Miscellaneous.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1702, 3 July 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Miscellaneous.

A Cigar, Alone I puff soft wreaths of blue That frame a most delightful view j A little library with two Together sitting: A youth and girl. Upon her knees A novel with a hero, he’s A ghostly circumstance to these Quaint wraps she’s knitting. The lover holds the worsted, and Just touches one fair pinky hand : How well her bright eyas understand I For soon, unbidden, Two scarlet lips begin to move A conversation in that groove Where chosen words quite clearly prove The subjeot hidden, And then the knitting’s laid aside; The needle’s dropped; and some sweet guide Leads both his hands to haply hide Two others whiter. I listen, and a mellow note Slips through the rosy, rounded throat: I hear the happy lover quote The novel’s writer. The writer—ah, what kind fates oome To keep harsh criticism from His little book; perhaps ’tis some Such situation; — A picture similar to this, Portraying a brief spell of bliss, And punctuated with a kissInterrogatien. I see the faces slowly meet, And shy, uncertain glances greet: The knitting’s fallen to her feet; And on hia shoulder Her head in golden glory lies, While, fathoming her lovely eyes, He reads the teaderest replies,— With drooping lashes; The picture fades from sight afar As pales at morn a silver star; I seek tho light of my cigar, And find but ashes. —Frank Dempster Sherman.

Wood Wool.

Although this product (so called because it consists of very fine shavings derived from wood) has for the last four years bean in extensive use in America, its use in Europe has been limited. It is but recently that it has b;en decided to employ it, net only for packing, but also for stuffing mattresses, and as .a substitute, for rags in cleaning engines, and for filtration, etc. As waste wood of all kinds may be employed for manufacturing the article, and as the machines that produce it are cap this of making, according to the fineness that it is desired to obtain, as much as a thousand pounds a day, it may correctly be asserted that wood wool, as compared with hay and straw, is the cheapsr article for packing purposes. On another hand, hay and straw are often damp, and it is rarely the case that tho former does not contain the stft steins of plants, As a material for stuffing bedding, harne's, and upholstery, wood wool comes next to hair as regards elasticity ; and it is even preferable to all other materials when it is derived fron resinous wood, in that it absorbs no moisture and beeps away insects. After numerous trials, which have demonstrated the value of the article, several hospitals have adopted it as a stuffing for bedding, cushions, furniture, etc.

The Flight of the Red Horse.

A Dakota Leosnd, “ My son, Woneya, I must make A journey to the Saored Lake. Far to the north, 'mid ice and snow, A long, long way it is I go. An arrow flying all the night Would fail to reach it in its flight. You are my son; I give to-day Full leave to all your childish play. All things are thine ; go where you will, Save to the Red House on the hill. Try not its door, turn not the key; There death and ruin wait for thee, But how and why I may not tell, For there is laid on me a spell, Bo all my love must turn to hate, And no man can escape bis fate.” Washaka goes. In boyish play The child wears out the summer day ; He swims the stream, his crafty hook Draws shining treasure from the brook; The chattering squirrel hugs his limb As the swift arrow grazes him.

R it p’.T-r, as ha played, he sail. 1 '.Vh it i i there in the House of R'd ? " (i • whore b" would, each pathway still Ic'd to t u p Rd II vi?o on the hill. A ! la«t he find.i fc«f irs the door. V> r th rneetiu symbili pictured o’, r “ Wiiat could my father mean," he ="- : d, “ To keep raa from the. House of He;! ? ” Ah no ! ho will not disobey, Ahh nigh the si eis fir away; And yet, what harm conll come of it For him to eee which bey would fit ? And now he tries them, one by one, Uif.il a f - last—what has he dons? S mv? thouphtless pressure of the look, Toe d .in' flies open with a shock. S'ran ee tremors run along the ground; Toe world is full of direful sound ; S'raug-> voices talk; strange whispers rise ; R'rauoo portents in the earth and skies. T i nugh the wido door the youth can see VI that there is of Mystery. B "ore him stood a Horse of Red, W th mane of gold, who sternly said : “ Unhappy boy I what have you done ? WiohaVa now must slay his son.” S ruel. down with terror and remorse Th° yo"th falls prone before the horse. ' 0 i, help me, help 1" Woneya cries. With grasping breath and streaming eyes. “ Teach mo some way ; show me the path Whore I may flee my father’s wrath.” Toe horse replies: “ The wrong is great, Yet I have pity for thy fate. 010 way alone is left to flee, With perils fraught to thee and me. I charge thee, on thy life, thy soul, To yield thee up to my control. Book neither backward, left, nor right; B i brave, and yield no place to fright. Thy father now will try each art To strike a terror to thy heart; But if thy heart begin to quail, That instant all my strength will fail; And if Washaka us o’ertake, I, too. must perish (or thy sake. Take in thy hand this conjurer’s sack. Away 1 away ! Spring to my back I" Jo said, so done. Away they sped. The dark sky clamored overhead; A mighty wind blew from the east, Which momently its force increas’d; The sun went down, but, through the night, He holds his tireless, even flight. No need is there for spur or rein; Life is the prize he strives to gain. But. though the horse flies like the wind, The father presses hard behind, And, ere the break of morn appears, A dreadful voice is in bis ears : 11 Stop I stop 1 thou traitor, whSa my knife Shall quickly end your wretched life." “ Bsware I beware I Turn not your head ! Be brave I be brave 1” the R-d Horse said. " Put now your band within the sack; What first you find throw quickly back.” Woneya in an instant found An egg, and tossed it to the ground: It bursts, it spreads—a wide morass, Through which the father may not pass 1 Fierce lightnings fire Washaka’s eyes As westward still the Red Horse flies. Long time the father sought, in vain, Some passage o’er the marsh to gain, Where long-necked lizards bask> d or fought. Where winged dragons ruin wrought, .Vhere serpents coiled and hissed, whose breath Rolled up in elouda of fire and death. At last he throws the magic bone, Which turns that teeming life to stone; And where he picks his careful way, There are the Bad Lands to this day. The morn blooms in the eastern sky ; The day comes on, the noon is nigh; The noon is past, the sun is low, The evening red begins to glow; But, driven still by sorest need, Still swift and swifter flies the steed. Vast, sky-rimmed plains on either side Begin to turn in circles wide, While rook, and shrub, and bush within In dizzy circles spin and spin. So swift the flight, so hot the race, The wind blows backward in his face; But swifter far than any wind The father presses on behind, And to their ears is borne the cry That summons them again to die. “Bsware 1 Be brave I Turn not thy hr ad ! Put in thy hand I ’’ the Red Horse’said; “ The first thing that thy hand shall find, That take, and quickly hurl behind.” He draws and throws a bit of stone, When, ’twixt father and the con, A range of mountains rears its height On either hand beyond the sight. Washaka seeks a pass in vain ; To left and right, above the plain, The strong grim rocks confront his eyes. While westward still the Red Horse flies. At last ho draws his feathered spear And hurls against the rampart sheer. So swift it dashes on the rock, Fire-streams bnrat outward at the shook, And where against the cliff ho drives, From base to top it rends and rives; A narrow gorge is opened through, By which Washaka may pursue. And now the Red Horse knows the need Tr, Intri.-U nil A ,J * falling star ; But swifter still upon hia path Washaka follows in his wrath. And now that fearful voice again Comes o’er the horror-shaken plain ; “Stop, wretches, stop! Behold th? ilooll Now shall my knife run red with blood 1 Who now can save you from my hate, And who has ever conquered fate ? ” Alas I what hope is left, and where ? What refuge now from blank despiit ? The end is dome, where shall they flee ? Briore them is the open sea. 1 Beware 1 beware ! Turn not thy head. Put in thy hand 1 ” tho Bed Horae said ; “ Just as we reach the ocean shore, Draw out and quickly hurl before. B; strong of heart. Be calm; be bravo ; The sou is not to be «ur grave.” Woneya thiuats hia hand within, Draws forth the bed-wrought serpent's

