the gates by the divine strength and not by his
own. I think you must concede two things:
First, That in carrying the gates of the city upon
his shoulders, Samson did not establish the superiority
of his gods over ours; secondly, That his feat
is not supported by any but verbal evidence,
while Hanuman’s is not only supported by verbal
evidence, but this evidence is confirmed, established,
proven, by visible, tangible evidence, which
is the strongest of all testimony. We have the
sandstone ridge, and while it remains we cannot doubt,
and shall not. Have you the gates?’”
The timid man yearns for full value and asks a tenth.
The bold man strikes for double value and compromises
on par.
—Pudd’nhead
Wilson’s New Calendar.
One is sure to be struck by the liberal way in which
Australasia spends money upon public works—such
as legislative buildings, town halls, hospitals, asylums,
parks, and botanical gardens. I should say that
where minor towns in America spend a hundred dollars
on the town hall and on public parks and gardens,
the like towns in Australasia spend a thousand.
And I think that this ratio will hold good in the
matter of hospitals, also. I have seen a costly
and well-equipped, and architecturally handsome hospital
in an Australian village of fifteen hundred inhabitants.
It was built by private funds furnished by the villagers
and the neighboring planters, and its running expenses
were drawn from the same sources. I suppose
it would be hard to match this in any country.
This village was about to close a contract for lighting
its streets with the electric light, when I was there.
That is ahead of London. London is still obscured
by gas—gas pretty widely scattered, too,
in some of the districts; so widely indeed, that except
on moonlight nights it is difficult to find the gas
lamps.
The botanical garden of Sydney covers thirty-eight
acres, beautifully laid out and rich with the spoil
of all the lands and all the climes of the world.
The garden is on high ground in the middle of the
town, overlooking the great harbor, and it adjoins
the spacious grounds of Government House—fifty-six
acres; and at hand also, is a recreation ground containing
eighty-two acres. In addition, there are the
zoological gardens, the race-course, and the great
cricket-grounds where the international matches are
played. Therefore there is plenty of room for
reposeful lazying and lounging, and for exercise too,
for such as like that kind of work.
