THE LAND OF USED TO BE.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 15, Issue 37, 10 May 1904, Page 2

THE LAND OF USED TO BE.

1 / i ti Beyoadfthe purple, hazytfees / ' j Of sumrafor’s ) ? J Beyond,the saßdSjJSeydwSfthc seas, Beyond the range jOfsegesiiike these, ) And only in thetoerich of the . j U Enraptured ga*e,of memory, ’ There lies a laodioog lost to me— The land of s v Used-to-be. A land enchanted —such as swung j? In golden seas sirens clung f Along their/dripping brinks and siing To Jason in\that»mystic tongue That dazdd m£n with its melody—- \ Oh, such aiiaitd, with such a sea, } Kissing its .shoresi eternally, , Is the fair'Usedi-to-be. ; 1 } A land where music ever girds ( The air with belts of singing bieds, * And sows/aH sounds wih sueh sweet, words That even in the lowing herds !.'■ A meaning lives so sweet to me; f Lost laughter (ripples Hmpidly J From lips brimmed o’er with all Jthe glee Of rare old Used-to-be; Oh, land of love and dreamyrthougfets, And shining fields and shady spots Of coolest, ,greenest grassy plots, ! Embossed with wild forget-me-nots— ft And all ye blooms that cunningly J' 1 Lift up your faces unto me / Out of the past—l kiss in thee f The lips of Used-to-be ; / And love ye all, and with wet eyes, j Turned glimmeringly on the skies, | My blessings like your perfumes rise; ‘ Till o'er my soul a silence lies Sweeter than any song to me— Sweeter than its melody, Or its sweet echo, yea, all three— My dreams of Used-to-be. ALWAYS NOTICED IT. “Well,” said Mrs, Smithson, as she and her friend Mrs. Harkins enteredithe railway train, ’‘there’s one thing that' makes me disinclined toiget into the last carriage.” “ Are you afraid of the other trains catching up and running into the hind carnage, Mrs. Smithson ?” “No, Mrs. Harkins, no. You see, we'd be safest in the hind carriage if we should catch up and run into some other train. But itfs on account of the time goin’ through the tunnels.” “ What do you mean, Mrs. Smithson ?” “ Why, hain’t you ever noticed, Mrs. Harkins, that it takes the last carriage longer to get out of the tunnels than it does the front ones ? IVe always noticed it—and it stands to reason, too.” SOMETHING QUITE.DIFFERENT. There was a lion tamer who willingly ventured into the cages'of the most ferocious beasts, having no fear oT them, although he was often badly bitten ; but he had a dreadful fear of taking bronchitis. One day, after he had entered, with perfect composure, a cage containing two half-starved bears and a panther, he shook his head gravely as he c&me out. “ Well, well, sir,” he said to a gentleman who stood near, “this is going to end badly for me some day/' “You are afraid those ferocious animats wiH devour you, then ?” “The animals? Pshaw! You don’t think I’m afraid of them, sir? Not at all; but these cages, sir, are such a dreadful place for draughts I” ♦— — INTERCEDING WITH A MAGISTRATE. A young friend of mine (says a correspondent), unhappily fell into evil courses, and at last the law got hold of him. He was brought up at the police court, and remanded for a few days. In the interval 1 had an opportunity of seeing the magistrate, and I told him all the good I could about the young man. I laid particular stress upon his ability and the promising career which his crime had blasted. He listened to all I had to say patiently. Then he asked me : “He is an intelligent, well-educated fellow, is he ?” I assented ; and the magistrate remarked : “lam very glad you have told me. this ; I was going to give him a month.” So I went away well satisfied. The prisoner was brought up again, and the magistrate, after a few remarks about the prisoner’s evident intelligence and ability to tell right from wrong, sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment with bard labour, the limit of the law. Since that day ray services as intercessor, have not, strange to say, been in demand. 0 —— SAID NO MORE. A certain steamer got into a dense fog while on her way down the river. A aassenger, anxious to go ahead, went up :o the captain, who was at the wheel, and iskcd why they had stopped. “ Too much fog ; can’t see the river,’» replied the cautious mariner. “ But,” said the passenger, “ you can >ce the stars overhead.”: - “ Yes,’’ said the captain, “but until the aoilers burst we shan’t be going that way.” The passenger turned in. ON ANOTHER TACK. “You didn’t sell a copy of ‘How to Make Home Attractive’to that woman, did you ?” “ Yes I did,” said the book canvasser. ‘ When she came into the room I rose md said that I had this book to sell, but I saw that she did not need anything to make home attractive ; so I begged her garden for coming and started to leave. She bought two copies ” j

WONDERFUL RIDES.

