AM UNEXPECTED ANSWER.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 23, Issue 8, 30 January 1912, Page 8

AM UNEXPECTED ANSWER.

. All was silence and attention In the dim and crowded const. And the magistrate, the beach eg), , Waited for the long report. The policeman, tall and surly, With a pair of monstrous filial. Told of awful hurly-burly That had happened on his bant. How the prisoner la a passion. Mad with rum, had blocked the way. Filled the tide of wealth and fashion With a measureless dismay. And the prisoner, still dirt-haunted. Worn and torn, and dark with grime, Heard with aspect all undaunted. Heard the story of his crime. Then, his grimy hands upraising. In a passion wild and free. Thus he cried, " Ob, talk amazing I Powers of truth, can such things be f “ Oh, how long shall I be harried By th« wicked of the land ? By the troubled waters carried, Coldly thrust from hand to hand ? Oh, how long ?". and through the quiet Of the police-court's darkened maze, Came the stern judicial fiat— Came the answer, " Thirty day* I FACTS. The Czar of Russia has issued an edict .orbidding applause in Russian theatres. It is stated that no other co.antry in Furope has so many bathing places on tha .ea-coastas England. i T he largest grape vine in the world is said .o be growing at Oys, Portugal, and has been bearing since 1802. It is Said that nearly two-thirds of the crime in London is perpetrated between a p.m. on Saturdays and 9 a.m. on Mondays. An express going from London to Liver pool, a distance of 210 J miles, will throw out 213,048 puffs before arriving at its destination, The locomotive of an express train from London to Edinburgh will give 423,456 puffs. At a gymnasium in Paris it is no uncommon circumstance to see elderly ladies in gymnastic costume exercising on the parallel . bars, swings, mechanical horses, etc. Physicians recommend these exercises as a cure for indigestion, and even rheumatism. In some parts of the island of Samos men's names are common amongst the women, for, if a baby girl is born immediately after the death of a brother, it is supposed that the spirit had simply been trans ferred from one child to the other, and the newcomer is condemned 'to take the same baptismal name. In one mile of single-line permanent way on a first class English railway, such as the Great Northern, there are the following quantities of materials 3,520 yards of steel rails, 2,ii2 fir sleepers, 352 cast-iron joint chairs, 3,872 intermediate chairs, 704 steel , fish-plates, 1,408 bolts, nuts, and washers, 3,872 compressed fir keys, 8,448 wroughtiron cup-headed spikes six inches long. ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF MEN AND WOMEN. The Queen of Saxony maintains three physicians, whose sole duty is to attend the ailments of the suffering poor. A second Rosa Bonheur is Mdlle. Louisa Abbema, one of the best-known French lady artists of the day. Not that Mdlle. Abemma has as yet reached the eminence of Rosa .lonheur, or even perhaps given proof of the genius requisite to attain that position She resembles, however, Rosa Bonheur in that she dresses in masculine attire, smokes when at her easel, and covets the honour of the Red Ribbon already possessed by her famous rival. Mrs. Fenwick Miller, a journalist and ecturer, was lately, asked by a corresponient whether she really thought that women :ould, if they liked, do all that men can do. She replied as follows:—" Speaking for myself, there is at least one thing that many men have done, and now do, which I know I should never have the courage to do. I have studied medicine, contestedelections, written political leaders—all like a man; bat 1 though 1 have never yet in my life worn on my head a tress of hair which bad not grown there, I am sure I never, never should have the courage to go about with a bald head.” Mr. Gladstone's post-bag is an interesting receptacle in the ordinary course of i every day, even when the political season is as dull as ditch-water. There is generally a fair share of letters of abase, threatening letters, fierce objurgations, and insane proposals. But there arc also of the nero-worshipper in every form known to book, letter, and parcel post. One sendsan axe of his own make, another a fiddle; here is a rhapsodical poem on a quire of foolscap, there a political address illuminated on vellum. Editors write for “ copy,” authors for puffs, pachyderms for autographs, and> dozens of other people simply because a. great name to them is like a candleflame to : the moth—they must dash their silly wings nto it somehow. Women write to him 3 ;reat deal, and when he was ih office there . jvas seldom a day passed in which he did aot receive letters from unfortunate girls idling pitiful stories and appealing to him for issistance. Altogether, it is perhaps the, aiost incongruous medley of the important' utd frivolous that has evercome together in he correspondence of a single man, BREVITIES FOR THE WISE. The cheek speaks quicker than the tongue. Three may keep a secret if'two of them ire dead. Hedges have no eyes, but they have ears. A talkative fellow is like a drum, which beats a, wise man out of his wits. , Do you wish men to speak well of you? Commend not then yourself. The less men think, the more they talk. Think much, say little, write less. He who says what he likes, must bear what he does not like. An angry man opens his month and shuts up his eyes. Too much scratching smarts, too much calking harms. Drop the jest when ft-C* most amusing He who sows thorns shoui' , not go barefoot. What you dislike in another take care to correct in yourself. If you have no arrows la your quiver, do not go with archers. Nothing can come out ot a tack but what Is in it. He who knows the road can ride hill trot. At a dangerous passage yield precedence. In a calm sea every /> is a pilot. Tired folks are quarrelsome. “Walt" ia a ham word to the hungry. An empty pursefills the face with wrinkles. A greedy mill grinds all kinds of corn. The devil Is not always at one door. He swells in prosperity will lie sore p shrink in adversity. Behavionris a mirror in which every one shows his image. Fortune turns foster than a mill wheel. They at the top to-day may be at the bottom to-morrow. In diving to the bottom for pleasures we King up more gravel than pearls. Pleasure can be supported by Illusion, but. iappiness rests upon truth. 1 The reputation of a man is like bis shadow —gigantic when It precedes, and pigmy in ts proportions when it follows.