VERY GOOD IF TRUE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2930, 16 August 1882, Page 3

VERY GOOD IF TRUE.

We hear every now and then of instances of “ canniness ” among our Scotch brethren that rival the old story of the Hebrew Mother, whose son fell from the gallery of a theatre and broke his little neck. Efforts were made to console the broken-hearted one, but she abhorred sentiment, took a practical view of the situation, and declared to the check-taker : Then I must haf my money back you know, For Moshesli haf not seen the show 1 The following instance of the deferring of the sentimental to the practical affords a very good parallel to this celebrated example, and it only needs to be depicted in rhyme and rythm to secure an equal celebrity. In a northern province there lives a widow lady whose husband was one of the wool kings of the country. The widow is Scotch—very Scotch —and is endowed with even more than normal acquisitiveness and adhesiveness in he” dealings with the “ siller.” She had two sons, who were at boarding school, and who were attacked by scarlet fever. The mother was summoned, and was requested to remove her “bairns” lest the whole school should take the disease. Bnt no cabman would take these “ tainted wethers” in his cab, and no livery stable keeper would let the poor woman one of their vehicles. At last Mrs ■■■■'■ thought of a conveyance whose normal passengers were contagion proof, and accordingly she hired a hearse to taken her stricken darlings home. The boys were put inside, the mother mounted the box, beside the driver, and they bowled merrily away. When she got home the driverdemanded his fare. The canny widow actually beat him down 25 per cent, on the ground that his passengers were not the “regulation stiff uns l am assured by the correspondent who supplied me with this story that it is true in the minutest detail. Need I draw a moral ? —“ Civis,’J iu “ Otago Daily Times.”