waterfalls l Tell us about ths waterfalls." "But alas! that wietched Buttons a^tvin. While they had been quietly hem-stitching handkeihiefs like good little girls, Buttons had tied their hair to the backs of their chairs. As newspaper correspondents are fond of saying, '-the result may be better imagined than described." When the hair was untied ancl Buttons had expressed himself as sorry (though, he didn't look it), the girls marched off, highly indignant and the boys settled themselves to tha e^joym™t of the letter, and they did enjoy it. Dick said it was not in the least like an esaay, as someone had piophesied the letters would! be, if written on one subject. "And moreover," he said, "I did not mean that thereshould b3 any fixed subject to write on, but that each correspondent should choo3e his or her own, and write when they please."— Yours tiuly, TAFFY. [Well, of course, that modifies the proposal very materially; and indeed there can be no objection whatever to a subject being chosen, by each individual writer. Indeed that has already been done in many cases— Rimbecco s capital descriptions of the O.tlins bush, ior instance. I "am glad to welcome you back. Tally, after jour long absence from tho page. — DOT.] Cecil C. Edwards writes me what is, I am quite sure, a rcoot interesting letter from Capetown, but, little folk, what do you think: it is written m? "Why, South African Dutch! What am. Ito c!o with it? It would scarcely bo worth while printing it as it is, and I really do not know a-ny Boer to get it translated, so I shall simply have to hold_ it over in the,moantime, and perhaps Cecil will write next time in his native language, which I am pure is greatly to be preferred to bastard Dutch. Siella.— Yes, dear, the photo will do very well. Of course it will take some time to get enough, for another group. Victoria. — The little girl who offered to exchange stamps with any of the little folk was Muiiel Daly, Twickenham, Newton, Sylney. She writes me to say that she ha 3 received 14 letters from D.L.F., all containing stamps, and that she has answered them all, and hopes the stamps sent in return will bo liked Koa. — Only the norus de plume, dear. Octavia. — There are plenty of badges left; indeed, I can get as many as I want now. LITTLE FOLK'S EIDDLES. By the Dowager Empress: — (1) Name me and j-ou break me. (2) What is that which flies high, flies low, wears shoes, and has no feet? (1) What is that which you and every livingman have seen, but can never see again? (4) Name that biid which, if Tflu do not, you musfc die. (5) What is that which is full of ];nowledgc, and yet knows nothing. ANSWERS TO LAST WEEK'S EIDDLES. By the Dowager Empress: — When all tha clothes are out on tho line. Bj Sharpshell:— (l) lam his father's brother and the man is my nephew. (2) Because they both shrink from washing. (3) Because it is incomplete without a Handel. HIDDEN NAMES OF DOT'S LITTLE FOLK. In reply to Daisy, from Alys:— l, Chum; 2, "Rita; 3, Stan, 4, Laddie, 5, Lamb; G, Loaf;. 7, Dot; 8, Shan. D.L.F. BADGES. Badges have been sent to date to the following . —"Margaret Burnett, Annie Cooper, Annia Teinpleton (2), Jessie Piice, Kafcherine Pretsch, James Mulholland (2), James Meikle, John. Meikle, Fanny Hollis (2), Mary Ellen Andersou, John Duucan, Mabol Carttuclyiel.