“GREATLY EXAGGERATED.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19994, 11 January 1927, Page 5

“GREATLY EXAGGERATED.”

TO THE EDITOR. Sib,—l notice that in your report last Saturday of the meeting of the Gaelic Society held at the end of last week, it is stated that Mr Henry Macleod, brother of the late secretary, was dead, and that a lament was played to his memory. I believe it is on record that an obituary notice of Mark Twain, the celebrated American humorist, appeared in certain newspapers before his demise had taken place, and that when his attention was called to it the remark he made was “It is greatly exaggerated.” The same remark applies to what is said of my friend in Saturday s issue Of your paper. It is greatly exaggerated. Mr Macleod is 96 years of age, but thanks be, he is still going strong, and neither physically nor mentally does he give any of the signs of decrepitude that ordinarily accompany old age. If evidence of what I write as correct is wanting it is supplied by the fact that it is none other but Mr Henry Macleod himself brother of the late secretary of the Gaelic Society, the only brother now remaining—who will carry this letter to the post—a feat which I need hardly say he could scarcely accomplish if he were not in the land ot the living. I am. etc., J. W. Walme. East Taieri, January 10.