GENERAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 24, 20 October 1898, Page 26

GENERAL.

Centenaries- — Of tne keeping of centenaries there is no end. We are informed that November 2 next will be the 900 th anniversary of the establishment of the Commemoration of All Souls. This touching and consoling commemoration owes its existence to the Benedictine Abbot Odilo, who in 998 established it in pevpetuum in his famous abbey of Cluny. Hence it is proposed to celebrate the day this year with espe ;ial solemnity, and a committee has been formed in Rome under the presidency of the AbbotPrimate, Dom Ilildebrand d'Hemptinne, to draw up a programme for the interesting event. We may hope that the proceedings will lead to a very large outburst of devotion in the form of prayers for the holy souls in purgatory. The TrappistS in Africa —The Trappist mission in South Africa (says tne Adromtr) is vast and is still spreading. They have 22 minions, all for Kalnrs, managed and directed by 38 priests, 2">o choir and lay Brother.-}, aad 21 •> nuns ; they have -iO schools, in which there are 11W boarders. They have over 100.000 acres of j land. Since their advent to South Africa they have baptised within twenty years Wl'M) Kaffirs, and they have at this moment 1.-jOO under preparation for baptism. There is no useful trade for boys or girls that is not taught by the Brothers and nuns, who themselves work side by side with the objects cf their solicitude, so | as to show the nobility of labour.

• Here is a letter it would hardly do for us to publish,' s .id a quack. ' A man writer : '• I lvive just taken the first bottle of your medicin? "" 'WMl?' said his partner. 'There it breaks off short, and U >ignel in another handwriting : " Per executor." ' Benevolent Old Gentleman (pointing a moral to village school children') ' Now. why do I take all the trouble to leave vmy home, and couif ovur here, and to you thus ? Can any boy tell me ?' Bright Child (inno -cntly) . ' I'lcaic. sur, p'raps yeow loikes to 'ear yenr-elf ta'ik, '' In come p u-N of Devonshire the people live to be very old. An old man of ninety, living quite a distance from the nearest town, re-quiring bume family groceries sent his son, a man of seventy odd years of "age. When the son failed to show up with the provisions in time, his a centenarian of 108, said, peevishly : ; l That'h what come- from sending a kid.' ' Mr. Gawne, or Dunedin («ays the Southland Times of April 13, I l^'.H), has ju^t been on a vwl to Invorcargill to push business a ; litile.' Not that it wir.ts much canvas-sing, for since he commenced the manufacture ol hi-> Worcestershire Sauce, the demand has kept i pace with hi> capacity 1o Mipp'y it. He makes a really good thing; > lndi.-tinu-uihUible lromthe famous Lea and l'ei rin's, which he places j upon one"* table at a much lower price, and trusts to that ta secure a steadily growing trade. Thoe v.ho have not yet tried the colonial I article bho'uld put their prejudice aside for a time and test the quesj tion with a bottle or two. — „/*