skin, And casts it forth, when lo 1 a boat Upon the gleaming waves afloat ! They gain it with a single leap That sends it forward on the deep. The sails are set; before the breeze It draws its white trail o’er the seas. In vain the bright blade of the sire Whirls through the air in rings of fire. He gains the beach a moment late— What man has ever conquered fate ? Vain are his curses, vain his prayer ; The glittering waves are everywhere, Washaka stosps along the sands, Uproots a huge dill with his hands ; He heaves aloft with tug and strain, And eends it wheeling o'er the main. High in the air it rooks and swings, A moment to the clouds it clings ; Then, as from lofty mountain-wails, Like some vast avalanche, it falls. The sea shrinks, cringing, from the shook Of that dark, shapeless bulk of rook, Like some great fragment ef a world From out the stellar spaces hurled. Like chsii beneath the flail outspread The waves, and bars the ocean's bed. One vast wail, sweeping to the west, Bears on its topmost curving crest The tiny boat, so feather-light, Through all that long and fearful night. At morn they rest, their journey done, In a fair land beyond the sun; And one, with awful rush and roar, Springs tiger-like against the shore, Drags down Washaka from the land, And hides him 'neath the sliding sand. Still from that coast a slender bar, Like a long finger, stretching far, When tides are low, points o’er the wave— That is Washaka’s lonely grave. — H. E. Warner, in the Century.

The Earth a Great Magnet.

Everything on the earth and in the air above is permeated with the earth’s magnetic force~it goes through your clothes, it pene-

Gates your bodies, it saturates your brains - it ie a part of life itself. Gius, the illustrious fiorman astronomer, has computed (caltm-r a* a unit of his measure a magnet, fourteen '■cries lone, one inch wide one-fourth inch thick weighing one pound, made of the her ieat steel and of the strongest magneth 'oros passib!e( the earth’s magnetic fores a« equal to 8 404 000,000 000,000 000,000 Bush magnets. The attracting or lifting power of snub a magnet is about ten pounds, which would make the attractive power of the earth 42,810,000.000,000,000,000 tons. If this magnetism were equally distributed throughout the mass af the earth, the magnetic intensity of each cubic yard would be equal to six of these magnets, or about sixty pounds attractive force. Professor Mayer has shown that this magnetic influence, this invisible force, is a power filling space to an unknown distance and radiating in the lines of magnetic force very much as the rays of the sunlight, the lines of the earth’s magnetic force being from south to north, as indicated by the compass needle. —Horological News,

Aeration of Water.

An important experiment in water-purification has recently been carried out at Philadelphia, under the superintendence of the chief engineer to the water-supply department of that city. It has been known for some time that the purifying action of air upon water is much increased if the two be mingled under pressure, but the fact existed simply as the result of a laboratory experiment. To try the practicability of the principle on a big scale, a large turbine was converted into an air-pump, and was made to deliver a measured volume of air to a water-main. On analysis of the water before and after the experiment, it was found that the quantity of free oxygen in the water had increased by seventeen per cmt. The amount of oxygen indicated represents the excess of what was required to purify the organic matter contained in the water previous to its b<” alien. Toe result of the experiment is considered highly satis factory.