Grade amd Gay.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIV, Issue 7, 11 June 1897, Page 26

Grade amd Gay.

PADDY'S KE\ EXGD. The captain oi a largo steamer was onco filling up his crew for a Ion*;- voyage, when a seaman came up and said •' 1 want to sail with you. sir."' " All right, my man," said the captain ; " and where have you sailed before." •■ P. and 0., sir. to Australia, ' " What countryman .' " •• An Irishman,-' was the ready response " Well, you must get a character. ' The dis harge was- obtained, and as the Irishman was presenting it another seaman came up and said he wanted to join. •• What line were you on before .' " "Cunard, sir." ■' What countryman .' "' English, your honour." •' All right .go forward." shortly after, as the two men were swilling- the decks in a heavy bea, the Englishman was swept overboard bucket and all. Unmoved, Paddy finished his job, and then went to the c-iptain's cabin." '• Come in." responded the oltic >r to his rap •• What's up now.'"' " You mind Jiill Smith, the Englishman and Ounarder ?" 1 gut ried P it. •• Ye.s. surely, my man."' "You took him widout 1 a character. ' •■ 1 believe s O . What ot that '" '•Well, he's gone off wid your bucket ! social cHANwi.s duiuuc; mi: (ji ken's rligx. Sir Algernon West, who tells us that he watched the Coronation , procession, and when six years old ran a race w ith the great Duke of i Wellington from Walmer Church to the Castle, contributes a singularly interesting paper to the -A uuti < nth <\ /ifi/ri/ upon the changes which have come over social life during the Queen's reign. Perhaps the happiest of nil these changes is described by Sir i Algernon West in these words : " Thanks to the introduction by ! the Prince ot Wales ot smokinu after dinner, wine drinking is now i over." The h.ird drinking- w Inch prevailed bi f ore the e v a of the I cigarette is illustrated by several amusing anecdotes, of which the following is an example: "Mr. Gladstone recollects that on one occasion when a host p it to a bishop, who was dining with him, the orduiuy formula : • Will your Lordship have any more wine .'" the Bishop replied m a solemn \oice : 'Thank you, not till we have drunk what we have betore us ' "' When Sir Algernon entered the Admiralty as a boy the chief clerk would come in about every three weeks and say to his olficial superior : " ' Mr. Jesse. I shall not be here to-morrow, for lam going to dine out to-night." And this was not meant for a joke, but was considered quite a natural thing 1 ." Most of the changes noticed, by this shrewd observer are for the better. Sixty years ago, we are told, '• every young man, even if he was busy, pretended, to be idle ; now every young man, even if he is idle, pretends to be busy." Again, (l at private dinner-tables tho departure of the ladies from the room was the signal for every sort

of loose and indecent conversation. That is rarely the case now." Even old age seems to be happier. " The old man of my early recollections, crippled by gout and disease, is no longer to b-3 se n ; and men of an a.cc advanced beyond the experience of those days are overtaken by kindly death on the bicycle track or on the golf links." Of purely social changes there are some comic examples. Take this: "All shopkeepers are now 'young fcentlemen ' and 'young ladies.' The Duchess of Somerset, on making inquiry about something she had purchased at Swan and E Igar's, was asked if she had been served by a young gentleman with fair hair. ■ No," she said meditatively, 'I think it was by an elderly nobleman with a bald head.' "