PRIVATE JESTERS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8728, 31 January 1907, Page 4

PRIVATE JESTERS.

J £1 A Joke. ! J Kings bo longer eraploy their private ! jesters, but American millionaire! apparently have adopted this kingly privilege, and an American court has ; just fixed the standard rate of remune- \ ration. The Jesters' Union will see / that the legal wage is paid in future. i Captain Lomb Ijams is the modern representative of the ancient profession. He declared that he was retained as private jester by the late Mr Adam Brokaw, a millionaire, of Bloomington, Illinois. He was paid no salary, but Brokaw promised to remember him in his will. When the will was read Mr Brokaw seemed to have played a practical joke on the jester, for Captain ijams' name did hot appear in it. For once, however, the jester was j serious. He entered suit in the County ' i Court for. £2OOO and furnished an | itemised bill for 1000 funny stories; told by him to Mr Brokaw at £2- a story. Mark Twain has declared that there are only five original jokes and that all others are variants ot them, and Mr Brokaw's heirs, in contesting his claim, quoted this as expert evidence, but the judge refused to receive it, and held that even if it were correct the labour of elaborating the basic jukes wa* quite as much entitled to compensation as original discovery. _ The judge, honever, after hearing several of iho stories repeated, decided that they were worth only tl each and gave judgment for Captain Ijams for iiIOOO. He refused to allow a claim by Captain Ijauis for compensation for protecting Mr Brokaw from fortunehunting widows, declaring that that honourable service was its own reward.