HELPING AN OLD CHUM.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XXII, Issue 35, 11 March 1902, Page 7

HELPING AN OLD CHUM.

Here is a story of Lord Salisbury which exhibits the Premier in that best of light—the ability not to forget old friends : In his struggling days Lord Salisbury and a certain pressman worked in the same room, and in the small hours used to send out for beer and sandwiches or bread and cheese for two, paying for them each in turn. On one occasion the pressman paid on two successive nights, and, as it happened, it was the last two nights they worked together. Lord Salisbury never again appeared in that room, and the next thing the pressman knew of his quondam colleague was that he had become direct heir to the title to which he ultimately succeeded. Years rolled on, and the two did not meet. As all the world knows. Lord Salisbury accompanied Lord Beaconsfield, then Mr Disraeli, as fellow - Plenipotentiary to the Berlin Conference assembled to rearrange the map of Europe at the end of the Russo-Turkish war. The pressman also journeyed to Berlin as special correspondent for his paper. Being desirous of obtaining exclusive information, he sent in his card to the British Plenipotentiaries. Instead, as he expected, of being handed over to one of the private secretaries, he was shown into Lord Salisbury’s presence, and greeted with the words, ‘ Look here, B , I’m still owing you for that last bread ami cheese that we had together. Sit down and have a glass of wine with me, and tell me how I can serve you.’ The pressman told, and in the event was enabled to accomplish what is called a ‘ scoop.’