PROFESSOR BLACKIE'S REMINISCENCES.

Timaru Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 5420, 23 May 1892, Page 3

PROFESSOR BLACKIE'S REMINISCENCES.

Professor Blacki'i is now 83, hat never worn, a pair of spectacles m hie lie. and until very reaently had Deeded no medical advice for over 80 years. He told the Strand Magazine interviewer tbe other day that he attributed his robust health to tho fart that ho hos ulways worked and lived, read and thought, on a system, "He rtaea at 7.30 and breakfasts. Tbe morning i« occupied m work and coneipondeoco. The open air claims him every day for two hours before dinner, and Morpheus for an hour after the midday meal. ' No hard work after 9. Unless ho has a lecture or other engagement, the evening finds him playing a game of back* gammon with his wife, and lie opens the door of his 1 bedroom as the clook is chiming 12" The professor told his Tisitor many stories. Hero is onu about Dr Gutbrie, who wa§ a groat friend of the profoasor's: — " One Sunday U>e doctor had been up at Inverness anaiating at tho sacrament. On tho Monday tlioro was a mooting, and tho doctor happened to bo pnrliouli»rly merry. Jhore. wan one man m tho front cent who eyed the doctor* with great graviiy, and as he gave out joEo after joke his face became graver dill. V\ hen the meetiDg was all orer, he went up to Guthrie with a foarfully solemn face, find said, ' Ah I Dr Guthrie, Dr Guthrie, if it hadn't bean for the grace of God ye might hive beon a splendid comic aotor!'" About Oarlyle, whom the professor know intimately, he eaid :— " I was not one of his out-aud-out worshippers at all. His work w«a to rouse tho world [ but I was wideawake, and required no rousing. I thought him somewhat despotic and tyrannical ; though, mark jou, ho posieosod extraordinary pieloritit paver, and was a good i-ootehman. I admired bis genius, and perhaps his bark wan worse than bis hite Ha was hard hearted, and h;itod tinners. He culled here once jnut when the groat noise was going on pboafc tho convicts being underfed. He Began talking about them. ' Kuir fellows ! Puir fellows !' lie caid. ' Oitb them brown soap and a footatool, and kick them to tho devil ! ' "