Personalities.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 423, 2 June 1904, Page 2

Personalities.

AN APPICATION FOE ADVANCE OF BALABY. SagN a certain very large business gig house in London the chief is a very gig busy man indeed, and, at the same time, a very peppery individual. So large w his concern that it is impossible for him to look after the many details of his business, and one of the duties he leaves to his manager is the payment of hia clerks. But one f these at last bearded him in his den and asked for an increase of salary. His wageß had stood at .£l5O a year too long to please him. 1 All my clerks are paid what they are worth to me,' said the old man. 'and I look on your application as impertinent. What salary are you getting now P' A happy thought struck the clerk ' £250 a year, sir,' he said. • Hm!' said the old man. ' Well, that is all I have to say to you. Send in the manager.' The manger entered shortly after. «Make Brown's salary JB2OO a year,' he said.

The manager was about to off*r an ex planation. 'Do as I tell you 1' thundered the old man. ' I'll teach the young upstart to dictate to me what salary to pay my people.'

A STOBY OF THE DUKE OF © WELLINGTON.

The following anecdote is told by Lady Eose Weigall, in the interesting volume of letters, just published, written by the Duke of Wellington to her father and mother, ' The dearest Priscilla' of the correspondence, who was the Duke's favourite niece:

I forget if it was at Walmar or at Strathfieldsaye that he one evening in the drawing-room rang the bell several times, and no servant answering it, he became extremely angry. When at last a footman appeared, the duke stormed (with very strong language) at his neglect of duty. I, a small child, so far from being frightened, thought it exceedingly funny to see the duke angry, and went into fits of laughter. This checked him, and the footman interposed, Baying, 'lf your Grace will look, yon will see the bell is broken, and never rang at all, I only came in for something else,' The duke examined the bell, and then turned to the footman and said, 'Yes, I was wrosg. I am very sorry, William, and I beg your pardon,' and then, turning to me, added, in a gruff voice, ' Always own when you are in the wrong.'

IN A NITEO-GLTCEEINE FAOTOEY A few years ago a singular accident took place in a nitre-glycerine factory at Ayr, The mixing department was in charge of a woman named Kate Montague, whose duty it was to test the heat in the various jarß every few minutes with a small thermometer. She had tested the nitro-glycerine in six jars, and found the temperature well below the danger point. Finding that the Bix jars tested were 'safe,' she neglected to test a seventh jar which stood somewhat separated from the rest. At that moment a travelling show of some kind chanced to pass the factory, and the woman went to the window and opened it. The draft of air which she let in seems to have affected the explosive mixture in the seventh jar, and it 'fumed off. <i The woman, when she saw the smoke issuing from the jar, tried ;to run away, fearing an explosion. In her panic she knocked down one of the jars in which nitro-glycerine was standink to cool. It immediately exploded, and the concussion was communicated to several of the other receptacles, which went off with a roar. The woman was blown a distance of nearly ono hundred yards. When picked up, her dress was fouad to be in a strange condition. It was literally torn into ribbons. Each strip was about one-fourth inch wide, and the rents extended from the head to the feet in perfectly straight lines. There were no marks of disfigurement on the woman from the explosion itself, though the fall had bruised hen shockingly. It was considered a remark, able phenomenon for the clothes to have been t-o curiously torn, and yet the woman herself to have escaped the usual shattering effect of these explosions,

ADVENTURE OF A BiNK CLERK. The most interesting moments in a bank clerk's life are those which he occupies in personally conducting bullion from his office to another, There is (says a writer in ' John Bull's Teas Book') a responsibility about the work which is novel, and appsals to him. This happens when he finds on arriving at his destination that some person unknown has relieved him en route of a considerable portion of his charge. A clerk was once seated is a cab watching bags of sovereigns being piled in the interior. He was determined to let nothing escape his notice, so he watched the door through which the gold was being injected with an unblinking eye And in the meantime a casual passer-by thrust his hand through the opposite window, removed a bag containing a hundred sovereigns, and passed on his way. Another clerk was driving down a steep hill in a cab with a heavy load of silver inside it, when he was interested to observe the entire floor of the vehicle give way in one piece. As both windows were closed he could not report to the driver immediately, and was obliged to ran with the cab for several hundred yards before he could explain the situation. A third official was taking gold to Leeds one night ly train, when an accident occurred, The traiH was thrown off the rails, and the clerk spent the rest of the night (which was cold and wet) ia the open, sitting on his money bags with a loaded revolver, and defying perfect strangers to come within twenty yards of him.

FEOM SOUTH AFKICA. A very splendid story of gallantry has been told me with regard to a Zulu in the Scuth Afiicin War (sajs 'Eange-finder' in 'Navy and Asmy'). The incident occurred after the battle of Brokenlasgte, wh6n 'Benson's column' was overwhelmed. It was discovered in the evening, when the Boers had drawn c ff, that they had taken with them a waggoH of small-arm ammunition. Now small-arm ammunition was the whole soul of the Boer resistance of these latter periods of the war, and, therefore, the capture was the most valuable that they had made that dsyj Realieing this, Col en el Wools Sampson, who, after Benson was wounded, had taken command, got his Zulu scouts together, and offered £lO to the man who would go after the Boers, and attempt to get the waggon away from them. Two Zulus agreed to go. One did not get ihrcsgh; but the other followed the spoor of the Beer column, reached their camp in the night, walked boldly in, inspanned a team of mules into the waggon, and drove it out of the sleeping Boer camp, bringing it back to the British next morning, without having disturbed anyone.

The chestnut bread used in North Italy and Corsica will keep fresh for 15 days.