OUR EXHIBITION LETTER.

Manawatu Times, Volume IV, Issue 91, 24 November 1880, Page 3

OUR EXHIBITION LETTER.

BY- GARNET WALCH.

No 1.

1 EXPIANATOBY — SITS : PEH : CoiX .— THE ! " Cttp "— A Symphony. — Kin» . CASEY. — MUNRO. — MABCHE3 AJCTX rLETJES.— Q-ENEROT7B GeBMAKS. — An Apolo&t. — Tntrs Wine. — A Biscuit. — A Composition. — A Mistake. I hare .to make a brief explanation. As many of the readers of the Maxawattt Times are doubtless Jalready awave, I hare furnislnd their favorite journal with three ett»rs under .the now de plume of Gnetra. For reasons not of sufficient public interest to demand fully setting setting forth here, I have decided, with editorial permission, to commence an entirely fresh series, wherein, stripped of the lion's skin, peacock's feathers, or what you will, of anonymity, I may figure m aU my native worth, modesty and simplicity. The fact is, I have b«en talking the matter- over with G-aunson, and he says " keep yourself to the front, dear boy ; keepjyouraelf to the front, no matter hpw, whether by ratting or ranting, ridiculing virtue or defending vice, keep yourself to the front." Honest Iago ! Talking about defending vice, I notice that Edward Kelly is to be hanged. lam sorry for this. He might have lived to ma&e a very fair member of Parliament. If the law would allow substitutes m cases of this kind, there is a certain Lyncbnobian (vide Rabelais) "whom I should like to see offered up m Kelly's stead. Perhaps, however, after all it is best that murderers should meet with the extreme penalty of the law, for as DeQuincy says, " If once a man indulges himself m murder, very soon he comes to think very little of robbing ; and from robbing, he comes next to drinking, and Sabbath breaking, an* from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begin upon this downward path, you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other, that perhaps he thought little of at tke time." Melbourne is full, very full ; except on race. days, when it is empty, rerj empty. But between the great events " on the most perfect race-course m the world," at Memington, Bourke-street, especially at night time, is sufficiently crowded to afford ample material for the student of human nature m general, and the pickpocket of the period !in particular. As I never go to races, I ', made one at the Y.M.O.A. picnic on CupDay. You must not expect any account of Tuesday'-s running from me, although, by the way, I might do as a literary friend of mine did last year. He wrote the whole account of the Cup proceedings m hi 3 Melbourne* offi.ee adding only the names of the winners as they came to hand by telegram. But then he" is" an "Jartist." The Austrian band, ar,« gaining m favour with each concert.' As was remarked of the gentleman on the stage, " their unanimity wonderful," m other 'words, they pky together like 'one man, and to' my. mind the chief beauties of their performance, is that they 'do not overdo the classical. ' Lord! How many an ejening has been rendered perfect purgatory to me by roason of concerfqs m 'W niinor, arpeggios m the key of T, and- symph'tmieß m amperaeand. I feel on these occasions, muoh "as did the illustrious Goethe at a court concert m; Weimar when m the middle of a long sonata, he suddenly, rose. with the exclamation, "If it lasts three minutes longer, I shall confess everything." And now I suppose you think it high time that I should say something about the Exhibition. So I will, but mind' you, Ido not intend to confine myself entirely to Exhibition matters. To paraphrase the. proverbial Irishman," whenever I see an item I shall hit it off. •<■••• ' ' They may talk as they like;ahbut pomposr ity jand officiousneas, but it is really an impressive and instructive eight to ' see. the Hbnorable. J. J.. Casey going his rounds m the big building. Casting aside, an impulse to initate Theodore Hook, and confront the great commissioner with the question " Beg pardon, sir, but are. you anybody in' particular?,"; ; I have watohedtherbyel progress on many occasions, with* 'infinite, satisfaction. As ft lts»OB m deportmeat it if-ia*

