The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 7 April 1910, Page 557

The Family Circle

WHEN MOTHER GOES AWAY Says Bobby to mother: ‘ I’ll be good as .1 can.’ . - ‘ I know you will, Bobby; \ You’re mother’s little man.’ BUT— His mother then takes every match from the box; The door of the pantry securely she locks; Puts the hammer and tacks and the scissors and ink In the best hiding places of which she can think; And wonders at last, as her hat she pins on, V What mischief her Bobby will do while she’s gone. ON THE TRAM CAR Two young women stepped aboard a crowded city street car between five and six o’clock in the evening. They had been chatting together as they stood on the corner, and they were evidently acquaintances. From chance remarks let fall, the listeners might easily have gathered that they were in the employ of the same firm, one as a stenographer, the other in the capacity of bookkeeper. The conversation drifted from one thing to another. Finally the bookkeeper spoke, with a hint of importance in her tone. ‘ Miss Boyer, can you keep a secret ? ’ ‘Of course.’ The other girl looked interested, and so did several of the passengers. ‘ You won’t breathe a word of it to anybody? ’ In her effort to make herself impressive the bookkeeper raised her voice, and an old gentleman lowered his newspaper to get a good look at her. ‘Of course I won’t, if you don’t want me to.’ 1 Well, last month we did business at a loss of over a thousand dollars.’ ‘Did we really?’ The stenographer shook her head. ‘ I know Mr. Hendricks is awfully nervous,’ she observed. ‘ Of course he is. You see he has not been managing the business long, and he knows the company isn’t going to stand for losing money. And this month our sales have run considerably under the sales up to the corresponding date of last month.’ ‘ I shouldn’t wonder if he’d lose his position,’ said the stenographer.. And then she bowed smilingly to a young man who had just entered the car. A moment later she reached her transfer point, and as the car emptied, the young man found a seat beside the old gentleman whose attention had been attracted by the conversation of the two girl workers. The two men shook hands, and the older one asked: ‘ Who were those two girls you bowed to ? Where are they employed, I mean?’ ‘ Why, at the Electric Supply Company’s office on Potter street. Hendricks, the manager, is a new man.’ ‘ Yes, I know,’ said the old gentleman drily, and changed the subject. This story has a sequel. Less than a year later the bookkeeper in question was looking for a new position. She had hopes of securing employment with a prominent firm at considerable advance over her present salary. But when she came to interview the head of the firm, her hopes deserted her. He glanced indifferently at the names of her references, and dismissed her with a curt assurance that if 'they decided to act favorably upon her application they would let her know. The girl left the office with a sinking heart, and the old man looked after her stroking his white beard. ‘ I listened once,’ he said, ‘ while that girl revealed the details of her employer’s affairs in a street car. I wouldn’t have her in my office if she gave me her services.’ The girl who had violated the ethics of her calling, soothing her conscience by exacting a promise of secrecy, had put a barrier in the way of her own advancement. USELESS WORRY Worry is the great disintegrator and foe to the happiness • in the home, as everywhere outside. It keeps us crossing bridges before we come to them. The evils that most fret and alarm us are those that are still in the distance, that have not yet arrived. Stop thinking about the bread that you are afraid will not rise in the morning, the new dress you are afraid the dressmaker will spoil, and next month’s gas bills. If you will once resolve to worry about nothing except the evil or hardship that confronts you now, this hour or. minute, and from which you cannot possibly escape, ninety times out of a hundred you will find there is no such evil or hardship. , DON’T SPOIL THE BOY The young man who is petted too much at home is seldom any good. What is wanted nowadays is a practical man who can do something else besides smoke cigar-

ettes and twist a cane. The time to' learn to work and to life* ..business habits is in one’s youth. He who leads the lite of a butterfly until he is twenty-five or thirty years of of e hfmself lie h a r Cgn - ISeS fc. fact that he has made an ape appl S for a i „| Pr “Sf little to. recommend him when he applies tor .a job. This may be a chestnut, but it fits not a few young men m every city. ’ » 8 01 GIVE THE BOYS A CHANCE airls M SblJ a^ ntS i make great sacrifices to educate their & iris, whilst the boys in most part are often obliged to leave school and go to work even before they have acquired +li^°>? lraon , cho ° 1 training. Now this is not fair. ** Give the boys a chance—they are to become the permanent wageearners an d bread-winners for the families of the future. The girls may, indeed, be obliged to earn a living, but it mi°inl-T+t°nf a S^ 0rt time ~ fw years at most > then the great majority of them become wives and mothers— natural vocation m a normal state of society. Our boys, no matter who or what they are, must make a home sooner or later; ?p, Iqile 1qilen r p ly the y should ,be thoroughly equipped for the battle. This is a case where ‘the fittest survive,’ and the s°niggle ° U * a S °° d education is sadly handicapped in the REALISTIC The youngsters had been consigned to the nursery and strict injunctions had been laid upon them to ‘ play a nice, quiet game.’ In a few moments, however, sounds as of a thunder storm, with a dash of boiler factory, issued from the room, and mother rushed up. ‘ Mercy on us, children ! ’ she exclaimed; ‘ whatever are you doing? You must not make such a terrible noise.’ But, mamma, explained one of the darlings, ‘we are only playing theatre.’ ‘ Theatre ?’ ‘Yes; the scene is a storm at sea, and all of us except tommy are shipwrecked people calling for help.’ Mamma’s attention was thus directed to Tommy, who crouched in the corner, emitted doleful howls. ’ ‘And what is Tommy doing she asked. 1 Tommy’s the scenery.’ ‘ The scenery ? ’ ‘Yes; he is the ocean shrieking in the teeth of the storm.’ GOING TO TELL THE TRUTH A newly qualified judge in one of the small towns of the south was trying one of his first criminal cases. The accused was an old darky who was charged with robbing a hencoop. He had been in court before on a similar charge and was then acquitted. ‘ Well, Tom,’ began the judge, ‘I see you’re in trouble again.’ ‘Yes, sah,’ replied the darky; ‘the last time, judge, you was ma lawyer.’ . ‘ ‘Where is your lawyer this time?’ asked the judge. ‘I ain’t got no lawyer this time,’ answered Tom. ‘ I’m going to tell the truth.’ CHINESE MANNERS The Chinese are as fond of sending presents as we are, but not in the same manner. They send a number of articles, but the receiver is expected to take only one,; and; if an ignoramus should happen to keep the whole collection, the donor would be greatly disgusted with his want of good breeding (writes a traveller in the Orient), With them the left hand and not the right is the place of honor. The host must never sit down before his guest is seated, which, of course, is etiquette all over the world. But the Chinaman must get up every time his guests do, if it amounts to a dozen times a minute. Nor must he sit while any one who is his equal is standing. Inquiries concerning a stranger’s personal affairs, a thing we consider the height of vulgarity, is with them the very essence of courtesy. To ask your age and your business and how much money you have, and how much you make and what you intend to do with it, and how much you paid for an article of dress is the polite thing among the Celestials, but it is shockingly impolite to wear spectacles in the presence of a guest or a superior, and the most nearsighted man would never violate this law of etiquette. An English traveller gives a _ very amusing account of a lawyer in Canton who apologised to the court for daring to put on his spectacles in order to read an official document. Both hands must be used in passing even the smallest - article, and both hands must receive it, even a cup of tea. The Chinaman does not shake your hand, but clasps his own hands together, and moves them up and down several times. If he wishes to do you great' reverence, he raises his clasped hands to his forehead, bowing at the same time very reverently. The ladies, however, have quite another fashion. They catch hold of the left sleeve with the right hand and make the motion of up and down as they bow. , • ■- -

