GOOD SAMARITANISM.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 647, 11 March 1879, Page 2

GOOD SAMARITANISM.

The writer of " London Town Talk" in the Melbourne Argus says : — Good Samaritaniam. in London is always difficult to practice. It is often' accompanied, not only by inconvenience, but by ridicule. Six people out of 12 will rather give a blind man a shilling than accede to his appeal to be led across the street, and there is in many cases some danger of getting into trouble! I was once made very indignant by the refusal of a friend to help me in lifting up a drunken woman who had fallen en the pavement, though he half disarmed me by the humor of his apology. "It is hard, ' he quoted, with musical pathos, " to give the hand and not the heart ;" and it was certainly very, hard to give the hand in' that particular instance to any advantage, since the lady weighed about 18 stone. On another occasion*, when I happened to be alone, I came upon a Grenadier Guardsman lying in the road in a hopeless state he was very tall, and with his bearskin' on, looked quite gigantic ; but, still I did not shrink from the call - of" duty. Kespect for the military, admiration for the institutions of my native land, and a truly Christian spirit, all combined to urge me to give assistance. Their combination, however, failed to give me strength. I dragged him oh to the pavement, out of the way of the wheels, but it took me several minutes to raise him up against the wall, which at last, however, I effected. Then, for the first time he spoke, /but not, as I had expected in accents of gratitude. ' ' You beggar," he said (t mitigate his language), " you have stolen my medal." He struck furiously at me at the same time with both his fists, and fell into the road again — and there I left. Mm.

A solution has been found for the problem "Where do all the railway trucks reported from time to time to be manufactured in the railway workshops^ Christchurch, go to f Many, do not go ' anywhere. Being made (aays an Oamatu contemporary) of every fragile material, they are not the rolling stock likely to be .of service for the transport of produce. They are created' by the Christchurch newspaper reporters for the pnrpose of creating a -little sensation. " Fifty trucks are to be manufactured within the next' month in in the railway workshop" is announced in the Chriai church papers, to the disgust of these in difficulties from want of conveniences of transport, ! who wonder weather even bne out of the fifty will ever gladden their .eyes. The reporters are equal to the occasion. They, though unwittingly perhaps, allay the irritation by ringing the changes 0n these fifty trucks until' they afe/at length multiplied into a oatislfectory ; number. But all beyond thW fifty are nevertheless to fragile for purposes of transport. They are paper trucks.