RANDOM READINGS.

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 330, 14 July 1914, Page 7

RANDOM READINGS.

NAPOLEON AND THE BALLOON

When Napoleon was a young cadet lie went on one occasion to witness the ascent of a balloon in the Champs do Mars. He entered, unpereoivcd, the enclosure which contained the balloon, which was then very nearly full and about to ascend, and requested the aeronaut to allow him to cuter the car. The request, however, was refused, the reason given being that the feelings of the boy might embarrass tho aeronaut.

"Though I am young, I fear neither the powers of earth nor of the air!" Bonaparte is reported to have exclaimed. On being requested to retire, the little cadet, enraged at tho refusal, drew his sword and, slitting the balloon in several places, destroyed tho apparatus which had been constructed with infinite labor and ingenuity.

Such was Napoleon's first and last attempt to ascend in a balloon.

AN ETERNAL QUESTION.

There is much talk at present by eminent scientists as to what form the spirit takes after death. Through all the ages men have sought the clue of this great' mystery, and, in all probability, the theories which are being expounded to-day were expounded thousands of years ago by the wise Eastern men.

It, is certain, however, that there are moments in the course of the average person's life when the spirit of death hovers perilously near. It is just after birth that the angels of life and deatli fight their fiercest battle, and the next most dangerous ago is that of seven by-one. The age of three comes next in importance in this respect. Almost onefourth of all babies born die during the third year. From three to forty-live is a comparatively safe period, but tho latter age is admittedly a trying and dangerous one.

Reach forty-five safely, and you may reasonably hope to roach seventy-one, the period second in danger- to the first few hours after birth.

STUDENT OF NATURE. "Thanks," said the tragedian, setting down his glass and absent-mind-edly pocketing niv change, which lay upon the bar between us. ".Many thanks for your good opinion. I always study from Nature—from Nature, sir. Tn my acting you see reflected Nature herself." "Try this cigar," said an admirer of Nature, reverently. "Now, where did you study that expression of intense surprise that you assume in the second act?"

"From Nature, sir; from Nature. To secure that expression I asked an intimate personal friend to lend me iivo pounds. He refused. This caused me no surprise. 1 tried several more. Finally, I struck one who was willing to oblige me, and. as he handed me tho money, I studied in a glass tho expression on my own face. I saw there surprise, but it was not what I wanted. It was alloyed with suspicion that tho sovereigns might be bad. I was in despair." "Well?" said the other, breathlessly. "Then an idea struck inc.. I resolved upon a desperate course. I returned the five pounds to my friend the next day, and on his astounded countenance I saw the expression 1 was in search of. Yes-, thank you, a small whisky as before."

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S PALACE. Of all the interesting discoveries made during the Babylonian excavations the most important is that of Nebuchadnezzar's palace. Little except tho foundations of tho palace remain, and they are of square burned bricks, each of which bears on its lower face the name and title of the great king. The .several hundred chambers of the palace are small; some of them are scarcely larger than a modern bed. One chamber, much larger than the rest, had at one side a low platform of bricks. That is supposed to have been the throne-room; upon the platform the throne of the king probably stood.

There was a sacred street in Babylon that led from the palace to the temple. Along it the images of the gods were carried in procession in time of festival. The palace gateway that led to the street, known as Ishtar Gate, is most imposing, and give tho spectator a good idea of how Babylon must have looked in its glory. "Whatever its original height may have been, it still stands 40 feet above the street. Its six square towers of burned bricks measure twelve feet each way, and on all their sides, one above another, there are beautiful bas-reliefs of bulls, lions, dragons, and animals of fantastic shapes. The reliefs are of brick, glazed blue and yellow and white, and the coloring is as fresh as it ever was. Each brick of the relief was glazed separately, and so accurately that when it was placed in the wall it formed a part of the perfect picture.

Within the City of Assur wore discovered the earliest Assyrian palaces and tempi!-:-;, the homo of the Mayor, an intricate system of waterworks and drainage, a business si root lined withi shops and paved with blocks of marble,, the thickly-crowded residential section of the poorer people, the groat vaulted tombs of the nobles, with massive doors of sLoiic, nhicli still swing on their stone pivots, innumerable weapons, and ornaments of gold and stone.