Sketcher.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2044, 18 March 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Sketcher.

S* nor ( asirlar.

ir is kme.ui tlii.’Ugiem; l.mope .a i p .in. ibe most complete expr. —um ol

s•• a'.-h clopuenee. He carries bis worsvp ”f form almost to idolatry; Ins elo- ■ is ii*iisi<■, his diction the .slave oi li's i ar. 11’ says or does not say a tiling: oi r.i'inrbe says it better in one sense than ;u another, according as it rounds oi does not login! a period. He lias a bar--1,..mv in his mind : he follows, obeys it, a;:d sa.-i-itnvs to it all tl'iat oifeilds. ills j■ , d- are strophes : it is neta—an - to lor. in order to believe that human lange without poetic measure can thus ■ ;•;.!•• e’ 1 ihe harmony of poesy and of s.ng. lie: more the artist than the politician : lot Uas not only tile genius but the heart of the an Ist --the heart of a child, incapable of enmity or of malice. In all ’ms spec;,in n.s there is not to be found an abusive epithet : in the Cortes he has i.over prooked a serious personal cn-

■ ■nuter : has never recourse to a satire, nor even makes use of irony. Into his most violent philippics he never infuses a drop of gall ; and tins is evidence of the fact that a republican, an opponent of every ministry, a journalistic ’gladiator, die perpetual acenserof whomsoever holds power and of all who are not fanatical for liberty, he Ims made himself iiated by no one. And with all this, his speeches are ■ n pyed and never feared; Ilia language - too beautiful to be terrible, Ins eliaraevr too ingenious for him to exercise a polii’cal iatbience. He does not know Aw to feme, to plot, to trim his sails—h... is tilted only to please and to shines His elo’juenee when greatest is tender ; his most beautiful discourses draw tears, for him the Chamber is a theater ; like a political iioprovisatore, in order to have a full and calm inspiration he must speak at a certain hour, upon a determined point, and with an allotted time of liberty to himself. Fortins reason, the day on which he is to speak ho has an understanding witii the president of the Chamber dial ills turn will come when the galleries ire most crowded and all the deputies arc m ih- ir pla-ws, his own paper announcing his .-)« ech the evening previous, in order that ladies may be able to provide themselves with tickets. He lias need of tins excitement. Hefore speaking lie is uneasy and i. uinot remain still for an instant. He enters the Chamber, leaves it, re-enters, turns to go out takes the round of the i orridors and library, where be turns over the K aves of a volume in a word he is ;n a f.-vu - of excitement. It seems to him as it he could not nttera syllable that he iiii-g c\i ite ridicule and be hissed. In his mind no longer remains a single lucid idea of Ins speech; everything is confused; evervtiiing forgotten. “How is your pule d his friends em|uirc of him, with a -mile. Tne supreme moment arrived, he springs t” the floor, with head hunt, pale and trembling, like a criminal about to bo executed, resigned to lose in a single moment the glory ae.piired through so many years and with such indefatigable labor. At this instant, an enemy even would compassionate his condition. He rises, throws a rapid glance around him, and speaks: “Smiore.-C" He is safe ; hiscour.ige is U stored to him ; his brain is again mu loaded his speech re-arranges itself in his mind like a long forgotten melody. Tim president, the Cortes, the galleries di.-aopear : he sees .inly his own gesture; heirs only his own voice; feels but the irresistible tlame that enkin Ilesthe force of his own matchless ehxjtieneo. It is beauhim say of himself; “I do of the apartment, even. I Madll <B*tant lands and peoples which I have never seen before.” He speaks for hours together, and not a deputy leaves the hall, not a voice interrupts, not a movement distracts him. Not even when he violates parliamentary rules lias the pn -V.-. ut the courage to interrupt him. Ci.ei ~i r .be.s of dazzling whiteness, and crow aed with rose - ,, be portrays at will the image of his republic; and Monarchists d"tiot venture to protest, for thus arrayed, they even find her beautiful. Caslelar is lord of the assembly. He flashes and fulminates. scintillates and beams like a /V </'o,vof. • ; ho provokes a smile or ho calls for enthusiastic shouts, ending in the midst of an outburst of applause, and vanishing from the Chamber with his head in the clouds.

Such is tins famous Castelar, professor of history in the university, a most prolilie writer on polities, ait, and religion, a publicist who draws from American journals ton thousand dollars yearly; an academician, unanimously elected by (he •Spanish Academy, pointed out in the thoroughfares, looted by the populace, loved by eveuhis opponents; a yotmgman, polished, generous, a little vain and a favorite of fort line.

Hiillis iii Persia. The public baths are another source of pleasure to the lower class of Persians. They are nearly, if not 'pike, as numerous as the Ua-bou.ses. The big majority of them are wry meanly built of sun-baked mud bricks, and so carelessly constructed that the roof of one fell in while I was in Teheran and drove the .score of women who were bathing at the time in precipitous (light through the streets to their homes, clad in nothing but their native modesty, to the great edilicatioii of a jeering crowd. And , 11 1•. cause a little boy, in a spirit of plavinl mischief, had been poking on the top '1 tll 's roof, olirking a pole through it. ll.eb.y broke a leg, bin. the Women escaped uninjured save m the manner afore- : said. 1 lie towel, mod in there by the customers, male and female, arc never washed, but diud in the sun, hung up on strin.s along 'lie a ;li_facing the .street. lie pie got a boh i.-, generally between tuo wills and leu eenio, which sum includes ih e services ol the “liammamjees ’ (servants and protcssional kueaders in the bath). There are common tanks Idled with h«t water, in ninth tlie last nblu tions are [informed. The water in these tanks, although often serving for I‘UO to jOtl persons a day. is changed about twice a week, seldom ofteimr, so there is not much fun about bathing in there. But the fun begins when the bather emerges from the tank, when lie or she is kneaded, combed, anointed, dyed, etc., these offices being performed for the men by the hamnKimjee, and for the women reciprocally. Th e women result much more to the baths than the men, nut because they are cleaner, but because tlie Koran obliges them to, and because the batli is tbe great place for gossip, the locus v. beuee all the scandalimaging, all the idle tales and all the backbiting, of which Persian women arc so fond, radiate.