TEST OF NATIONALITY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10, 12 January 1914, Page 6

TEST OF NATIONALITY.

In his speech at tiio Highland Society’s banquet in Sydney, Mr M’Goweu attempted to solve the problem as to the' native Scotsman’s ability to see a joke. When lie was in Edinburgh a couple of years ago ho was invited by the Lord Provost to speak at a council meeting, “and,” said Mi’ M’Gowen, “amongst other

things I told them that we in Australia had several ways of judging a man’s nationality. If wc sec a man step out of a train before it stops, and risks his life, I said, we know, that map to he’an Irishman. If he get’s out slowly and leisurely we know that it is likely he is an Englishman; but if he waits until everybody else has got out, and then looks under the seat and on the rack before he gets out we know at once that ho is a Scotsman. They all laughed at the joke except one dour, austrc-look-ing man, with closely-cropped hair, who just raised his chain and looked at me with a face as motionless as that of a stoic. I did not want to leave my bad impression, so I added that, of course, the Scotsman looked under the seat and on the rack just to see if anybody had left anything, so that lie might hand it to the lest property office. This gentleman," continued Mr M'Gowen, “did not oven smile then, but I was told afterwards that just as quiet was subsiding, he turned to his neighbour and slowly remarked: ‘lt all depends.’” The ex-Preraier’s audience in Sydney enjoyed the relation; they laughed for half a minute, states the Daily Telegraph.