The Butlers of Great Men. (Interviewed by Our Own Back-stairs (Representative.)

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 101, 9 May 1885, Page 4

The Butlers of Great Men. (Interviewed by Our Own Back-stairs (Representative.)

No. ll,— At the Earl of D by'a " Ip you're on Australian member of Parliament, or eomo grumbling loafer of that sort, you know, you had better go and bully them in Downing atreet— it's no use trying it on here." This was my first very natural greeting , at the distinguished statesman's area-gate. A. word or two, however, explained the I nature of my mission, and I soon found myself looking through doors ajar, and quietly creeping along back passages under the guidance of my condescending but communicative informant. •'This," he said, showing me a large empty room with a highly polished floor, "is where His Lordship has his favourite game of Blindman's Buff. He is always at it. But it's mostly on Saturday afternoons, when he can manage to get the whole Cabinet to come down and take a turn with him, that he gets his best go He's • Blindman ' the whole time, for he never catches anybody." "Dear me," I replied, surprised but interested, "does even the Foreign Secrotary manage to get out of his way VYV Y "Bless you, sir, every one of them," was his laconic ai.swer. Besides, he likes being in the dark, and not knowing where he's going to," he added, thoughtfully. "He's always been like that ever since he was a boy." "Then that may account," I suggested, "in some measure for hia apparent indecision in public affairs? You know," I continued, rather emboldened by a slight twinkle I fancy I detected in my informant's eye, "that what with his saying one thing ope diy, and another the next, he sometimes scarcely seems to be politically the same person for a fortnight together." "Then you've never heard the story?' •sked my guide, opening anoth er door, and laughing pleasantly to himself. "No? Well, you do surprise me !" ho continued, ushering mo at the samo moment into a handsome apartment, evidently dovoted to the performance of private theatrical?. " it's very simple ; aud, as I've often re marked to myself, explains a good deal." " Go on !" I said, mechanically. "Well," he rejoined, "it's merely, you know, that His Loidship has always been very fond of this sort of thing." He pointed to the stage as he spoke. " Posing and all that, you sec— ifc seems to cmio natural to him ; and among his chief hits ho only plays to me and the other gentlemen and the housekeeper and a few of the uppers— is • The Corsicnn Brothers ' Well, in putting that up, and he's very care tul in such thing 3, he got such a capital double -a retired clown— for the ghost, that I'll tell you what, sir, after that performance was ooverr r not one, for the life of us, could tell which was which, and, though I chalked the Earl myself just to make sure of him, the next time I met them both at rehearsal, there waa no mistake about it— l couldn't have picked him out if you had offered me a couple of sovereigns ! Now do you understand," he added, with a significant nod of inquiry, " what has come o£ that resemblance ?" "You don't mean that when h.'s tired he sends— well, the other down to take Mb place at the Foreign Office ?" "Send him down? Rather. What do you say to his trying it on at a Cabinet Council, too?" I involuntarily gave a long low whistle. A light seemed to dawn on me. Some strange, contradictory, and puzzling evolutions of policy seemed to be slowly explaining themselves before me. " But his colleagues?" I asked. "Suspect something, I fancy— but are far too 'cute to say anything about it." This was certainly a strange revelation, yet still did not account for everything A thought occurred to me. "His spare time," I inquired, "how does he spend that?" < We were entering a spacious schoolroom now. In the window were two large terrestial globes ; on the walls several colossal maps. I walked in. At a study table near the fireplace I discovered evidences of recent work t< I looked at the butler -but I had anticipated his explanation. " He knows nothing about it— never did," he said, with an expressive wink. "Be fcwixt you and me, he's making up for lost time, but he hasn't got first-class materials to go upon. Look at that there." I took up the piece of paper to which he pointed. It was a map of South Africa, without any indication of the Cameroons. At that moment a hurried step was heard on the stairs, and we instinctively retired behind a huge swing chart of the Congo, "as known to the geographers in the year 1837." •• Is it he — or the other?" I asked, in a whi3pcr, as the familiar figure of the Earl entered the room 1 • Blest if I can tell yet. Wait. " The figure sat down at the table, and throwing up its arms, cried, almost passionately, ♦' Zanzibar ! Who ever hoard of Zanzibar ?" " It's him !" said the butler, under his breath. In another minute I was in St James's Square— a sadder but wiser man.— " Punch."

In order to eradicate scab, Government have bought and killed large flocks of in fected flhoep in Pakawai and Wairarapa districts.