WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 49, 6 December 1890, Page 5

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

It’s a very wise father that knows as much as his son. Joy is like ague—one good day between two bad ones. Jealousy is an awkward homage which inferiors render to merit. Before doing a foolish thing remember that the world likes to laugh. A Matter OF Sense.— ‘ Harold is in love.' ‘ Then he has lost his heart ?’ ‘ No, his head.’ Never mind your infirmities. You have nothing to do with them. Your business is to trust and go forward. WHAT ABOUT TRII'I.ETS I Of all sad words there is none that begins To equal in sadness this one word ‘Twins I' Look not mournfully into the past, wisely improve the present, it is ours ; go forth manfully to meet the future. A scandal-monger is a jierson who talks to our neighbours about us. An enteitaining talker is a person who tells ns mean stories about our neighbours. If a man wants his memory to last, he should make a very careful and elaborate will. Monuments crumble, decay, and are forgotten, but the fight in courts for the property will keep his memory green for a long time. He : ‘ Will you take another turn, Miss Marigold?' She: ‘No, thanks; I'm rather tired.' He: ‘Will you go into the conservatory?’ She: ‘l'm afraid of catching cold.’ He: ‘ You don't seem to be able to stand much.' She: ‘I don't know ; I've stood you nearly half an hour.’ Killed by an Electric Shock.—A terrible electric light accident occurred at a New York theatre. While a lineman was adjusting some wires for illuminating the front of the theatre he accidentally established a connection, and, receiving the full force of the current, was killed on the spot. Constant Cheapening of Steam Power.—lt has been computed, as an illustration of the great cheapening of ocean freights which has taken place in recent years, that half a sheet of note paper will develop sufficient power, when burned in connection with the triple expansion engine, to carry a ton a mile in a steamer. The Wind Flower.—A flower has been discovered in South America which is only visible when the wind blows. The shrub belongs to the cactus family and is about three feet high. lhe stem is covered with dead, warty-looking lumps in calm weather : these lumps, however, need but a slight breeze to make them unfold large flowers of a creamy white, which close and appear as dead as soon as the wind subsides. Change.—All our reading of history, all our observation of life, all our own experience testify to the certainty of change. In some way and at some time we may be very sure our surroundings, our circumstances, our lives will l>e altered. This being so, it should be a part of all self-cul-ture, to become so fortified against them that they may not find us powerless and unfitted to meet them as they come. California and New Zealand.—We read that last year the owner of a fine fruit farm at Highlands, Cal., offered the place for sale at £6OO. but no one felt tempted to invest. This year he has sold the fruit crop for more than he asked for the farm. This is only another proof of the importance of California as a fruit-producing centre, and New Zealand can do more than that. A Broken Neck Mended.—At the Presbyterian Hospital, New York, the doctors are highly elated over the fact of their having successfully mended a broken neck. The patient aged 14 years, fell from a lift, ami landed on his head, dislocating his neck. When brought to the hospital the case -was considered hopeless, but by experiments with extending weights attached to the patient's head and feet the neck was eventually set and kept in place by means of a plaster of Paris jacket. The displaced bones are now properly set, and the patient has full power of the neck.

A Fashionable Paris Hairdresser. — Paris now possesses a fashionable hairdresser. This ai tist has eclipsed all ancient ami modem coiffeurs in the superiority of his mode of imparting a crispy, wavy, or undulating friz to ladies’ locks. Most of the leading stage or salon beauties have already passed through the dexterous hands of the ‘ ondulateur,’ ami lie has even been called in requisition by dames of high degree in London. His shop in Paris is daily thronged, and rows of carriages are frequently to be seen outside the door of his small establishment, where he operates in peison, being careful not to commit the secret of his art of ‘ undulation ’ to any deputy or assistant. Thumb-Nail Pictures.—ln collections centuries old, to be seen in both China and Japan, are specimens of the most remarkable drawings in the world—pictures of all kinds drawn with the thumb-nail. The nails of the thumb on the /eft hand of these peculiar artists are allowed to grow to an enormous length, sometimes to a foot or eighteen inches, and are then pared down to a pen-shaped point. Dipping this oddly constructed pen in beautiful vermilion or sky blue ink, the only kinds of ink used in these ‘ sacred ’ thumbnail drawings, the artist gracefully outlines his work. Occasionally the bold touches from the studio of a master in this department of ‘ high ait ' are life-size, and are sketched by a few sweeps of the artist's arm. Like other pictures and sketches of the Orient, these sacred thumb-nail pictures are mounted and rolled up like scrolls. Passing of the Maori Women.—The following is the version of the Paris edition of the A'rir Fo/7,- Herald :—‘ It appears that white women are responsible for the rapid depopulation of New Zealand. When female missionaries went among the Maoris they insisted that the Maori women should wear clothing. The latter could not be induced to overcome their prejudice against skirts, but discovering that the missionary women woie corsets, they decided that the latter was a garment not wholly devoid of merit. The result is that every Maori woman now goes alsmt her daily work neatly clad in a corset laced as tightly as the united effoits of half a dozen stalwart warriors can lace it. Being unaccustomed to tight hieing the women are living off' with great rapidity, and the repentant female missionaries now regret that tiiey ever asked their dusky sisters to consider the question of clothing.’