valuable. Th-9 Grecian Fall and Roman Bend, and the Russian Wriggle have their little day. They Casey atrut is now rapidly coining to the fore. Next to Casey give me Munro. Physi cally, he is not so big a man ; but morally dear boys, morally, he is hardly a step lower on tfie platform. His bit of umbrella practice on the sconce of that naughty Serg«s.a'i t'other day was grand m its way, but his arguments against some of the pictures m Freuek, Court are simply perfect He says that nothing, save and except the truth, should ever be exhibited ex plcine toiletts de Hen de ttntt, and has suggested kilts embroidered with the Southern Cross, and bearing the molto "pro pudor," as appropriate coverings for the offending nymphs. 1 1 Amongst other extra attractions we are promise! several flower shows. May I suggest an improvement m this direction m the shape of flower market modelled after the well known Parisian marches auxjleurs, and affording the public facilities for pur« chasing &b well as admiring the floral beauties exhibited for their approval. Qive Oorjdon an opportunity of presenting Phillis with & prize bouquet or choice potplant, and Phillis, my word on it, will ta.ke good care that Corydon hqnpr the showwith his patronage. Apropos |of presentations, our German friends have certainly been very generous. Their gifts of statuary to the various colonies, per favor of Professor Reuleaux, are really valuable, and will serve to k-ep the kind donors m remeuabr inca for many a long day to come. And here I seize the opportunity of an explanation to a certain warmblooded Teuton who, m his own local journal, lias taken except ion to a remark m one of the first of my formtr aeries of letters. I spoke, if I recollect rightly of the marked difference between the German and French Commissioners, and more than hiuted that the former were at a discount as regards courtesy. Assuming the language of la belle France, I exclaimed m mock-heroic words '■'J4 sa* les Allemandes !" This my G-ipps-i lander has taken as a studied affront to the entire German nation. As if I ,who adore Germans m the abstract, and enjoy my lager beer and saner kraut like an echter Beutscher\; as if I, who spent two of the happiest years of my life m Germany, could or would speak against the grand nation as a whole. On the contrary, I here record my opinion that if we Englishmen were one-hnlf as well educated as the bulk of the Germans ; if pur laws, literature.and leisure-hour amusements were half as good as good as those of Germany, we Bliould b« healthier and happier. Why, lam drie-vietel German m my taites and predilections. I consider Bismarck the greatest man, bar one, on the ; face of the earth, and would rather live a day m Berlin than dwell a thousand years m Footscray. What I meant, then m cryV A has les allemandes" was not a howl of execration against our good friends by the million, but against certain few who " dressed m a little brief authority " have m Melbourne, m 1880, given themselves " airs " the reverse of national, and acted parts most ungermine to the occasion. There are several capital exhibits of colonial wina. It is matter for gratulation amongst all true Australians that every year •ee3 this important prod«ct coming more and more to the front. Age and proper classification have muph to do with this — so too has the gradually-gained experience of the right soils for the right grapes. So that one fine day whet. aJI the round pegs are m the round holes m our vine yard 3, we shall ba able to point to Australian wine side by side with No. 0 ckret, Carte Blanche, Champagne, Johannisberger, Liebfraumilch, Lacrymae Christi, and the other monarchs of the wine world. The only fear lies m the fa«jt that as the demand increases so does the inducement to adulterate. Regarding wine adulteration read this, oh ! lovers of the squeezed grape, and tremble. Not one third of the wine now drunk m Paris is pure grape wine. The wine crop of 1879 produced only twenty-five millions hectolitres. The deficit has been made up by wine manufactured out of raisins until the price of raisins have risen from twelve francs to seventy-five francs the 100 kilogrammes. Now raisins have been replaced by gulccse, molassess refuse, rotten applos. old prunes, dates, figs and other refuse fruits. These abominable liquids are coupes with Spanish wines and artificially oooled manufactories for making this wine have sprang up m all direction* Near Paris alone there are seven large steam-power wine manufactories. Ugh ! a glass of Tadbilk hock, good restaurateur, to tweeten ray imagination ! With one's wine one takes a biscuit. " A biscuit ! Is there a more universally known and widely used comestible throughout the globe than that which, with a vast variety of species and kinds, comes under the generic title of biscuit ? From the hope of the family, testing his first's tooth on a delicate ' lady's finger,' to the ' ratafia' which grandpapa nibbles with his wine. From the fragile f motsa' of the Jewish Passover, the consecrated wafer of the Roman Catholic Church, to the deuse disc of 'ships bread,' whereon poor Jack lays his piece of ' salt iunk,' when far away from England, home, and beauty; from the 'picnic' of the parlour party, to the schoolboy's surreptitious 'abernethy,' from Sir Carnuby Jinks ' devilled biscuit,' to my lady's ' macaroons,' who does not associate something or somes body with biscuits, m addition to the fact I that he himeelf has often eaten them." The above words are quoted from a neat little pamphlet which has just fallen into my hands. It is a description of Messrs. Guest and Co.'s biscuit manufactory, William street, Melbourne, and contains not only an interesting account of the various processes of biscuit making, from the plastic dough to the finished article, but a number of illustrations showing some of the more prominent machines employed *'n the factory. From this pamphlet I learn that Messrs. Guest and Co., who by the way have taken medals innumerable at many Exhibitions, here and m the Old World, were complimented by the Melbourne Age m May 1857 upon employing two men and three boys ! The factory, even with all the latest labour saving steam appliances, now pays wages to upwards of fifty hands. Guest and Co. have a very striking trophy m the Victorian Court, close to the main avenue. This trophy, radiant with gilding and bannerets, glisteiing with plate glass, and containing a bewildering variety of the articles manufactured by the fi™, towers aloft m farinaceous triumph,*and sets all the visitors' mouths a watering by its tantalising display of variously shaped delicacies. It was at the trophy that 1 was presented with tle brochure from whose pages I have quoted — and speaking even without authority from, head quarters, I am sure that Messrs Quest and Co., (William street, Melbourne,) will kindly forward a copy of their tiny work to any reader of the Manawnttt Times, who may wish to know more upon the subject. " The finest composition." this was the reclamation I heard When standing the other day close to Rocke and Go's fairy chamber, near, the. main avenue. The finest Composition !■' I immediately jumped at the. conclusion that the speaker al{udcd to mj friend B«. little' arrangement with his creditors. It was certainly the finest compo sition I have heard of lately, t listened | " And a dip that any man might be proud of "—-A dip! So wa« JB's. A <MP tO . \$P.

pockets of confiding merchants, a dip into the seething Charybdis of insolvency, from which he fished up that pearl of a dividend Id m the £. I drew nearer to the speaker. He was a man of middle age, evidently well-to-do ; a man of experience, a man of nous, a man of weight. To him said I, " Sir you arc right, B't assignment was certainly a fine " composition, " and a " dip " to be proud of" — whereat turning towards me with a brow of lurid cloudiness, an eye of lightning, and a roice of thunder, the well-to-do experienced gentleman replied, " Sir ! I spoke not of any B's. composition, nor of any wasps composition I have heard such as you refer to. The " dip" I speak of is as an electric light, compared with the farthing rushlight (" excuse me," interpolated I, " a penny,") " the penny affair, which you mention." (< It is to Hood and Co's patent sheep dip composition that I refer, and there sir, there" — pointing to a glass containing two great domes of yellow mixture — " there is the suble article m question." Need I say that I retired abashed and left the respectable squatter, as I afterwards discovered him to bo, to expatiate to his friends on the merits of Hood and Go's Patent Sheep Dip Composition, which by the way costs a little, and is also worth a little more than one penny m the pound.