A PEN-AND-INK SKETCH.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1123, 9 November 1883, Page 3

A PEN-AND-INK SKETCH.

The biggest man in New Zealand is James McDonald, lately elected M.HiR. for Bruce County, Jemmy is really a magnificent specimen of the wingless biped, being about 7ft in actual height, and stout in proportion. Fortunately, Jemmy is very good na'ured, and not half so dangerous he looks. As a public speaker, he is certainly weighty, but rough—decided! - rough ; and when interrupted in speech is apt to be heavily-shotted with the most crushing profanities. But a neighbour of his - a rode, unlettered farmer —was once more than a match for L him-that line. They quarrelled about a gbrse fence, wh ch , strove in vain to keep,them apart, and after a war of words, which lasted.over an hour. Jernmy found himself completely swore out. Not another “swear” could he remember to save his soul, while the farmer was still fresh as paint, and fircd.volley after volley 1 into his discomfited enemy. Considering the day his own, he had just turned his back contemptuously on his big foe, when he found himself lifted into the air by the slack of his trousers, and, after beingswung to and fio as if suspended from a crane, he was gently tossed into the very centre of the gorse hedge, which was about 20ft high, amt prickly in proportion. They have not quarrelled since. This occurred s>x years ago. That very farmer was one of Jemmy’s best friends at the iate election. Travelling from Wellington io Dunedin after bis first seeaio" in the New Z-aland Parliament in on ■of the Union Company’s steamers, the lengthy ligislator found his bunk much too short for him. The consequence was that he was seiz d with cramp in the legs during the night, and in his paroxysms he thrust his feet through the partition and brained a newspaper editor who was sleeping in the next cabin. This was fortunate for the editor, as previously he had no brains worth mentioning, and he has been grateful to Jemmy ever since. Jemmy’s feet, however, stuck hard and fast between the boards, and in his efforts to get fee he , nearly capsized the steamer, which heeled over eeveial times before Jemmy's feet got free. The language used by Jemmy on the occasion is supposed to have started some of the ship’s timbers, as ,on reaching Port Chalmers she was found to lie making water fast, and had to he docked for repairs.— Sydney Exchange.-