A Quill for Everyone.

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 948, 27 February 1897, Page 7

A Quill for Everyone.

They had loved and quarrelled and sighed, and quarrelled again, in the good old daya of yore, and when he returned from other cities, after a long estrangement, he found that his former inamorata was married to a thriving tradesman and domiciled with her' young family in a fashionable suburb. She felt the consuming passion, of her early infatuation when she gazed upon him again. He had never suffered from any consuming passion, and so he did not take the disease, bnt when she proposed that he ahoold come and Btay a fortnight he was nothing loth. It was cheaper than living in a city hotel, and the prospect of diversion and pastime was alluring to a young man of his temperament and tastes. His fortnight's stay was prolonged to months. He was petted and pampered,

and feasted and feted, and when be wearied of it"all and wenffor an occasional spree with his : own boon, companions, he was carefully sought out in his haunts and conveyed back to the suburban mansion. He lived the life of a fighting-cock, and laughed at the constancy of school-girl love, and she pampered and feted him as usual. -

Then he found it expedient to move on. The Bpur of common necessity stimulated him to activity. He conld not langnish in the suburban mansion for ever. " Therefore, he packed up his belongings, and moved on to another place, with fond adieux and many tears and much protestation. The Bvlvan romance did not, however, end there. She developed an inclination for travel, also. She was jaded, and tired, and de- . pressed in spirits, and required a sea trip for a tonic, and a eea trip she accordingly took. Since which time, the aforesaid fashionable suburb has been suggestively Bhrugging its shoulders and disdainfully turning up its nose at the intelligence that the names of the love-lorn matron and her quondam guest are appearing in the visitors' list of the same notel in another city. High-toned society, such as the society of -the fashionable suburb we refer to, always turns up its nose at little things like this. It was a very perilous trip that was made to the Hen and .Chickens last week by a party of local prospectors and goldseekers. They fairly gave themselves up for lost on the voyage ashore in the ship's boat, and yet, strange to say, the billows did not swallow them up. They landed in the small hours of the morning, and a,

sturdy ex-publican seized an axe to -cut a' tent pole, but a pair of green eyea glaring down at him from the branahes of a -tree,, threw him and the : other explorers into a condition bordering on hysterics; and they decided to do without - the. tent. The place was fairly filled with alarms. Finally, before daybreak, a marauding figure was seen: gallivanting along the beach. One of the party seized bis gun and put a bullet through it. Then they all marched down to see what tttey had slaughtered, and found they had shot a ' large, sheet of brown paper, which the fresh breeze had blown off one of the parcels they had left lying on the beach. Oh, it was a terrible night. • - " * » The proposal that the Government should lease the Oyster. bedß on our foreshores smacks of a big monopoly. - Why not sell to somebody the monoply of fishing rights in our harbour ?- Also, why not devise some means of making a profit-paying monopoly out of the sunshine, and the rain that falls from the clouds ? It is going a trifle too far when a monopoly of our food supply is attempted, and these oysters that nature has provided in such vast quantities on the foreshores of our river, are a part , of our natural food supply. - * • ' • ' Truth ' writeß from Cambridge to correct two statements which appeared in our Country Cousins' gossip last week. He affirms that Mr Albert Johnston's services on the occasion of the Cambridge fire were duly extolled in the newspaper report, for ' Truth ' himself claims the authorship of that report. He also takes up the cudgelß on behalf of Mr Geo. Dickenson, Chairman of the Cambridge Library Committe, who. he says, has succeeded in making the library 'one of the most flourishing institutions in the Waikato.' We always had the impression that Mr Dickenson was a real live man who never spared himself where the public interests were to be promoted. And we are quite prepared to believe that he has earned the praise which ' Truth ' bestows upon him. Where were the tuft-hunters of Welling, ton the other day? They lost a great chance. At the farewell demonstration to Lord Glasgow, the arms of his house were displayed over the platform painted on a zinc shield. In clearing away the refuse of the Exhibition, this shield was put up to auction with other goods. But, sad to relate, no one would bid for it. And, horror of horrors ! this relic of vice-royalty had to be thrown in with two plebeian enamelled dishes, the whole lot going for an insignificant two bob. After all, 'tis the way of the world. Lord Glasgow has ceased to reign in New Zealand, and the • people who a joar ago would have done anything to gain the vice-regal smile or beck, are now looking out with eagerness for the rising gubernatorial sun as the object of their worship. All St. Stephen's Avenue is laughing at the story of the little boy who went to see his grandmamma with his waist belt so tightly drawn that the poor little chap was in danger of being sawn in twain. Grandmamma took compassion upon the child, and let a couple of inches of slack into the . waist belt, and the boy was comfortable and happy once more. But not for long. When the step- mamma saw what had happened, and realised that grandmamma had dared to interfere with her boy, she . straightway cut that piece of slack out of the belt, gathering the band in until the infantile * tummy ' was reduced to infinitessimal girth, and forthwith issued an ultimatum of war which caused the good grandame to shiver in her ehoeß. It is expected that papa will forswear the maternal roof-tree lest he should have the slack let out also, and thus incur the irate displeasure of the ruling divinity. A correspondent writes to us in grief as he contemplates the difficulties which played-out veterans will have in answering the questions as to age and place of birth they are required to answer in the form of claim under the Old Age Pension Scheme. Well, we overflow with sympathy ourselves, but cannot see any cause for worry on that account. The old fellows have a large range of choice for birth-places, and, as to age, if they are doubtful on that score their consciences need sot prick them if they give themselves the benefit of the doubt. A too tender conscience is rather a scarce commodity nowadays. It was rather a pity that the action brought by George McCaul against Peter Oliphant for the recovery of an insurance policy was settled out of the S. M. Court. Peter came up to scratch, and thus prevented the taking of evidence. But the I evidence, if it had been heard, would have been of a startling character, and would i have thrown some light upon the methods of money-lending, and would perhaps have shown that there are ways of money other than charging twenty or thirty per cent. However, though this case has been settled, there will probably be another action which will let the desired , daylight in. .