WAIFS AND STRAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 151, 24 March 1876, Page 15

WAIFS AND STRAYS.

There is a man who stands by his post every day, and every night, who never leaves it till God bids him come and sends another to his place. A man who sacrifices all domestic ties, knows no habitual luxuries, whose enjoyments are such as men do not call luxuries, whose days are spent listening to woe, wretchedness and sin, alleviating suffering by taking a measure of it upon himself, removing sin in others by the example of his own abstinence, and living perpetually in an atmosphere which necessitates constant sacrifice, instant prayer, and habitual meditation. Such a man is the priest of the Catholic Church. Yet his heroism, greater than any the world applauds, attracts little attention, for it is not advertisable, nor of a character which the world cares to imitate. He may have little faults, peculiarities, individualisms, which shock pampered sensibility whose good opinion he does not cultivate. Those outward blemishes many Christians, blind as bats to their own deformities, magnify into grave errors, knowing nothing of the inner and true life of another, because their own lives are all outward. — ' Western Catholic. Mr. Darwin, in his 'Naturalist's Voyage/ thus describes a j crab which makes its diet of cocoa-nuts, and which he found on Keeling Island, in the South Seas : '• It is very common on all parts of this dry land, and grows to a monstrous size. It has a front pair of legs, terminated by strong and heavy pincers, and the least pair by others which are narrow and weak. It would at first be thought | quite impossible for a crab to open a strong cocoa-nut covered with I the husk, but M. Liesk assures me he has repeatedly seen the I operation effected. The crab begins by tearing the husk, fibre by fibre, and always from that end under which the three eye-holes are situated; when this is completed the crab commences hinimeri ing- with its heavy claws on one of these eye-holes till an opening is made, then turning round its body by the aid of its posterior and narrow pincers, it extracts the white albuminous substance. I think this is as curious a case of instinct as ever I heard of, and also of adaptation in structure between two objects apparently so remote from each oth ?r in tho scheme of nature as a crab and a cocoa-nut." There are various ways, direct and indirect, of helping a friend. These, however, do not often occur on the spur of the moment to one upon whom greatness is suddenly thrust, and the number of whose friends immediately attains a high figure. Hence persons in this fortunate position may not be above taking a hint from the lately published experience of an American statesman who at one time thought himself near enough to the presidency to promise his friends offices. At a dinner, during which he was making this sort of distribution, he noticed that one of the guests, Beverly Tucker by name, had not asked for an office. Turning to this diffident person the great man requested him to state what position he desired. " I have no wish for office," was the reply, " and have but one request to make. It is simple. I have a Christian name. My mother baptised me Beverly. Some call me 'Bey.' Now, when you are elected President, I want you upon every occasion when we meet in public to say, • Hulloa, Bey., is that you ? How are you, old fellow ? I want you to slap me on the shoulder and talk with me confidentially. If you will always treat me like that when we meet I will ask no more." — ' Pall Mall Gazette/ In a volume published by the Maitland Club, under the title "Illustrations of Scottish History," we find a letter from Dr. West to Henry VIII., whose ambassador he was in 1513 to James IV. of Scotland. By the influence of Wolsey the Pope had been induced to threaten the Scottish king with excommunication if he made war against England. In a moment of anger James told Dr. West that he would appeal against it. '• But to whom," replied the ambassador, " will you appeal ?" The king hesitated for a moment, and then, perceiving the dilemma, burst into a laugh and exclaimed, "to Prester John"! When will Anglicans understand that all appeals from the Pope can only be made to Prester Johns ? St. Thomas was, in the strictest sense of the word, a theologian. He united in the highest degree largeness of mind and precision, erudition with science. He was capable of collecting before his mind's eye all the verses of an Epistle of St. Paul — for example, that vo the Hebrews — viewing the unity that linked them together and disclosing the marvellous symmetry of purpose and meaning, the exquisite beauty of proportion that penetrates the Apostle's writings with startling clearness. The suppleness of his mind is evident from the fact that the keen syllogising schoolman was a poet of the high°st order ; witness the " Lauda Sion," &c. And then, crowning all this, and shedding a flood of beauty around him, is the graceful majesty of the <-ph.it of St. Dominic, reminding one of Blessed Angelico's paintings, and his own angelic, childlike simplicity. All vibrating matter has been pressed into the service of music. Wood, meial, and the hides of animals are the most common ; but beside these tropical countries furnish canes, gourds, and bamboo. Horn, glass, pottery, and slabs of sonorous stone have been made to utter musical strains ; and the strings of dulcet instruments havebeen formed of the hair of animals and tho runners of creeping plants ; of silk and fibrous roots ; of the gut of the goat, lamb, and camel ; and also, veiy frequently, of metal too. Sawdust can be converted into a liquid wood, and afterward into a solid, flexible and almost indestructible mass, which, when incorporated with animal matter, rolled and dried, can be used for the most delicate impressions, as well as for the formation of solid and durable articles, in the following manner: Immerse the dust of any kind of wood in dilute sulphuric acid, sufficiently strong to affect the fibres, for some days ; the finer parts are then passed , through a sieve, well stirred, and allowed to settle. Drain the I liquid from the sediment, and mix the latter with a proportionate :' ' quantity of animal offal, similar to that used for glue. Koll the i mass, pack in moulds, aud allow it to dry.