Odds and Ends. Beecher's Wisdom.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XX, Issue 1416, 28 December 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Every farm should own a good farmer. A man never has good luck who has a bad wife.

The masses against the classes, the world over.

A man who does not love praise is not a full man.

A man must ask leave of his stomach to be a happy man. It tt«;es longer for man to find out man than any other creature that is made.

Flowers are the sweetest things that God ever made and forgot to put a sonl into.

A man without self-restraint is like a barrel without hoops and tumbles to pieces. Tbat cannot be a healthy condition in which fsw prosper and the great mass are drudges.

Whoever makes 'h«tne seem to the young dearer aud more happy is a public benefactor.

The greatest event in a hen's life is made up of an ojg and a cackle. But eagles never cackle.

A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks that he gets as much as he deserves. Gambling with cards, or dice, or stocks is all one thing. It is getting money without giving an equivalent for it.

Communities a-re blest in the proportion i* which money is diffused through tha whole range of population.

Newspapers are the schoolmasters of the common people. That endless book, the newspaper, ig our national glory.

One of the original tendencies of the human mind, fundamental and universal, is the love of other people's private affairs.

This is a good world to sin in, but so far as men are concerned it is a very hard world to repent in. It is a bitter world ; it is a cruel world.

, ProfitaWo Beading.— A greak deal more can be accomplished by systematic reading or study for fifteen or twenty minutes daily than appears possible to one who has never tried it. It would suffice to keep up French or German, and to become conversant with the best authors. Or a little tima given daily to the earnest study of science, and one might become a skilful botanist or geologist. Or if English literature be more attractive — as it undoubtedly is io the great majority — hew soon would one become familiar with Milton or Shakespeare, Bacon or Macaulay, if a few sentences were read and considered daily. Above all things it is important that one should read systematically, and not be guided by chance. Have always a good book, a standard work, that will repay careful study, at hand, and to that devote a part of the time that may be set apart for reading. Before opening the book recall, a3 fully as possible, what was read the day before, and on closing it see by reflection how many thoughts of the author you have made your own, and so cultivate memory.

Seven letters written by the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, were sold in the Hotel Drouot, Paris, recently, for £50. In one of these, dated August 17, 1819, occurs the following interesting statemeut about the Duke's infant daughter, who was afterwards to be Queen of England and Empress of* India : " Her first name is Alexandria ; Victoria, by which -name she is always called at home, is her last, being that of her dear mother. The first she bears after her godfather the Emperor of Bussia. As to her resemblance to both of her parents, I may tell you tbat her mouth and ker hair, which last promises to be a dark brown, are like her mother's. Everybody says that her eyes and nose are mine. Yesterday she accomplished her twelfth week, anil what is remarkable, she is as strong as a child of five months, and already shows symptoms of teething."

The Red Spot, on Jupiter.— Since the year 1878 an oval' red spot on Jupiter has been attracting the attention of astronomers. It lies about thirty deg. south of the equator, and is about 6,000 geographical miles long, and 1,300 miles in width! During'the first three years it could be seen very plainly, but it 18S2 it became faint, without, however, changing its shape ; in 1885 it was partly covered by a whitish cloud, which threatened to veil it entirely, but which has now withdrawn, and left the spot as visible as in 1882 and 1883. It is remarkable that its rotation time from 1879 until now has steadily increased from 9 hours 55 minutes 35 seconds, to 0 hours 55 minutes 40 seconds, also that whilst with Jupiter generally, as with the suu, the angular velocity increases toward the equator, tbe angular velocity of the spot is less than that of the prominent points in higher aud lower latitudes.

British Garrisons-— The largest British garrison at any foreign or colonial station is that which holds Malta. We have there just now 5,890 officers and men, whilst at Gibraltar the total number is only 5,150. In Cape Colony and Natal we have 3,265 officers and men, 1,71^ at Hong Kong, 4,357 at the Straits Settlements, and l t 45G at Halifax, Nova Scotia. As a rule the colonies do not pay anything toward the c«st of the troops provided by the mother country. But there are exceptions. Hong Kong pay a subsidy of £22,000, Ceylon £37,600, and Malta £5000. The Mauritius sets the most praiseworthy example, for upwards of £15,000 is paid^oufc' its revenues toward the expenses of its garrison of 534 men, the total cost of whom is less than £50,000.

A Romantic issue to a recent Nihilist trial is reported from Moscow. The accused was a medical student who had been detected while attempting to conceal explosives in a private house. The owner's daughter had to appear as a witness against him at the trial, and upon her testimony he was sentenced to twenty years' hard labor in the Siberian mines Immediately after the Droceedings were^over the pirl pawned the family jewels, bribed six Cossack 3 who had charge of the condemned man, and helped him to escape, She accompanied him to Switzerland with the intention of retiring into a convent ; but she changed her mind on the way. They have just been married.

It is pretty well known how very pariienlav tbe Prince of Wales is to his personal appearance, and it is a source of great annoyance to him that no restorative has yet been found that can call back into growth, if not an abundant crop, at last an aftermath of hair. A young lady writes that wishing to have one more good look at his royal highness recently, she walked up to the door of his carriage, and then, much to her amusement, before he was fairly seated, he produced a little ivory-backed hair brush, with which he carefully arranged his little remaining ha'r.

Among the survivors of Waterloo is Lord Albemarie, who entered the English army April 4, 1815, and aftrved June 18th with the old Fourteen tit Foot. He retired upon half- pay as major, became a major-general October 2f!, ISSB, and a general, February 7, 1874. Tne uthoi' survior, who is on the array list, is General George Whichcote. This veteran soldier received his commission in January, 1811, and served in the Peninsular war with the Fiffey-second Light Infantry.

Speaking of the jubilees of the English Monarchy ; of fifty -seven Kings, Queans, and Protectors exercising "soverign authority in England from early in the ninth century to far into the nineteenth, the reign 3of only three were prolonged to the jubilee period of fifty The three reigns of fifty years' or more were those of Henry 111, 1216-1272 ; Edwatd 111, 1327-1377; and George 111, 1700-1820.

King Milan of Serbia cannot induce Queen Natalie to speak to him or even to open the letters he writes to her. If anj' miserable kin« thinks he""lias power to bcs3 a woman tie makes a mistake, .