WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 36, 6 September 1890, Page 8

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

Women are nothing but tra] s bated with .smiles to catch men. A young woman at Madison, Ind., being frightened, screamed loudly, dislocating her jaw. ‘ The tallest schoolgirl in the world ’ lives at Reidnann, near Sterzing. She is in her 11th year, and is about six feet high. The most densely populated square mile in the world isin the city of New York. It is inhabited by 270,000 people, the larger part of whom are Italians, who speak only their native language. The invention of smokeless powder has been followed by a counter invention in the shape of a ‘ smoke rocket,’ to be used to screen the advance of a body of troops. x lt has been tried with success. ‘ Don’t rise so high in the saddle,’ shouted Professor Galvayne to his disciple. ‘ I told you to rise, but I didn’t mean to have you soar.’ ‘But that’s just the way I feel, sir,’ whimpered the pupil. Sir Frederick Leighton, president* of the British Royal Academy, is one of the handsomest men in England. An enthusiastic admirer describes him as having a ‘ head likethat of a Greek god and a bearing like that of an ideal prince. ’ Cardinal Manning’s aversion to strong drink in every form is so great that twice in articulo mortis he has refused stimulants, and he alludes triumphantly to the fact that he got well each time as proof that stimulants are never necessary. Mr A. P. Laurie claims thatjie has solved the difficulty of preventing paints used by artists from fading. His endeavours have been made, in the direction of obtaining a. medium which is unaffected by moisture. He has made an amber varnish out of sulphate ofcopper.which, after drying, remains perfectly colourless. Aids to Devotion.—There was a plague of mice recently in an English church. One gentleman’seid he often saw mice running about the church, during service. A member of the choir said that the lady members were almost at screaming point frequently in consequence of the micegetting about their teet. ft was next to impossible under these circumstances to keep straight faces. A Modern Tabernacle.—An eight-wheeled railroad church has just been finished at Tiflis, in the factory of the Transcaucasian Railway Company, for use along the line. It is surmounted by a cross at one end, and at the other there is a handsome belfry with three bells. Beside the church proper, it has apartments for the priest. It can comfortably seat 70 persons. The altar is made of carved oak, and ail the church furniture was made in St. Petersburg. Home Influence.—The foundation of society rests on its homes. The success of our homes rests on the wives. Therefore, first of all teach ourgii Is how to be successful wives. Begin in their infancy to develop their characters. Teach them that jealousy is an immorality and gossip a vice. Train them to keep the smallest promise as sacredly as an oath, and to speak of people only as they would speak tothem. Teach them to look for the best quality- in everyone they meet, and to notice other people’s faults only to avoid them. Train them to do small things well and to delight in helping others. °

Selecting Manuscripts.—During the past two years, from 8,500 to 9,000 manuscripts were annually submitted to the Century Magazine for publication. Now, out of 9,000 manuscripts a year the Century can only possibly print 400 or less, it follows that editing a magazine is not unlike walking into a garden of flowers and gathering a single bouquet. In other words, not to accept an article, a story ora poem is not necessarily to ‘reject it.’ There maybe weeds in the garden—there must be weed in the garden but the fact tiiat a particular blossom is not gathered intothe monthly bouquet does not prove that the editor regarded the blossom as a weed and therefore passed it by. The Richness of Slang. — The huge number of synonyms for money illustrates remarkably well the variety of sources from which our slang woi ds arerecuited, and the remarkable appositeness of some of them. We may talk of our money in scores of ways, among which are, for instance, ‘the actual,’‘ the needful,’or ‘the wherewithal;’ ‘beans,’ ‘ blunt,’ ‘ tin, or ‘ brass ;’ ‘ chips,’ ‘ dibs,’ or ‘ pieces ;’ ‘ dust’’' ‘chink,’ or ‘shot;’ ‘shekels,’ ‘spondulics,’ or ‘dollars’;’ ‘stamps,’ ‘feathers,’ or‘palm oil,’ which last is such an obviously appropriate name for it that ‘shin-plaster’ seems feeble by comparison ; and the young but widely-popular ‘ oof,’ ‘ oof-bird’ and ‘ oof tish,’ imbecile and inane. In Praise of Suicide.—Chinese books extol the taking of ones life—from patriotism, as when the Governor of Kiangsu perished by his own hand at the capture of the city by the Taipings ; and from sentiment, as when on the death of an unseen lover a damsel follows behind on the long pilgrimage. The most frequent motive is reven<>e Taoism teaches practically that spirit may fight with spirit.’ Since every square has its opium shop the remedy is near at hand, as when a wife is chastised by her liege. Monte Carlo is not a circumstance to Soochow. There are no statistics ; but from general observation it may safely be put down that, compared with England and America, the proportion of suiciues is one hundred to one, or perhaps much greater than this. 1 Popularity.—The only popularity worth aspiring after is peaceful popularity—the popularity of the heart—the popularity that is won in the bosom of families, and at the side of Ueathbeds. There is another, a high and a farsounding populaiity, which is, indeed, a most worthless article, felt by all who have it most to be greatly more oppressive than gratifying—a popularity of stare, and pressure, and animal heat, ami a whole tribe of other annoyances which it brings around the person of its unfortunate victim—a popularity which rifles home of its sweets, and, by elevating a man above his fellows, places him in a region of desolation, where the intimacies of human fellowship are unfelt, and where he stands a conspicuous mark for the shafts of malice, and envy, and detraction—a popularity which, its head among storms, and its feet on the treacherous quicksands, has nothing to lull the agonies of its tottering existence but the hosannahs of a drivelling generation.