"EVENING STAR" SATURDAY SUPPLEMENT OF ENTERTAINING READING.

No. 44.]

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1876

[Price: ONE PENNY

Poetry.

"EOCK OF AGES."

'Eock of Ages, cleft for me!' Thoughtlessly tho maiden sung ; Fell the words unconsciously From her girlish, gleeful tongue. Sang as little children sing ; Sang as sing the birds in June ; Fell tho words like light leaves down On the current of the tune — ' Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee!' 'Let me hide myself in Thee !' Felt her soul no need to hide ; Sweet the song as sweet could be, And she had no thought beside. All the words unheedingly Fell from lips untouched by care ; Dreaming not they each might be On some other lips a prayer— 'EockoHAges, cleft for me let me hide myself in Thee !' •Eock of Ages, cleft forme !' 'Twas a woman sung them now ; Eose the song as storm-tossed bird Beats with weary wing the air ; Every note with sorrow stirred ; Every syllable a prayer— "Eock of Ages, cleft for me. Ist me hide myself in Thee !" 'Rock of Ages, cleft for me !' lips grown aged sung the hymn ; Trustingly and tenderly; Toice grown weak and eyes grown dim. 'Let me hide myself in Thee !' Trembling though the voice, and low, Ean the sweet strain peacefully, Like a river in its flow ; _ Sung as only they can sing Who Life's thorny path have pressed ; Sung as only they can sing Who behold the promised rest: ' Eock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.'

SWEET SIXTEEN.

Why should I now obey, mamma, In all she orders mo to do ? Why should I tell her all ? ah, ah. No, that I won't, would you P To keep ray secrets I prefer, My girlish fun from ma' to screen, Eor I am quite as tall as her, Though only sweet sixteen I'll dance and sing, and hop about, And act in most things, as I please, And with young Tom, go gadding out, Or read my book at ease. They tell me, I am in my youth, Like her geraniums, young and green; Perhaps mamma may speak the truth, — I am but sweet sixteen. Ma' says I'm like a flower of spring, And must not think about a beau ! But ah, she don't know everything ;

Nor will I let her know. If she knew all, she'd keep me from My pleasant walks, the trees- between, And would not let me flirt with Tora,

As I'm bat sweet sixteen. The Sunday is the happiest day, Of all the days that make the week, When to the Church I trip away—

With blushes on my cheek. Tom smiles at me across the church, And knows well what my dumb signs

mean, And waits for me outside the porch,

And calls me sweet sixteen

The service o'er, we take a walk, To Newton, or to lamed Parnell; And pass an hour in pleasant talk, Of which I must not tell. Dear me, says ma', you'll catch a cold ; Where, wherei my sjirl, where have you been? Think of your age —begins ta» scold,

Tour only sweet sixteen. Now, where was Mr. H—ss—ds text P Now tell me, instantly I pray, To answer ma' I'm much perplexed,

And don'fc know what to say. What can I say ! I go to church, To see who's there, and to be seen. And can't leave Tommy in the lurch, Though only sweet sixteeD.

I A philosopher being asked what was fthe first thing necessary towards winning the love of a woman, answered. 'An I A young lady torturing a piano and [vocalizing * 1 am saddest when I sing,' [makes a whole neighborhood feel the ;Bame way.

jl If you are in lore and don't know how to make it known s go to your tailor. He will press your suit for you. ' Do you love me still, John?' whispered a sensitive wife to her husband. * 'Of course I do—the stiller the better,' the stupid husband. That was a poetic little chap who asked his father over a bed of variegated violets: 'Papa, is that where the butterflies grow ?' Girls now complain that the young men ff the day are too poor to pay their

Anecdotes of Webster.

The Southern element is again assert ing its right to rule here, and it ia simply amusing to see how humbly the Northern Democrats, especially those from New England pay homage to their Southern dictators. It has ever been thus since the formation of the Federal G-overnment, and some of the greatest Northern statesmen have at times humiliated themselves to find favor in Southern eyes. Even the great constitutional champion of Massachusetts had always hopes of being elected President by Southern votes, and made repeated bids for them. A good story about Webster illus trates this passion of his, and also his readiness at repartee. Some few years after the monetary crash of, 37 had produced so much repudiation and bankruptcy in the Southern States, there was a merry party of Southern Congressmen at Barnuin's Hotel in Baltimjre, on their way to New York after the close of a session. Mr. Webster was also stopping at the same hotel ; and, after a good dinner, the Southerners went to his room, where he received them with his usual hospi tality. After several bottles of cham pagne had been emptied, Mr. "Webster suddenly turned to Mr. Dawson of Georgia, and said :

' Dawson, I should like to ask you why the Southern Whigs don't seem to like me better, for it strikes me that I am \ery like a Southerner.'

