WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XII, Issue XXV, 23 June 1894, Page 584

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

More hearts pine away in secret anguish for the want of k ndness than fur any other calamity in life. —Milton. The nobleness of life depends on its consistency, clearness of purpose, quiet and ceaseless energy.— Ruskin The true idea of self-restraint is to let a child venture. A child's mistakes are often better that its no mistakes. Full souls are double mirrors, making still an endless vista of fair things before repeated things behind.— George E lot. Justice and generosity are so intimately interwoven that neither can fl turish well without the other. — Coleridge. Lori* Polwarth says there is too great a tendency on the part of the British public to slang the British railway purter, who has a great deal to try his temper. A bit of AN old treb.— The British Museum ha 8 recently acquired a section of a trunk of Sequoia gigantea from California, having a diameter of somewhat over 15 feet. The annual rings have been carefully counted by Mr Carruthers, and, two years ago, when the tree was cut down, it was 1330 years old It was then still living and vigorous. It had, therefore, already attained a considerable age when St Augustine introduced Christirnity into Great Biitain. The rings indicate a remarkable symmetrical growth on all sides of the tree. For the first five or six centuries they show a considerable annual increase in the girth of the trunk, getting gradually thinner as the supeifices to be covered bi came larger, and becoming very thin for the last three or four centuries. Soapsuds on the Troubled Waters. —Knowing the remarkable action of oil upon waves, the officers of a German steamship recently made an experiment upon the same principle which was very successful. During its last trip to the United States, the vessel, while in mid-ocean, was attacked by a very heavy storm. It then occurred to the officers to dissolve a large quantity of soap in tubs of water. Having thus obtained several hundreds of gallons of soapsuds in a very short time, they threw it overboard in frdnt of the ship. The effect was almost instantaneous, and the vessel soon began to navigate without difficulty. Her officers say that although soapsuds does not produce absolutely all the effects upon water that oil does, it at least suffices to break the force of waves in most cases. Besides, this method recommends itself to transportation companies careful of their interests. Soapsuds is much cheaper than oil, and a relatively large quantity of soap can be carried without encroaching too much upon the space set apart for passengers and merchandise. Astonishing Blindness. —Vain people sometimes do extraordinaty things to obtain the notice without which life is a desert. One Sunday, Baudelaire, the eccentric French poet, painted his hair green, and in that state went to see Maxime du Camp. The latter, knowing the poet’s insane vanity, pretended not to notice his strange condition. Baudelaire thereupon stood and looked at himself in front of a mirror, stroked his hair with his hand, and did his best to attract Du Camp’s attention. At last, unable any longer to control himself, he said, ‘ Do you see nothing extraordinary in my appearance?' ‘No.’ ‘But my hair is dyed green, and that is unusual.’ ‘Everybody’s hair is more or less green,’ Du Camp replied coolly ; ‘ now, if your hair was sky blue, I might, perhaps be astonished. But one may see green hair under many a hat in Paris.’ Baudelaire, utterly bewildered by this unusual treatment, took his departure very soon afterwards, and meeting a friend in the courtyard, said to him : ‘ I recommend you not to go and see Du Camp to day ; he is in a vile temper !’ Queer Type of Gratitude. —Among the free labourers who worked almost side by side with the French convicts at Toulon was an Italian, who brought them extra food and addressed them like human being, talking of his family, wife and home. But the Italian’s gaiety suddenly left him, and it came out that be was sorely pressed for money. One of the convicts who bad heard this presently announced bis intention of making his escape. He confided his plan to the Italian, and got him to promise to visit him in a hidingplace he knew of, well beyond the town. The convict escaped in due couise and the Italian came to him, when to the latter’s astonishment, the convict said : ‘ Now, I give myself up to you. My capture will bring you the reward—twenty dollars—and that will help you out of your difficulties.’ For a long time the Italian stoutly refused to take advantage of the fugitive’s self-sacrifice, but at last yielded and took back the prisoner. Some time afterwards this became known to the prison authorities, and the punishment for escape was remitted. An Old Idol. —A curious old idol has been discovered recently on the banks of the Sabine river in Texas. The image was nearly four feet high and was of a three-headed man, with the scales of a turtle covering the entire body. The idol was hollow and contained the skeleton of a young child placed in it in an upright position, the head fitting into that of the god. Whether the child was thus sacrificed to the god or the image merely used as a repository of the dead body cannot be decided. The carving on the idol shows a degree of skill uncommon among the Indians as existing now or as found here by the early settlers, and as the banks of this vicinity were evidently erected by a people antedating these, it is probable that the image was of their religion also. It is of stone, and is composed of four or five pieces neatly cemented together with a substance not recognised by any mason who has seen it The union of the several stones employed in it is so cunningly done that only a close examination reveals it at all. The eyes are of agate, and cut with the skill of a finished lapidary, and by some contrivance are so arranged as to move in the head from side to side and to close by the shutting down of lids of silver. The panther claws are also of silver, and the feet are of ob-idian highly polished. One of the three heads weirs a benign expression, while another grins maliciously, and the third frowns heavily, and shows clenched teeth of obsidian ; donbtlesslj the three countenances showing the various attributes of the god represented.