Snap Shots.

Southern Cross, Volume 3, Issue 3, 20 April 1895, Page 9

Snap Shots.

Eastertide, with its accompanying holidays, is over, and : we settle down once more to the old hofitine of buying and selling and lying and cheat-ing—-if We' ard 1 not lying t 6 or cheatiidig outselves we are'doing it to someone else. The sayifig- that “ The English take their pleasures sadly ” veas illustrated during the holidays. Travelling by. train you hardly saw, a smile or heard a laugh. Yo u would think that when people, were going for a long, happy day by the. seashore, even though it is raining; a little, they would look glad about it Perhaps when the vineyards cover Central Otago and; wine becomes a cheap commodity,' we may adopt the light-hearted manner of the people of those countries where the grape luxuriates.

What a life a swagger leads, ‘humping bluey’ in all weathers through the country. One of them summed up life in ,the following style the other day—“ I work hard, and when I g’et a cheque I drink hard. : I have been thirty years in the colonies, and might have saved thousands of pounds, but I never, wanted to. When I’m past work I hope-,I won’t live long enough to be a burden' to anybody.” Poor swagger! ■

It seems to me that' the 'shop assistant, is. the only person who lias a good time now-a-days. The bloated capitalist isn’t- in it beside him-, and as to..* the farmer who works his farm >vith his family and occasional outside assistance, why his is a dog’s life. When can he take:his holiday ? ho! The shop assistant is in it just now. What has he to trouble him ? He has plenty of holidays and his evenings to, himself. The clerk has always the fear of retrenchment or amalgamate,on hanging over,-his head, but the shop assistant, if he is smart and active, and happens to lose one billet, can, generally step into another. , , , An announcement was made in a northern paper lately that a certain theatrical company would give a performance there on a certain date, “ just having completed a most successful season in .the south.” If having been obliged to return the money at the doors is proof of a successful season, what constitutes,, a,n unsuccessful one ? .The . public has been, too long misled by. the puffs sent into papers, and really good organisations suffer. It is time these newspaper lies ceased.

Why is it that new books take twice as long to read as ol;d ones P We have a very fine Wbhemnum and get a plentiful supply of new volumes each mail, but you very rarely see them in the Atheneeum. Of course there is a great demand for them, but the subscriber that . has the ,luck, to get hold of one seems to thi.rik.it quite an event and celebrates it by dipping into the book occasionally when he or she has nothing better to do, never thinking- of the 999 other subscribers who are worrying the life out of the librarian for it. Kodak,.