FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA.

West Coast Times, Issue 6560, 2 August 1887, Page 4

FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA.

[By Richardson Eae.]

" I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, 'Tis all barren.' " Sterne.

For a new book, or periodical, or news paper or series of monthly, weekly, or daily articles, or occasional contributions, the great difficulty is to find a new name. All the old and appropriate names have been used up and " appropriated " long ago. I fancy, too, that the poet of to-day has difficulties of a similar nature- Can he say anything more than has been said already countless times, about Spring, or the Skylark, or the Daffodil? Even Proctor, the versatile Proctor, in hia scientific periodical Knowledge has had to fall back on that most unscientific word " Gossip " as a heading for his monthly column of scientific comment." Gossip !" The word suggests a lovely woman ; or rather, two or more women — most unlovely. # * * *

John Stuart Mill, at one period of his life, was ever tormented by the thought of the exhauatability of musical combinations. " The octave," be says, " consists of only five tones and two semi-tones, which can be put together in only a limited number of ways, of which but a small proportion are beautiful : most of these, it seemed to me must have been already discovered, and there could not be room for a long succession of Mozarts and Webera, to strike out, as these had done, entirely new and surpassingly rich veins of musical beauty." The ardent whlat player may well fear that, in time, his favorite game will be completely used ■up. There are only 635 013,559,600 possible hands at whist : and when they have all been dealt in the world, the orack o' doom may possibly be heard rumbling in the distance ! ##• o #

All of which — all of the foregoing I mean— is therefore meant as an apology for the heading I have affixed, and propose in the future to affix, to a weekly column or so of facts, figures and fancies, strung together by myself. I shall roam at leisure, and also at entire liberty, from Dan to Beersheba ; and the title of these papers is, I fancy, new. At least if any one has made use of these words as a title to a series of papers before, I am not aware of it. And it really is of no consequence, whether or no — but they should not have done it.

I can never forget that farewell. It was the last appearance, on the Melbourne stage, of <jt. V. Brooke. There was a presentation made to him at the conclusion of the performance, and the excitement was great. About fifty ladies in the stalls, in their anxiety to bear apart in what was going on, rose in their seats and completely obtruded the view of those behind them. There were cries of " sit down, sit down," to which they paid not the least attention. I was behind too, and could see nothing. So I called out, " Would that pretty girl in front there, kindly sit down, aB— — " I did not seed to go on. Down in a moment flopped the whole fifty, looking very pleased Indeed ; amongst them some pretty old girk act from thirty-five to fifty — or sixty for all I know. * * # #

I have used the word " flopped " in the preceding anecdote. "Flopped" has a vulgar ring about it, but it may be all right, if traced far enough back. Many persons think the phrase " he is a regular brick " Blangy and vulgar. It is nothing of the kind. On the contrary, the expression is classical. King Agesilaus being asked by an ambassador from Epirus, "Why they had no walls for Sparta?" replied, "We have." Pointing to his marshalled army, "TheßO," said he, "are the walls of Sparta ; every man you see Is a brick." * * j *

Did it ever strike you that sound has precisely the same effect on the human brain as Bilence? In Sandhurst (Victoria) the citizens cannot sleep at Christmas time. The silence keeps them awake. During the holidays the roaring, grinding, pounding giant quartz crushing mills are at rest; therefore the people cannot slumber. When work is resumed and all the batteries are battering away, making ceaseless thunder, a delightful repose steals once more over humanity ; and the inhabitants dream calm and blistul dreams of cakes of gold. The waves of the sea — the roaring of the breakers, produce, of course, a like effect — as regards sleeping and waking I mean. They do not suggest riches or happiness to the alumberer, aB the quartz batteries do. Nay; when I hear their tumultuous thunders on the beach at midnight, I cannot but think of poor Harry Harvey and his laßt cry ; I cannot but ask myself what terrible language do these roaring rolling waves utter; what say they of the past — and more awful still— what say they of the future, when we, who have lived our day beside them, have passed away for ever and are clean forgotten of men ?

On a cloudless but moonless night the the total number of Btars visible to the naked eye of average visual power, does not exceed 6000. Of these, 3307 are bo visible in this hemisphere. An opera glass increases the number to 20,000, and a small telescope brings out 150,000. A powerful telescope reveals one million. But the sum of all the stars, according to Sir William Herschel, down to the twentieth magnitude, exceeds sixty-six millions of millions ! And every star is as large or infinitely larger than our sun; and our sun is so large that, from it, 800 worlds as large as our world could be made! Then there are the countless orbs revolving around these countless suns ; and the countless moons revolving around these orba. And so on ad infinitwm. There is, truly no beginning, no end, to systems, suns, and worlds ! Is there amongst them all, a more unhappy world than this one ; or does any other sun shine on such injustice, wretchedness and misery as our sun Bhines upon every day ? Answer ? There is no answer. Stars, silent rest o'er us j Graves under us, silent. * * * *

No one, I suppose, forgets the first

?X4, &a&.

dtiad human face that ho, or chc> bis ever gazed on? The first eight I had of human death was in the town of Tralee. I had just arrived there, from Dublin, as a lad ; and was going through the main street, with some relatives. It was a fair day, and the fair was held in the street, which was crowded with people speaking Irish ,• with oxen, sheep, horses and produce. Out from the curb of the i footpath lay a board, or door, and on it | covered with a few rags, were a mother aad daughter, dead. The people took | not the least notice. It was in the year j 1847 and such sights were familiar to i them, in those days. They hr.d felt hunger probably ; most of them ; and this mother and daughter had died of hunger. At a later period of the afternoon, I saw a man from the workhouse come and cart away the bodies in a dray. I never forgot those two human dead faces, from that day to tbis. But I saw plenty more of starvatiozx in those wild regions, afterwards.

It is not generally known that there is a haunted house in Hokitika. There is, however ; the house is in Stafford street, and vpry strange and unearthly noisi'S aie heard there, especially on dark and gloomy nights. It is said that a murder was committed in the neighbor-, hood in early days, but of this there is no record. Anyhow no one can live in the house. Tenant after tenant has been obliged to give the ghost " beat," after bravely enduring his (or her) trampings, and stampings, and commotions resembl« ing the throwing about of flat irons, for days and weeks. I have occasionally listened to hear these noises, but I never heard anything. That was simply because I did not wait loug enough. You can hear these most solemn and terrifying disturbances on almost any night in the year, provided (Ist) that you have patience, and (2nd) provided that the ghost is about, and is on the war path. Ghoats, of course, have to pay visits and to be away, and even take rest as all liviug human beings have to do, now and again.