Varieties.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 113, 23 September 1868, Page 3

Varieties.

We ssk advice, but we mean approbation. Sin seeks shelter in slang ; corruption of language always marks corruption of manners. Strength is power only when exerted in some way which utilizes the strength. Exerted to no useful purpose it is worse than wasted. " Why in such haste, dear Tom, to wed ? I shall not change my mind," she said. " But then," sa«B he, " I may." Sold./vA wealthy merchant recently said to another : " I came near selling my boots to-day." The other marvelled, and asked " How was that ? "—Then merchant No. 1 sprimg his trap. "Oh 1 I had them half soletf./ — Merchant No. 2 is not expected to recover. There is a laying, which the prosperous are very fond of shying at the head of the non-prosperous — namely, that fortune always knocks at least once at every man's door. In justice to the unfortunate, it must he observed that in many cases even this one has turned out only a runaway knock. One of the most perfect illustrations of " sauce," in its popular tense, with which we are acquainted, is conveyed in the reply once given by a French priest to his bishop. It is a regulation made by canonical law that a priest cannot keep a female servant to manage a household uuless she be of the assigned age of at least forty years. It once happened that a bishop dined with a priest, at whose house the prelate had arrived in the couree of a visitation tour. On that occasion he found that they were waited on at dinner by two quiet, pretty female attendants, of some twenty years each. When the diocesan and subordinate were once more alone, the former remarked on the uncanonical condition of his household, and asked the priest if he were not aware that by a rule of the Church he could maintain but one servant, who must have attained at least forty years. "I am quite aware of it, monseigneur," said the rubicund father ; " but, you see, I prefer having my housekeeper in two volumes."