Traveller.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2030, 25 February 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Traveller.

A Famous Stiver. Ili-rc is a description of the lllionc : “ For all other rivers there is a surface and an underneath, and a vaguely displeasing idea of the bottom. Rut the Rhone Hows like ono iambent jewel; its surface is nowhere, its ethereal self is everywhere, the irridcseent rush and translucent strength of it blue to the shore and radiant to the depth. Fifteen feet thick, of not (lowing, but Hying water ; not water neither—melted glacier, rather, one should call it; the force of the iee is with it, and the wreathing of the clouds, the gladness of the sky, and the continuance of time. Waves of clear sea are, indeed, lovely to watch, but they are always coming or gone, never in any taken shape to be seen for a second. Rut here was one mighty wave that was always itself, and every fluted swirl of it, constant as the wreathing of a shell. No wasting away of the falling' foam, no parse for gathering of power, no helpless ebb of discouraged recoil ; but alike through bright day and lulling night, the never-pausing plunge, and never-fading Hash, and neverhushing whisper, and, while the sun was up. the ever-answering glow of unearthly aquamarine, ultramarine, violet-blue, gentianblue, peaeoek-blue, rivcr-of-paradise-blue, glass of a painted window melted in the sun, and the witch of the Alps Hinging fho spun tresses of it forever from her snow. The innocent way, too, in which the river used to slop lo look into every little corner, Groat torrents always seem angry, and great rivers too often sullen; but there is no anger, no disdain in the Rhone. It seemed as if the mountain st ream was in more bliss at recovering itself again out of the lake-sleep, ami raced because it rejoiced in racing, fain yet to return and stay. There wore pieces of wave (hat danced all day as if I'crdita were looking on to learn ; there were little streams that skipped like lambs and leaped like chamois; ihere were pools that shook the sunshine all through them, and were rippled in hums of over-laid ripples, like crystal sand ; there were currents that twisted the light in golden braids, and inlaid the threads with turquoise enamel ; there were strips of stream that had certainly above the lake been mill-1 reams, and were looking busily for mills t > turn again ; there were shoots of stream that had once shot fearfully into the air. and now sprang up again laughing that they had only fallen a foot or two ; and in the midst of all the gay glittcringand eddied lingering, the noble bearing by one of the midmost depth, so mighty, yet so terrorless and harmless, with its swallows skimming instead of petrels, and the dear old decrepit town as safe in the embracing sweep of it as if it were set in a brooch of sapphire.” Mexican Girls.— The rich arc so very rich that they have no ambition ; the poor so desperately poor that they have no hope to sp■■■alt of. The daughters of the wealthy pass their lives in vacuity : those of (he poor are so poorly fed and dressed that they nearly all look hunger-bitten and ill developed. There arc no lyceums, debating clubs, dramatic associations, public lectures, pie-nies. or any athletic sports in which the Women can join. They are ns completely without good shape as any set of women I ever saw. I doubt if there are a dozen good bums in the city, and as lo legs and feet— Apollo, bless us I the stockings of an average Hoosier girl would go twice around for a Chihuahua belle. A resident physician tells mo that the health of the higher class women is wretchedly poor. Very few of them can nurse their own children. They usually marry at from fifteen to seventeen, and are carcwonn at twenty-live. This physician attempted to introduce bicycles, but the young lailies had neither strength to manage nor persistence to master them. A few hammocks were sold here, but the feeble things nearly broke their necks in getting out of them. A really plump, vigorous, healthy woman of the wealthy classes is a rarity, though many of them have a sort of languid beauty. Ponder those tilings in your heart, and the next lime you see a beautiful senorila swinging in voluptuous languor {on the top of a cigar box) in a gorgeous hummock, with delicate wreaths of smoke circling from her pretty rosebud lips, you will know her for the printed humbug that she is. As to real beauty, that which satisfies the heart of the natural man, 1 can find more of it in one class of Indiana high school girls than in the whole state of Chihuahua—if this city is a fair specimen. Night Fishing in the Monterey Bay.— The fascination of a bright light for fish is slated to have been first discovered by whalers, who noticed that the fish fairly swarmed wherever the glare fell from their trypot furnae- s. The Monterey fishermen have reduced the system to a nicety, and the way in which their nets swarm when beached is ample evidence of their success. When the luring is done on a large scale it requires half a dozen boats, and the sight at night is foil of interest. All but two or three of the boats are lit ted with a metal basket at stern or bow. and in this a brilliant fire of pine knots or oil-saturated wicking is kindled and kept burning by constant replenishing from a stock of fuel carried in the boats. The finis started when the craft are a half mile off shore, and they are slowly pulled into the beach, three or four pretty close together and on even terms. Rebind the Haring lights and extending a considerable distance on either side i f them is a deep not. dragged by a boat at either end and bellied out until it forms almost a half circle, of which the lighted boats are tin- centre. Around the latter all the fish within sight seem togather. bent on investigating the strange brightness, and their eurio-ity keeps them about tinlights until the boats are beached and the two extremis of the net roach the shore. Tluu the united force haul in the richlyfreighted misbis. bringing with them ail the gathered fish, from the tiniest minnow tothe biggest co.I. Hundreds and hundreds of pounds are taken at a single haul, and by lively work l!i-‘same water can lie dragged twin-in a tide with equally profitable results. Tic- catch is pi'oucseuous, and the fishermen are kept, busily employed until (rain time, seating and boxing the different varieties.