AN INGENIOUS JOKE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3628, 27 February 1883, Page 3

AN INGENIOUS JOKE.

[To the Editor of the Daily Telegraph.] Sir, —Travellers from Wellington arriving hero to-day, either by sea or overland, will have gruesome talcs to tell of bad iveather and the usual discomforts attendant thereon. If my temperament permitted me to dwell upon the gloomy side of things "I could a tale unfold " of damp and misery; but during my journey hither I met Avith one- comical incident, which caused me at the time so much inward chuckling fthe highest form of quiet enjoyment) that I feci it ivould bo selfish on my part to keep it all to myself. In order to thoroughly appreciate the ingenuity of the railway officials who perpetrated the joke, you must knoAV that the train from Makatoku to Napier leaves the former place at G. 15 a.m.. therefore the passengers cannot possibly require any refreshment on the way—they will, of course, have breakfasted before starting. Such ivould he the reasoning of the ordinary official mind, but the officials who control the two trains which meet at Te Ante have minds above the ordinary. Thru know that people who start very early in the morning on a journey do permit their stomachs to crave for something in the shape of, or as a substitute for, breakfast about the usual time for that jneal. jN-ow, observe tlie iiig-oiixiity of their procedure. Tho passengers by the train from Napier start about 7 a.m., arriving at the refreshment station, Te Aute, at 9 a.m. The passengers by the train froniMakatoku start at G.lo a.m.'(an hour earlier), arriving at Tc Aute some few minutes later. The train from Napier is in the station, and the train to Napier pulls up in the siding. By this funny arrangement the passengers are shut off from the"platform and refreshment room, where, across and through the Avindows of the other train, they can see suggestions of comfort in the form of tea anefcoffce. The complete success of this practical joke was a little spoilt by permitting the young and active men to jump out of one train and climb into and through the other, whereby they Avere able to quench their thirst"and appease their hun- j gcr, but it was success!ulas regards the women and children. The climax of ingenuity in this form of torture is reached by starting the two trains at the same instant, which, Tantalus-like, gave the helpless ones just a momentary glimpse of the receding refreshment room as they moved away. I must admit that my admiration of this cunning arrangement ivas a little mixed with indignation at the sight of a. child who had been imploring her widowed mothor for a drink for some time.—l am, ke.. FIIEDEKIC MACCABE. Napier, February 27, 1883.