SOME HENRY LABOUCHERE STORIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 663, 25 April 1914, Page 6

SOME HENRY LABOUCHERE STORIES.

IN HIS YOUTHFUL DAYS. There are many stories told about Mr. Labouchere, and a number of them have been printed again now that he has passad away. Here is one of his early youth, which, shows how cool a hand he was in a difficulty : —When a lad at Cambridge he was fond of running up to town, and one day he ran into the arms of his father. "What, Henry ! How is this ? I thought you were at Cambridge," said Mr. Lalsouchere, senior, severely. "Who are you ?" asked young hopeful. "What business is it of yours to ask why I am in the Strand ?" "What business, eh—what, my son, too !" "Old gentleman, you must be mad. I your son! Too ridiculous !" '"AN EXCELLENT DINNER." And with an irritating laugh the undergraduate passed into the court, jumped into a cab, and dashed for a train wh'ich would shortly leave for Cambridge, never doubting that his outraged father would be on his heels. Reaching his college, the young gentleman donned his student's garb, and true to his prevision, Mr. Labouchere pere, in about an hour and a half, was heard grumbling and panting outside his son's door. " Wh a t, dad ! what a pleasure !"' Mutual explanations followed upon the old gentleman's account of the "young jackanapes" whom he had mistaken for his own son —'"and," added the son, "I was carried to the Lion and given a most excellent dinner, of which, after my adventure, I stood in real need." IN A NEW YORK COOKSHOP.

Ons of the best he used to t?ll was that about an adventure he Ihad while attached to the British Embassy at Washington. Mr. Labouchere, then a young cadet, one day found trims'-if penniless and hungry in New York, and waiting for a remittance. Looking into the window of a cookshop, he selected a dinner without knowing how he should discharge the bill- Seating himself, he was, he noticed, attended with much ceremony by the landlord, an Irishman by his accent, who hustled the waiters to supply the visitor's wants. But the landlord positively refused to take the modest or<ler of his guest, and pushed bei'ore him dainties instead, together with a bottle of vintage wins, accompanied by many strong recommendations as to its sterling qualities. "THE GREAT O'MEAGHER."

"I thought the man a fool," commented Mr. Labouchere, "particu-' larly as I saw, now. why I should decline to pay for things I had not ordered. Hswever, I ate and drank, and felt much better. A fine Havana followed, also presented by ' mine host,' and I felt better still. The landlord talked about Ireland,, a country of which I knew little and cared less." Then the young attache asked for his bill. '"Bill," said the landlord, "sure I couldn't g'ive a bill to the great O'Meagher, the great Oirish patriot. When I saw you honouring my poor window with your glorious face." continued the affected landlord, "I felt that if only The O'Meagher would enter my rooms the greatest honour I could do myself would be to give him my best." Labby finishes the story—"l shook him silently by the hand, and, watched by the admiring waiters, I strode with the air becoming to a well-dined patriot into the street, taking to my heels round the first corner lest the landlord should observe his mistake —and me, too." HIS FIRST ELECTION., His reluctance to receive outside assistance appears in the story of Mr. Labouchere's very first election. His uncle, Lord Taunton, then wrote and asked if he could do anything to assist him. ' If," Labby wrote in reply, '"you could put on your peer's robes and coronet, and walk arm-in-arm with me down the high street of the borough, it might do some good. Otherwise Ido not think that your aid would be of much avail." And there is no denying that Mr. Labouchere got on very well without avuncular support.— "Westminster Gazette."