Mr Dawson, rather taken aback by the bluntnesa of the inquiry, replied : 'Really Mr. "Webster, I don't think any Northern statesman is more thought of by our people than you are, but I must say that I have not noticed any similarity between you and a Southerner.'"

'No similarity !' exclaim "Webster, in his sonorous tone of voice, while his twinkling eyes announced a witticism. 'No similarity!' Why, Dawson, I appeal to you as a Georgian, and to these other gentlemen if I am not greatly like you Southerners. You know I like a glass of wine, don't object to a handsome face, or a pretty ankle, and, what is more like you still, ', too, never pay my debts!' The shouts of laughter which followed this frank expression were soon succeeded by the tinkling of glasses, and Mr. Webster was pronounced a Southern gentleman. But, as convention after convention came, and his name was presented, the Southern delegates voted for Taylor, or Clay, or Scott.

Barclay and Perkins Brewery.

On passing the portals of Barclay and Perkins one enters a complete beer world. There are granaries, store houses, steam-engines, and furnaces ; wells and pipes to supply the ' liquor.' He won utters the word ' water' in Barclay & Perkinsland is fined, not heavily, but inexorably. From the lofcy walls project mighty cranes, ever at work hoisting-in hops and barley; the latter being scarcely allowed to rest before it is steeped, couched, floor ed and dried; for the great firm at Bankside are their own malsters. In the gieat malt-bins lie stored some 15, 000 quarters of material for beer-mak ing. Before being put into the mash tuns the malt is roughly ground, and in these hugh vessels is washed free from its sacchrine matter, which drains gra dually off and is known as' wort,' the washed-out malt becoming 'grains.' The wort is passed off into the' under backs,' and thence into the coppers, where it is boiled with the hops, and then passes into the coolers, where it reposes in great lakes and ponds. After/ being thoroughly cooled in the refrigerators, the 'wort' flows into the fermenting tuus, and there is con verted into beer. It is then conducted into the' squares'—huge tanks wherein the yeast is cleared from it; and then comes the settling, a short period of vatting, and the beer is run into barrels filled from a hose pipe. Messrs. Barclay & Perkins have no vats of the size of that famous one which burst at Moux's, but they have two of very respectable dimensions. These are porter vats as big as the Heidelburgh tun, holding 3,450 barrels each, and are to the ordinary little '

fellows which hold about 1,000 barrels, very like what the great-grandfather bass fiddle is to the sleek violoncello. Soiled quickly away and labelled ' full to th-a bung; the parrels find their way to one or other of the various outlets of the brewery, which covers some twelve acres of ground, and are then piled into vana and drays, drawn by those magnificent horses with the sight of which every Londoner is so familiar. Nearly 200 of these splendid animals are kept on the establish ment. They are shod at the home farriery, and have a house surgeon all to themselves to watch their little ail ments . Another interesting sight is the cooperage, where the barrels are made repaired cleansed and examined. This establishment is at Bank side, and is a 'big thing ' big enough to please even the elastic American mind, and rather more than twice as big as that great Vienna brewery of Herr Anton Dreher, concerning which the good-temperd natives of the Kaiserstadt are apt to give themselves airs.

The Inner Mysteries of a Mel bourne Madhouse.

A. clevee member of the staff of the Me bourne Argus, who, in the gar of a vagabond, contrived to gain admission into ' The Immigrants' Home ' and ' The Benevolent Asylum ' as an inmate, and afterwards furnished to that journal a graphic description of what he saw and heard there, has more lately passed a month in the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum as one of the attendants, with similar objects in view. Some of the details which he gives about the treatment of the patients, though powerful, are very interesting, speaking of

