NOTES FROM MY SCRAPBOOK

Southland Times, Issue 17553, 17 January 1914, Page 11

NOTES FROM MY SCRAPBOOK

(Contributed.) ALL'S FOR THE BEST. ■ATI*s for the best, if we only did know it, Trials and suffering, anguish and loss : Tenderly, kindly, God's hand doth bestow it. Bridging with love the deep chasm across. All’s for the best : Ee sanguine and cheerful. Trouble and sorrow are friends in disguise ; nothing but Folly goes faithless and fearful. Courage forever is happy and wise ; All's for the best, if man would but know it. Providence wishes us all to be blest ; There is no dream of pundit or poet, Pleaven is gracious and all's for the best All’s for the best Set this on your standard. Soldier of sadness, or pilgrim of love, 'Who to the shores of Despair may have wandered A way-wearied swallow, or heartstricken dove ; All's for the best : Be a man but confiding. Providence tenderly governs the rest ; And the frail bark of His creature is guiding Wisely and warily all for the best. All's for the best ! Then fling away terrors. Meet all your ieajgs and your foes in the van. And in the midst of your dangers or errors Trust like a child, while you strive like a man : All’s for the best : Unbiassed, unfounded. Providence reigns from the East to the West ; And. by both Wisdom and mercy surrounded, JHope and be happy that all’s for best IS IT RIGHT 7 Is it right to build churches to save men. and at the same time license shops that destroy them ? Is it right to sell men that which will make a man drunk, and then punish the man for being drunk ? Is it right to derive a revenue out of a traffic which no decent man defends ? Is it right to license a man to make paupers and then tax sober men to take care of them ? Is it right to license a saloon to teach vice, and then tax people for schools to teach virtue 7 Is It right to teach a boy to restrain his passions and then vote to license a place where his worst passions will be Inflamed 7 Is it right to take care of your own boy. and vote to license a place which ruins your neighbour s boy 7 Is It right to preach justice and charity, and then vote to license a tiling which robs the widow and orphans of ibeir bread 7

FOR THE LITTLE LADS. AN UNVISITBD LOCALITZ. I wlsli I was as big as men. To see the Town of After Ten : I've heart! it is so bright and gay. It’s almost like another day. But to mv bed I’m packed off straight When the old clock strikes half-past eight It’s awful hard to be ;i boy And never know the sort of joy That grown-up people must have when They’re in the Town of After Ten. I’m sure I don’t know what they do. For shops are closed, and churches, too. Perhaps with burglars they go 'round, And do they dare to make a sound ! Well, soon i'll be ;i man. and then Til see the Town of After Ten >

FOR THE GIRDS. “What is my favourite role ? Well, I haven’t one.” said Madame Melba to a Sydney pressman. ” I am most impartial for the simple reason that I never play anything that i don’t like and never accept a role in which I cannot entirely lose myself. I want to discourage girls who aspire to singing fame. Tell them not to. Tell them I said. ’ Pass it. pass it by.’ The world is not kind to anyone who dares lift head out of the ruck of mediocrity. Tell the girls of this our wonderland that Melba says, ‘ If you have voices, if you must sing and the singing in your heart will not be stilled, sing if you must, but not for the public. Home is best.' Husband and child, hearth and home, and the lullaby is the sweetest of all melodies. Tell the girls that the struggle for fame is a path strewn with thorns, tears and tribulation ; the way is long, hard and dreary, and even when fame is reached that pinnacle but silhouettes one against the horizon and the penalty in secret is dead sea fruit. The substance of life is home. I know it. Most women know it. too, deep down in their hearts ; and a career is a chimera. Sing, sing if you must, but sing for your husbands and croon love-songs for your babies. Triumphs are inspiring, but tliov do not stand for true happiness. You remember what Frances F,. Willard, that great woman, said before she passed away : ’ All that the world has brought me would I willingly have exchanged for a pair of baby arms round mv neck.’ She knew, and I want your girls to know that before they cast aside the substance for the shadow. If they wish to be happy, never wish to he famous.”

The Presbyterian Assembly in Toronto has carried with enthusiasm a resolution committing the Church to seed* the total suppression of the liquor traflic Rev Dr Grant, in moving the resolution. said : " God will not save Canada until Christian men look to the traffic and sav. ’ Get off the mat.’ ” It is stated that men got upon the seats and shouted, women and men waved their handkerchiefs.

BISHOP DOAXE OX HIS DOG. I am quite sure he thinks that I am God— Since he is God on whom each one depends . For Bife, and all things that his bounty sends — My dear old dog. most constant of all friends ; Not quick to mind, but quicker far than To him whom God I know and own ; his eyo. Deep brown and liquid, watches for my nod ; He is more patient underneath the rod Than I. when God his wise corrections sends. He looks love at me, deep as words e er spake. The following is a will left by a drunkard of Oswego. New York . I leave to society a ruined character and a wretched example. I leave to my parents as much sorrow as they can in their feeble state bear. I leave to nt) brothers and sisters as much shame and mortification as I could bring upon them. I leave to my wife a broken heart a life of shame. I leave to each of ray children poverty and ignorance, a low character, and a remembrance that their 'father filiccl a drunkard's grave.”