BISMARK'S COOLNESS.

Kumara Times, Issue 1449, 20 May 1881, Page 2

BISMARK'S COOLNESS.

About thirty-five years ago, when the German Chancellor was only plain Otto Von Bisniark, a Pomeranian squire and Inspector of Dykes, he went out one day snipe-shooting with a friend on some marshy land, into which his companion, a stout, heavy man, suddenly sank up to his armpits. Vainly struggling to extricate himself, the gentleman Bhouted for help, and seeing Herr Bismark approach him vary slowjy and cautiously, apparently still looking out for the rising of some stray snipe, piteously appealed to him to "leave the confounded snipe alone" and pull him out of the abominable swamp, into which he had sunk so deeply that its slime was all but in his mouth. "My dear friend," replied Bismark, with the utmost calm, " you will certainly never get out of that hole. Nobody can possibly save yon. I'll save you the agony of suffocatiou by putting a charge of shot into your head. Thus you will die at once more swiftly and more respectably." Stimulated to superhuman effort by the imminent peril menacing him, the unlucky sportsman contrived to wriggle out of the mud on all fours, and when he had recovered his feet broke out into

a storm of vehement reproach. Herf Bismark listened to bim with a sardonic smile, merely observing, " Can't you see how right I was, after all? Every man for himself 1" and turning his back on his infuriate companion coolly walked away in search of more game.