HOW LUNATICS A»Bi TRJffiATJiID, He thus refers to the hospital ward : — — MLost of the patients in this ward have their meals inside, though some few go to the general mjss-room. 1 Special cases ' in the single rooms have to be fed, as have also some of the most infirm.. Thia.continual necessity of assisting the patients to movo causes the extra labour in the hospital ward. It can be simplified, however by pas sing one's arm round a patient's throat, a la garotte, and lifting him by the chin, dragging or pushing him before you. I never tried this, bat saw it done by others with great success. Cer tainly, when you fling the man down on his seat, it appears to have iaken all remaining sense out of him for a time, but that is of little consequence. If a man who is able to get about doea not make haste in dressing himself, or is troublesome whilst washing, or. in any other way, it is easy to yell at him as a brutal carier at a horse, and encourage him by a ' clout' on the side of the ear—that is, a blow given with full force with the flat of the hand. Jt will not mark, but cer tainly will pain. It is very popular as a means of discipline, and especially in this ward, where there are such a number of troublesome cases. If, too, an epileptic idiot gets his mouth full of meat, to prevent his choking the easiest way is to twist his arms behind his back till he disgorges. All he 39 are little tricks of trade which it takes a new chum some tim to get into. I looked on with admiration, but never attempted to perform such. MAKING SPORT OF A POOR BLIND

LUNATIC.

There are two or three blind men, the most extraordinary of whom is a Jew named Jacobs. He is a convert to Christianity, and much study of the Scriptures appears to have turned his brain. He overflows with texts on all subjects, but labors under a delusion that Jesus was the son of Mary Magdalen. He is a very devout man, and before each meal says a long prayer, with his fingers curiously joined. together, and stepping as if going up a winding staircase. This Jacobs is a source of great amusement to the j attendants; being a man stronger in ; mind and body than the majority of the patients in this ward, it seems that he feels any real or apparent neglect or , ill-fcreatment, and complains of the same to the doctors. To counteract any complaints, I am told, none of the at tendants give him their right names, but they are known to him by such euphon

ious appellations as Shovello, Laparatti, Pegollini, &c. And under such disguise they tell poor Jacobs wondrous tales : — Of how Temple (another attendant, who they described as a clergyman) has purchased a horse which he calls "Jumping Jesus," and has entered it for the Melbourne Cup. The amount of money which Temple spends on horses, wine, and women, they represent to Jacobs as something tremendous, and intimate that he hag stolen it. The horror of poor Jacobs at Temple's blasphemy is immense. Then a humor ous attendant will steal near, and pinch or push poor Jacobs, perhaps taking another blind man as a guard. Jacobs is easily excited, and, unable to see his real assailant, will seize and strike some harmless patient near to him. " Give it him, Jacobs !" will be the shout, and for a minute or two this couple of poor old men will be pummelling each other. Oh! it is rare sport, my masters! How ever, they are too feeble to hurt each other much, and are easily separated. Filled with such marvellous tales about Temple and others, told by those who can alone show the outside world to him, all that he now knows being seen through their eyes, it is no wonder that Jacobs is thought by the medical officers to be very mad indeed, and that any complaints he may now make against " Shovello" or " Laparatti" are consider ed to be mere delusions. This system of giving blind men wrong names is another little trick of the trade which is quite refreshing to a new chum. I was introduced to Jacobs as a friend of Temple's, and consequently incurred his disapprobation. I was also looked upon with great suspicion by a harmless being who fancied he was King Henry VII. This royal personage is of any thing but a cleanly nature, but nothing shocks him more than a request to be kissed, with which demand the attend ants sometimes tease him.

UNHAPPY CREATURES.

In the hospital ward an attendant has to walk up and down, assist infirm men, and keep a look-out for epileptics, When these latter get a fit, the simple way is just pull to them on the floor, see that they are uuconfined at the neck, and let them have it out. Now and then a blind man may walk on to them, which only makes it more amusing. Daily duty in the ward is anything but pleasant. Besides the sickly hospital odour, there is a peculiarly horrible smell, as of wild beasts, which it is said is a characteristic of madmen. In the outside yard, more than any other place in the building, you recognise the fact that you are in a lunatic asylum. There is mingled discord of singing, swearing, and howling. The name of the Almighty is perpetually shrieked out by one man in tones of supplications whilst by his side another blaspheme horribly. On their knees there are others praying—one man passes his whole time in this way. Next to in temperance, religious mania appears to bo the most fertile cause in filling our asylums. Many imagine and loudly proclaim, they tire Jesus. Some stand by the wall in exactly the same place day after day—scorched by the sun or pinched by the cold, they care not j others lie groveling in the ha-ha, or under the walls. Some walk up and down the paths worn by their daily tread, which they compass with a certain number of steps, muttering to them selves, or swearing at unknown foes ; these are only disturbed by anyone getting on their path, when, very likely there will be a fight. Others fight with imaginary adversaries.