TAMING WILD BEASTS Captain Hare, a Devonshire man, brought home on his return from the Peninsula War a wolf which he had caught young in the Sierra Morena. 'By kind treatment it had become perfectly tame, and had lived with him on the same terms of affectionate familiarity as a favorite dog. During many a mountain bivouac the soldier, his horse, and the wolf had slept together beneath a friendly cork tree or in a sheltered ravine, sharing through campaigns the weariness, the scanty food, and the danger. During Captain Hare’s furlough, part of which was passed at Bristol, his pet accompanied him in his daily promenade —it is said somewhat to the terror of the Bristol citizen, who cheerfully yielded the sidewalk. Upon his departure Captain Hare left his comrade in the keeping of Sir Hugh Smith, of Ashton Court. The faithful animal never ceased to sorrow over the separation, pacing before his kennel .at the length of his tether the whole day long, and keeping always the sharpest lookout for strangers, in the hope that .among them might come at last his old master. But perhaps the most striking of well-authenticated instances of the wolf’s capability of affection and faithfulness is one narrated by Cuvier. In this case the animal was taken young and brought up as a dog would have been. He became familiar with all the household, followed his master, showed sorrow at any absence, obeyed his voice readily, and behaved in no respect differently from a well-domesticated dog. His master, being obliged to travel, presented the wolf to the Menagerie du Roi, where he was received and confined. Here he remained for weeks, uneasy and discontented, pining and refusing food. Gradually he became reconciled to the situation, recovered his health, and attached himself to the keepers. After an absence of eighteen months, his master returned. At the first sound of his voice the wolf sprang up, frantic with joy, and being set at liberty rushed to the master and overwhelmed him with caresses. A second separation was followed by the same symptoms of, grief, which again was allayed by time and by the friendship of a dog which had been given him as a companion. Three years passed this time before the master again returned. When he did so, his coming was at night, but again his first word awakened in the wolf the uneffaced memory of a beloved voice, and happy cries came from the cage. When the * door was opened the faithful creature rushed forward, placed his forefeet on his friend’s shoulders, menacing the keepers who offered to remove him and giving touching evidence of his joyful affection. FILLING IN TIME Lady Anne Lindsay, the author of the old poem, 1 Auld Robin Gray,’ was not only a delightful conversationalist, but she was a great story-teller. This gift made her not only a welcome guest abroad, but a valuable member of the home circle, for it is related in A Group of Scottish Women that at a dinner party, which she was giving to some friends an old man servant caused some amusement by saying in a perfectly audible undertone : My lady, you must tell another story. The second course won’t be ready for five minutes.’ AN OFFER A man offered recently in a London paper to forward, on receipt of postage stamps, ‘ sound practical advice that would be applicable at any time and to all persons and conditions of life.’ On receipt of the stamps he sent his numerous victims the following ‘ Never give a boy a penny to hold your shadow while you climb a tree to look into the middle of next week.’ FAMILY FUN The Mysterious Paper Bands. With three paper bands, each about 2ft in length by lin in width, form three rings or hoops by fastening the ends together before the audience. With a pair of scissors make an incision in the first paper ring and cut round, when it will fall into two separate rings. With the second band repeat the cutting operation, when the surprising result of two separate rings, so interlocked that they cannot be separated without breaking one of them, will be found. Now take the third ring or hoop of paper and divide it in a similar manner to the previous ones, when, instead of two separate or interlocked hoops, one long band double the size of the one just cut, is produced. By cutting this band again in a similar manner a hoop four times its original size is formed. Can you explain by what means these perplexing results are obtained? This is how it is done: Paste the ends of the first strip of paper evenly together. Twist the second strip of paper twice and paste the ends of that also together. Twist the third strip of paper once. Now cut through with a pair of scissors as indicated, and the desired effects are obtained.