WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 18, 30 April 1892, Page 450

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

Sober second thoughts are generally preceded by headaches. Two things a woman always jumps at—a conclusion and a mouse.

Every year 36,792,000 births occur ; 100,800 each day and 70 each minute.

A cynic is one who speaks right out what everybody knows, but is too charitable to say.

On an average there are 106 boys born to every 100 girls ; but more boys die in infancy than girls. What sweetness and brilliancy are to the flower, what freshness and clearness are to water, what melody and harmony are to sound, such is purity to the heart. The Latin Name for It.—MrsDimling: ‘ The doctor says Mr Totling is suffering from prolapsus banani. I never heard of that disease before. Did you ?’ Dinrling : ‘ Yes, one gets it by stepping on a banana peel.’ If a division of the real estate of the globe was made, each one would only have a small lot. Some one has figured it out that taking the whole land surface of the globe into consideration, there is, on the average, twentytwo and one-half acres to each person. THERE WAS NO WEDDING. He loved the widow and he loved cigars; She hated them, tho' they were ne’er so fine. When asked to marry, * If you give up your weeds,’ She answered, ‘ I will gladly give up mine.’ A Hint for Wet Weather.—ln order to prevent the leather of leggings and boots from cracking and hardening, never place them close to a fire to dry. To tender the leather soft and impervious to water, and to renew elasticity, rub it well with castor or linseed oil about once a month. This will not prevent the leather from taking the blacking afterwards ; although it is as well to clean and polish the boots before applying the oil. A lawyer tells the following story concerning a client, something of a wag in his way, with whom he had kept a Jong account. When the latter was finally made up, the bill, mostly for trifling services, covered several yards of foolscap, the items giving the most minute details. When the client came round to settle, he refused to enter the office but stood in the door, and holding one end of the bill, unrolled the voluminous document in the direction of his legal adviser, with the request that he would receipt it. ‘ Come in,’ said the lawyer, in his most cordial tone. ‘ Not much,’ replied the client, ‘ you’d charge me for rent if I did.’

Plain Features.—Plainness of feature is not at all incompatible with beauty. There is a great deal of difference between a person’s being plain and being ugly. A person may be very plain, and yet attractive and interesting in both countenance and manner, and surely no one could call such a person ugly. An ugly face is repulsive. Theie are no rules that can be depended on for the settlement of beauty ; and still less can ugliness be defined, otherwise than by itself. If we were asked to say what constitutes an ugly woman, we could not reply. We know there are such, for we have seen them.

The Newest Fashion in Girls.—Mr C. Dudley Warner, the well-known American essayist, has made the discovery that it has become the fashion for girls to be tall. This, as he observes, is much more than saying that tall girls are the fashion. It means not only that the tall girl has come in, but that girls are becoming tall because it is the fashion, and because there is a demand for that sort of girl. No very decided explanation of this phenomenon is suggested through a choice of theories is offered. Somebody has said that long dresses add to the height, but this is putting the effect for the cause. Obviously she who wears long dresses must herself be long. It may be the result of a constant effort to live up to Mr Du Maurier’s society sketches. The hint is thrown out merely for what it is worth. All that Mr Warner can say is that a while ago it was the fashion to be petite and arch ; now it is the fashion to be tall and gracious, and nothing more can be said about it.

Empress Eugenie.— Ex-Empress Eugenie is going to have a home in France, notwithstanding the refusal of the French Government to allow her to own property within its boundaries. Iler friend the Duchess d’Aosta has bought land at Cape Martin, in the south of France, and is there building a villa which Eugenie will ‘ visit ’ about nine months of every year. It’s the only wish she has now, this desire to live in France, and it is unlikely that the Government will interfere further with her plans. 'there is no trace, it is said, of her old beauty or of the old gaiety. (Ine must travel a long distance to find a more changed woman than Eugenie de Guzman, Countess of Teba, Banos and Mora, Marquise de Moya, Andalis and Osera, ex-Empress of the French.

The Czar and the Jewish Singer—At the present time, when one hears of nothing but cruelty to the Jews in Russia, it is pleasing to recollect one kind act of the present Emperor to a Jewish lad, the Rev. David Meyerson, cantor of the Mason-street Synagogue, San Francisco. He was born in St. Petersburg, and when a youth was known as the • Lucca tenor,’ owing to the fact that when that famous songstress was one evening leaving the theatre during a snowstorm, Mr Meyerson spread his fur cloak upon the snow, so that her dainty foot should not be chilled by contact with the flakes. When Prince Alexander, now the present Emperor of Russia, heard of this romantic incident, he sent for the chivalrous youth, who was then removed from the dingy Jewish quarters of the city and installed as a favourite in the Royal palace. After the Prince had heard the lad sing, being convinced that he had a great future, he sent Mr Meyerson to Paiis, where, under the favour of the Rothschilds, he studied for eight years at the I 'onsei vatoire. He sang in nearly all the European capitals for some years, and abont seven years ago went to California, where he has since been very successful. Although he has never studied for the Rabbinical career, his knowledge of Hebrew is excellent; he is proficient in English. French, German, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Russian and Polish, and he is always styled by his colleagues the Sulzer of America.