A Cossack officer named PeechJtofThas been recently riding a oommon, and, at the outset, an untrained, Cossack pony from the Pacific to the Atlantic. He stoned, at the beginning of the year, from the town ofrßiagovestchwisk on the Siberian shores of the former ocean, with the intention of ultimately completing the feat at Havre or Rouen , and be reached St. Peteisbwg—the distance to which, from the east coast of the exile »land, is about five thousand miles—at the end of May. Coming down by Berlin j and Paris another fifteen hundred would /have to be added. Horsemanship is dear to men of many nations, and daring and memorable rides have been numerous. The great Moorish tower of the Cathedral of Seville, in Spain, called La Giralda, is said to have been ascended on horseback by Ferdinand the Seventh. By George Sorrow’s account the story is possibly a true one. The tower had a vaulted pathway in the manner of an inclined plane, and not excessively steep. So that though the elevation was great, and the risk such as to deter any but a reckless cavalier, the top was not absolutely inaccessible to a rider : with a good seat. One of the heroes of Hungarian records is Count Sandor. He was a wild and eccentric nobleman, ever striking surprise into the public mind by his achievements in driving and riding. In the town of Pesth there is a long and lofty flight of steps connecting an upper street with a lower. A picture is in existence painted by the Frankfort artist —■ Prestcl, some time Court painter to the Duke of Nassau, which represents the count tooling a coach and team of four horses down this dangerous passage. It was a real event, and Prestel was by the driver’s side and shared the peril of the hour. Nor did it stand alone for its rashness. Sandor took his horses almost . anywhere and everywhere. He scorned obstacles, whether walls, fences, or rivers. As the years go on, h«s mad : rides will fade into the legendary, and it is likely that some critic will arise and prove them No circus master could vie with the strangeness of Count Sander's freaks. Better authenticated is the celebrated - accomplishment of a wager by a Mr; Woodcock, riding on behalf of Mi; Shafto. Here it was not one horse, but a suecession that were engaged, and the chief things shown were good judgment in selecting and endurance oh the part of the rider. Mr. Shafto had undertaken to produce a person who would cover a hundred miles per day for twenty-nine days with twenty-nine different horses.. The chances were that a breakdown - would occur at some point, but inthe ; test the conditions were strictly fulfilled, and the whole 2,900 miles were mede by the same rider on the indicated number of mounts and within the time/ A long and rapid ride was that of the messenger, Richard Cary, who, in 1603, carried tidings to James VI. of Scotland that his kingdom had widened through ‘ \ the death of his cousin, Elizabeth. Cary rode from Whitehall to Molyrood in three days, transacting some private business, and meeting with at least one awkward accident by the way. The distance is fully 400 miles. He would have made better speed yet and have reached Edinburgh by raid-day, but for his mishap. He had been- thrown and kicked by his horse. Heroic rides, have not been few. Many: people have supposed that Browning told? the story of one in sonorous numbers m his “ How they brought the' good "news from Ghent to Aix;” But this is an . error. The poem describes a purely : imaginary .gallop, though" over those leagues important historical news must ■ have frequently sped in charge of gallant couriers. , It is a ride that stands out in solemn pathos in Indian story when the sentry on the walls of Jellalabad saw a -solitary stranger approach on an exhausted pony. - Am English army had perished in the awful defiles of the Afghan pass. This one man was left to tell of the tragedy. Dr. Brydon’s ride is wonderful for cou. rage, perseverance, and .sadness of circumstances, and, withal, as a continued ; hairbreadth escape. A gallant, dogged, heroism, too, was one of the leading qualities of the late Colonel Fred Burnaby, whose famous Ride to Khiva was in all men’s mouths a few years ago, and the history of which he himself told in his well-known book. ; Another brave ride under conditions of extreme danger was that of the young bandsman, MacdbugaJ, of the 46th- Native Infantry, in the exciting days of the Sepoy Mutiny. It was necessary to send a message from Sealkote to General Nicholson at Ulrhritsir, a distance of ‘ eighty miles, and through a doubtful ' country. Macdougal sprang on the hack of a small pony by the parade gyonad, . and almost before protest could be niade, , was away. And the boy carried the tidings of crisis to the chiefs headquarters in spite of the odds against him. He seized fresh horses as he required them . in the villages he passed through, and it may be that in his daring, as well as in his express speed, lay his security. f ♦ - CORRECTED IT. ‘ . Let those who say that the instincts of chivalry are dying out in the rising generation listen to this true tale and for ever after hold their peace. At a well-known school, a child was asked lately if the following sentence was correct—- “ Is it him or her ?” , The child promptly replied—- “ The sentence, ‘ Is it him or her?* .is not correct. It should be Ms it her ,or him ?’ because a gentleman should never I go before a jady.”