AN UNEXPECTED ANSWER

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 24, Issue 17, 4 March 1913, Page 3

AN UNEXPECTED ANSWER

An, was silence and attention in the dim and crowded court, And the magistrate, the bench on, Waited for the long repott. 1 lie policeman, tall and surly, With a pair of monstrous feet, Told of awful hurly-burly That had happened on his beat. How the prisoner in a passion, Mad with rum, had blocked the way, Filled the tide of wealth and fashid i 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, “ Oh, talk amazing 1 Powers of truth, can such things be . ■' Oh, how long shall I be harried By the 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 days I FACTS. The Czar of Russia has issued an edict .'orbidding applause in Russian theatres. It is stated that no other country in Europe has so many bathing places on th« ;ea-coast as England. The largest grape vine in the world is said to be growing at Oys, Portugal, and has been bearing since 1802.

It is said that nearly two-thirds of the rime in London is perpetrated between a p.m. on Saturdays and 9 a.m. on Mondays An express going from London to Liverpool, a distance of 210} miles, will throw out 213.048 puffs before arriving at its des< tination. 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 jymnastic 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 supnosed that the spirit had simply been transferred 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 materials3,s2° y ar, ? s of ? l f el rails, 2,112 fir sleepers, 352 cast-iron joini chaits, 3,872 intermediate chairs, 704 stee. 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 physi lans, whose sole duty is to attend the ailment of the suffering poor. A second Rosa Bonheur is Mdlle. Louisa Ahbema, one of the best-known French lady mists of the day. Not that Mdlle, Abemma has as yet reached the eminence of Rosa Bonheur, or even perhaps given proof of :he genius requisite to attain that position. She resembles, however, Rosa Bonheur m that she dresses in masculine attire, smokes vhen at her easel, and covets the honour of :he Red Ribbon already possessed by her famous rival.

Mks. Fenwick Miller, a journalist and ecturer, was lately asked by a corresponient whether she really thought that women •xmld, if they liked, do all that men can do. ihe 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, contested elections, written political leaders —all like a man; but though I have never yet in my life worn on my head a tress of hair which had not growr there, f 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 oi every day, even when the political season it, as dull as ditch-water. There is generally a fair share of letters of abuse, threatening letters, fierce objurgations, and insane pro posals. But there are also out-pourings of tlu hero-worshipper, in every form known to book, letter, and parcel post. One sends at axe of his own make, another a fiddle ; hert is a rhapsodical poem on a quire of foolscap there a political address illuminated or .eilum. Editors write for " copy,” author? for puffs, pachyderms for autographs, ana dozens of other people simply because a great name to them is like a candleflame to the ninth—they must dash their silly wings into it somehow. Women write to him a rrreat deal, and when he was in office there was seldom a day passed in which he did not receive letters from unfortunate girls ellim' pitiful stories andappealing to him foi Assistance. Altogether, it is perhaps the most incongruous medley of the important and frivolous that has overcome together ir the correspondence of a single man. BREVITIES FOR THE WISE. The cheek speaks quicker than the tongue Time may keep a secret if two of them are 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 hear what lie does not like. An angry man opens his mouth and shuts ,ip his eyes. 'J oo much scratching smarts, too much talking harms. Drop the jest when it is most amusing He who sows thorns should not go barefoot What you dislike in another take care to correct in yourself. . , If you have no arrows in your quiver, do not go with archers. Nothing can come out of a sack but what i’s in it. ~ , . He who knows the road can ride full trot. At a dangeious passage yield precedence. In a calm sea every man is a pilot. Tired folks are quarrelsome. " Wait ’* is a hard word to the hungry. An empty purse fills the face with wrinkles A greedy mill grinds all kinds of corn. The devil is not always at one door. He that swells in prosperity will be sme to shrink in adversity. ' .Behaviouris a mirror in which every one •hows his image. ... . . Fortune turns faster 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 bring up more gravel than pearls. Pleasure can be supported by illusion, but happiness rests upon truth. The reputation of a man is like his shado w —gigantic when it precedes, and pigmy in nrnnorltona whan U fallows.