WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 34, 26 August 1893, Page 128

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

I NSULLIED poverty is always happy, while impure wealth brings with it many sorrows.—Chinese. If passion gaineth the mastery over reason, the wise will not count thee amongst men. — Hitopadesa. We are never so much disposed to quarrel with others as when we are dissatisfied with ourselves. — H azlitt. Knowledge is destroyed by associating with the base ; with equals equality is gained, and with the distinguished distinction. — HITOPADESA. Both black and white acknowledge women’s sway ; So much the better and the wiser too, Deeming it most convenient to obey, Or possibly they might their folly rue. Persian Proverb. Nothing is more becoming a man than silence. It is not the preaching but the practice ought to be considered as the more important. A profusion of words is sure to lead to error.—’l Al.mud. He that holds fast the golden mean. And lives contentedly between The little and the great. Feels not the wants that pinch the poor. Nor plagues that haunt the rich man’s door, Embittering all his state. Horace. A ship on the broad, boisterous, and open ocean needs no pilot. But it dare not venture alone on the placid bosom of a little river, lest it should be wrecked by some hidden lock. Thus it is with life. It is not in our open, exposed deeds that we need the still voice ot the silent monitor, but in the small secret, everyday acts of life, that conscience warns us to beware of the hidden shoals of what we deem too common to be dangerous.

White Blankets.—There are two sorts of philanthropists—the mechanical and the sympathetic. The late Montague Williams was a philanthropist whose sympathy secured for him the gratitude of the poor, so that he seldom had, like the mechanical philanthropists, occasion to grumble at the ingratitude of those he helped. During the winter of 1891 2 he bought blankets and gave them to sufferers from the prolonged cold. The kind of blankets he purchased revealed his sympathetic nature. He says :—‘ Perhaps I ought to mention that the blankets I ordered were not grey ones. “Of course, sir,” said the shopman, as he spread out before me a large white blanket with a blue border, “ we have a great number of grey ones in stock at a much lower price.” “Thank you,” 1 replied, emphatically, “ but I have no intention of purchasing them.” As I knew perfectly well, the poor do not like grey blankets. “ Not like them, indeed,” I fancy I hear some one exclaim. “ Not like them. Then they don’t deserve any at all. Let them go without.” But this is not my view. Human nature is human nature.’

Obsolete Words.—The number of obsolete words that are to be found in Webster’s Dictionary is considerably larger than people have any idea of. The following letter, written by an alleged poet to an editor who had treated his poetry with derision, furnishes some idea of them : —‘ Sir : You have behaved like an impetiginous scrogle I Like those who, envious of any moral celsitude, carry their ungicity to the height of creating symposically the fecund words which my pollymathic genius uses with überty toabligate the tongues of the weetless ! Sir, you have crassly parodied my own pet words as though they were trangrams. 1 will not coascervate reproaches—l will oduce a veil over the atramental ingratitude which has chamfered even my indiscerptible heart. I am silent on the focillation which my coadjuvancy must have given you when I offered to become your fantor and adminicle. I will not speak of the lippitude, the oblepsy, you have shown in exacerbating me, one whose genius you should have approached with mental discalceation. So I tell you, without supervacaneous words, nothing will render ignoscib’e your conduct to me. I warn you that I would yellicate your nose if I thought that any moral diarthrosis thereby could be performed—if I thought I should not impignorate my reputation. Go ! tachygraphic scrogle, band with your crass inquinate fantors ; draw oblectations from the thought, if you can, of having synchronically lost the existimation of the greatest point since Milton.’ And yet all these words are to be found in the Dictionary.

Bull Fighting in Mexico.—Some bulls, on entering the ring, will not face their human opponent at all, but, making straight for the fence, attempt to leap it. This they often succeed in doing, causing quite a diversion by c treering about among the spectators. For the protection of those who are bound to remain in the ring screens are placed at intervals alongside of the fence, far enough from it to allow a man, but not his pursuer to pass behind it. A variation is sometimes introduced in the shape of a pole jump, performed by the toreador, over the bull. This is the most dangerous exhibition of all, since it is necessary that the pole be brought into use in front of the charging bull’s nose, and should the man slip, or be an instant too late in making the move, the pole will be knocked from under him, and he will land on the horns of the animal instead of on the ground just behind him. In this way most of the accidents which occur to matadors are brought about. After the advertised number of victims have been sacrificed, generally six or eight, the entertainment is often concluded by the introduction of an ol«l cow, with large soft buttons, the size of loaves of bread, placed upon her horns. The professional combatants withdraw, and any of the audience who feel so disposed replace them. The ring is soon crowded with youthful aspirants of • Tauromachian ’ fame. One more venturesome than the rest seizes hold of the astonished bovine’s tail, who kicks vigorously, but who, owing to some peculiarity to her anatomy, cannot kick straight behind—while the others, taking off their coats, imitate the late manoeuvres of the professionals with their cloaks. These tyros not having the same practice as the matured combatants often get bawled over and severely trampled on, though the cow cannot use her horns with much effect, owing to the buttons on their points. Moreover, a cow when charging does not close her eyes like a bull, but having selected her man ‘ stays with him ’ giving sidelong • hitches ' as he dodges to the one side or the other in his Hight. If someone does not create a diversion in his favour by coveting the cow’s head with a coat or otherwise distracting her from the puisuit, the embryo matador will probably leave the ting a sorer and a wiser man.