THEIR INNER THOUGHTS

I A change has passed over these un- I happy wretches which science itself fails satisfactorily to explain. They are living and yet dead. Confined here as, in a prison—torn away from their homes and their friends, and deprived of all rights of citizenship ; and yet they may not be wholly unhappy. The writer of a quaint old book on the " Theory of Compositions" says, c*So tender, kind, and gracious, is Nature, our mother, that she seldom or never puts upon us any grievance without making us some amends, which, if not a full and perfect equivalent, is yet a great solace and salve to the sore." Let us hope that kindly Nature grants those poor afflicted ones some pleasure and solace in their delusions, and be

glad that their diseased minds are spared much suffering "by their oblivion of what goes on around them.

Up in a Balloon.

On September 5, 1862, two English aeronauts, Grlaisher and Coxwell by name, made one of the most remarkable ascents recorded in the history of bal looning. They started from Wolver hampton, England, and the elevation reached was the highest ever attained by man—nearly or quite seven miles above the earth. Mr. Glaisher has given a modert yet tln-illing account of this almost fatal adventure. The bal loon left the earth at three minutes past 1 o'clock p.m. Nothing important occured until the party, at forty minutes past 1 o'clock, reached the altitude of four miles from the earth. Discharging sand, they rose to the height of five miles during the next ten minutes. More sand was discharged, and the balloon shot rapidly upward. Soon Mr. Glaisher's sight failed, and he could not read the fine divisions on his instru ments. All the time the balloon had been spinning round and round, and the valve-line had become so entangled that Mr. Coxwell had to climb into the ring above the car and adjust it. At this moment (1 o'clock and 54 minntes) Mr. Glaisher looked at the barometer and found its reading to be 9£ inches, implying a height of over 29, 000 feet.

Wishing to record the observation, he found his right arm powerless. He tried to move the other, and found it powerless too. ' Then I tried to shake myself, and succeeded, but I seemed to have no limbs. On looking at the bar ometer my head fell over my left shoulder; I struggled and shook my body again, but could not m^ve my arms. Getting my head upright for an instant only, it fell on my right shoul der ; then I fell backward, my back resting upon the side of the car, and my head on its edge. In this position my eyes were directed to Mr. Coxwell in the ring. When I shock my Dody, I seemed to have full power over the muscles of the back, and considerably so over those of the neck, but none over either my arms or my legs. As in the case of the arms so all muscular power was lost in an instant, from my'back and neck. I dimly saw my friend Mr. Coxwell, and endeavored to speak, to him but could not. In an instant intense darkness overcame me, but I was still conscious, with as active a brain as at the present moment whilst writing this. I thought I had been seized with asphyxia, and believed I should experience nothing more, as death would come unless we descended speedily j 'other thoughts were entering my mind, when I suddenly became unconscious, as on going to sleep." Meanwhile Mr. Coxwell was in quite as critical a condition. Hoar-frost was all around the neck of the balloon, and the ring was piercingly cold. He at tempted to leave the ring, and found that his hands were frozsn. He drop ped to the car almost insensible, and discovered that his companion was appirently dead. He tried to go to him, but could not. He wished to open the valve, but his hands were frozen and his arms powerless. Feeling insensibility coming rapidly over him, he made a desparate effort, caught the valve-line with his teeth and held the valve open until the balloon took a decided downward turn. In. a few minutes Mr. Glaisher began to revive, and soon became conscious that Mr. Coxwell was trying to rouse him. ' I then heard him spsak more emphatically but could not see, speak, or move. I heard him say, <Do try • now do.' Then the instruments became dimly visible, then Mr. Ooxwell, and xery shortly I saw- very clearly. Mr. CoxweU told me he had lost the use of his hands, which were black, and I poured brandy over them What if Mr. Coxwell had lost the use of his neck also ? It has been said that during tbe critical moments when Mr. Glauber was unconscious and Mr. CoxweU near ly so, the balloon reached th& fearful height of seven miles.

A young lady toriaring a piano aTlf? vocalizing ' I atrx aaddesS w he» * %tl •