WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 15, 9 April 1892, Page 378

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

The sure way to be cheated is to think oneself more cun ning than others.

It is strange, but true, that when a man is short of brains he is generally long on collars.

The man who can do his work better than anybody else can do it is never out of a job very long.

They err widely who propose to turn men to the thoughts of a better world by making them think very meanly of this.

A corn on the toe will cause the average philanthropist more misery than the knowledge that 10,000,000 people are starving in Russia.

M isdom, like many other human attributes, is only for the time. We are wise to-day that to morrow we may look back and say, ‘ How foolish we were !’

There are people for ever in search of happiness who never find it. Happiness oftenest comes by indirection. You are intent on duty and you are surprised to find you have stumbled on more than yon sought.

_ln making calls it is now the custom, both in Paris and New York, to wear a long cloak, which is dropped in the reception-room, and the drawing room is entered in a pretty visiting costume without wrap of any sort.

The only Turkish poetess is supposed to be Osman Pasha s daughter, a rich young matron of twenty-eight, who lives in a white marble palace overlooking the blue Bosphorus, and dines in a conservatory from a service of gold.

Contributor : ‘ You complain of my article being verbose and empty rhetoric ; but just look at some of your editorials!’ Editor: 1 Yes, but then you know I give all the people will stand of that kind of stuff without calling upon oatside aid. ’

TO AVOID ERRORS. Never judge a maiden by the beauty of her hair: Never judge a chappie by his ever-vacant stare: Never judge a banker by the jingle of his change: Never judge a cook-maid by the blacking on the range : Never judge a landlord by the smallness of his rents: In fact, in all things keep your judgment ever in suspense.

Gems by the Fatherland.—‘ How well you do look, Frau Director,’ remarked the gallant young lieutenant ; ‘ you are actually the queen of the ball.' • Really ’ Why you flatter me.’ ‘Not at all, but it is astonishing that every lady I made that same remark to this evening seemed to take just as much comfort out of it as yon do.’

They Were not in it. —In England, a rich man died recently, and four hundred invitations were issued to his ‘ intimate friends ’ to attend the funeral. Only twentynine came. Eight days afterwards, these twenty-nine, faithful till death, received a letter to call on the deceased s lawyer. They did so, and each received, according to the will, three hundred and twenty pounds if a lady, and two hundred pounds if a gentleman. The testator farther directed that the names of those who received his bequests should be published in the journals, to punish those who had not put themselves out of their way to attend his funeral.

Last Words.—The most astonishing new version of the ‘ last words ’ of a great man comes from Lord Rosebery and has to do with Pitt s death bed. Mr George Rose went on record long ago as a witness to Pitt’s having breathed his last with these accents : ‘ Save my country, O God !’ The Whig version, related by Sydney Smith, was : ‘ Nurse, give me some barley water !’ But Lord Rosebery says that the Earl of Beaconsfield told him that an old member of Parliament who was in the death chamber averred that Mr Pitt’s last words, in real sober earnest, were : ‘ I think I could eat one of Bellamy’s meat pies ’ —referring to a delicacy highly prized at that time in London. There seems, in short, to be no subject on which there is such wide variance of testimony and general interest as just what were ‘ the last words ’ of a great man.

Doctor A. H. Post, the well-known anthropologist, in describing various marriage customs, refers to a strange sort of symbolical marriage which is supposed to have originated in India. It is a marriage with trees, plants, animals or inanimate objects. If any one proposes to enter upon a union which is net in accordance with traditional ideas, it is believed that the ill luck which is sure to follow may be averted by a marriage of this kind, the evil consequences being borne by the object chosen. In various regions a girl must not marry before her elder sisters, but in some parts of Southern India the difficulty is overcome by the eldest daughter marrying the branch of a tree. Then the wedding of the second daughter may safely be celebrated. Doctor Post gives several other instances which are likely to be new to many students of anthropology.

The Hungarian Women.—The Hungarian women are among the most beautiful in the world. They are not languishing diaphanous creatures, composed of cobwebs and the odour of musk, with a sickly pallor or a hectic flush in their cheeks. No ; erect and straight as a candle, hearty and vigorous to the core, they are pictures of good health and abounding vitality. They are gifted with small feet, full arms, plump hands with tapering fingers, and wear long braids. The sun has spread a reddish golden tint or a darker tone over the complexion. The Hungarian woman is not a beauty of classical contour, nor does she, perhaps, frequently present a riddle to the psychologist, and ethereal poets will scarcely find a theme in her for hypersentimental reveriea, She is rather the vigorous embodiment of primeval womanhood. As her exterior, so her whole character is enebantfresh and positive. She likes to eat well, is fond of a drop of wine, takes naturally to swimming, dancing, gymnastics, and has not the least objection to being admired. Grace and beauty know no difference between high and low, and often bestow upon a poor, barefooted, short skirted peasant girl iwith her face framed in a kerchief tied under the chin) the same enchanting form, the same graceful walk, the same magically attractive glance, as upon her more favoured sister. ’