LIFE'S LITTLE WANTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 24 December 1927, Page 5

LIFE'S LITTLE WANTS.

Brotherly Love. The teacher was giving his class a lecture on charity. “Willie,” he said, “if I saw a boy beating an ass, and stopped him from ■doing so, what virtue should I be showing? ' ’ Willie (promptly): “Brotherly love.” # * * * Hospital Wireless. Large enough to supply 2000 pairs of head-phones and SO loud-speakers, the wireless installation at the Lambeth Hospital, London, cost nearly £ISOO. Tt is controlled and switched on by two clocks which need winding once a fortnight * * * * A Wild-Goose Chase. All dav long on Wednesday the members ofjitemall railway settlement were serenaded by the mournful cries •of a goose in captivity, which, by its lone of protest, seemed to know that liis day of execution was drawing nigh. Some time during the next morning one young member of the family casumlly strolled out to view and gloat over what was destined to be his Christ - anas dinner, but, alas! the bird had flown. Quickly the hue and cry was raised, oiul mother, with all the sons and daughters, set out in pursuit. Many times yoosc cries were heard in the distance, which always proved to be like a mir.age in the desert, a myth. After many hours of fruitless searching, all return home.resigned to the tact -that their palates would have to be Tickled with something less appetising. When Dad arrived home, and the ■siTtowful tale was told, he was not so •easily daunted, so after a. hurried tea ;a further search was organised, which promised to be as disappointing as the first, but as the searchers were returning and had got within a few yards of borne, the missing bird was discovered peeping«rfim under a large tuft of irushos. goose was seized b\ Dad, .and promptly dispatched, for Dad is ; a firm believer in the old adage: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. ’ - • • * * .Humanity of Shop Assistants. '.There is always an air of hectic rush, .-about Christmas Eve in Masterton. If one can have any notions except that of auger in an atmosphere of much Misctonfort, it is of sympathy for the harassed shop assistants. Boys will be boys, of course, and that is why the • children insist on blowing every trumpet that lies upon the counter, and winding every clock-work train. Every bicycle must be sat upon, every cricket "bat must be handled, even though the admiring parents propose to buy only 3. shilling doll. it is part of the routine of Christmas (Eve. Still, one admires the humanity of the shop assistants. It is something, after, a week or more of C'hrist- ' be able to smile on the * eve of that great day, ami ask every ■child what Santa Claus is going to bring them. This, one feels, is stuff heroes and heroines.are made of'. Or should .it be saints? In general, to-night in Masterton will be much like any other Christmas Eve. That is to say, at a few minutes before •closing time in most of the shops there will be an invasion of persons armed with little slips ‘of paper. And upon •those slips will be written the names ■of relatives and friends who had been forgotten in the general rush. Everything in the shops will have to be ransacked in order that Tom, Dick and .'Harry, not to mention little cousin Mavis, should not be overlooked. Now •that is where the humanity of the shop ■assistant will be shown, for there will be no arched eyebrows, no shrugging of shoulders, no hissing through the teeth from them. Christmas, after all, is Christmas, and :jf it can be a merry one, so much the * better. What a philosophy of life! "Why cannot we adopt it all the year? * * * * i The Box. \ ■The custom of singing and playing ■carols in Masterton on Christmas Eve is dying out; the carol-singers are never heard now, though instrumental carriers still exist. The chief object in oldon days in chanting carols on Christmas Eve was to collect Christmas boxes. A special Mass, the Christ Mass, according to the explanation usually given, was invariably ordained for December Soth, and the boxes in which the poorer people collected the wherewithal to pay for this were called Christmas boxes. In the course of time this Christmas box came to mean any gift at this time to a dependent or poor person, and until recent times was not used to designate gifts between equals or friends. Owing to the numerous engagements .and festivities falling upon Christmas Day, the giving of these Christmas boxm -es was usually postponed until DecemW~bov 26th, whicli thus became the established Boxing Day. On this privileged sorts of beggars, bellmen, chimney sweeps, apprentices, charity school children, dustjpn, lamp-lighters, postmen and whipped, went about knocking at all doors for a Christmas box, even if only for the broken \ ictuals left over from the feast of the previous day. On the other hand, it is possible that, Eke so many other Christmas customs which have their origin in pre-Christian times, Christmas boxes, as we know them, are a survival of the ancient Homan custom 6f giving presents at this time of the year. Late t-o-night in Masterton will be seen a weary crowd going home, the purveyors of Masterton’s Christmas boxes, their heads aching, and feeling as if they were wrapped tightly in brown paper and tied neatly with string. They deserve a merry Christmas. And in many parts of Xew Zealand Christmas morning will dawn to the ocasional instrumental strains of that old-time carol, “GOD jfffeT YOU,'MERRY GENTLEMEN.”