The Rajak's Paper Cutter

Te Aroha News, Issue 166, 21 August 1886, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Rajak's Paper Cutter

rajah in Calcutta, who haying a friehdlj feeling toward his Jlpglfch,, conquerors, had He was not. a little proud of his accomplish. mentB,,ahd especially of his ability to read? and bo he. very seldom Jost an opportunity to display it. It happened that one day, while visiting the English Viceroy, he saw lying on the table, a copy of the Edinburgh Review, which had just been received. Aa there [were several strangers" in the room, the rajah was seized, with a desire to make known his, knowledge of English, "Your Excellency," hesaid,addressing the Viceroy, " Will you, be good enough to lend me thia book to read?" The Viceroy of course complied, arid all the guests expressed their surprise that the rajah had overcome the> difficulties of the English language. So the prince, quite satisfied with the sensation he had created, took his leave. Having borrowed the magazine, the rajah, though he had wp idea of the sort of literature it contained, felt that he ought to, read 16 through cavefully, so that when questioned about it by the Viceroy, he might answer intelligently. Accordingly he began with the first article, which was an account of " Hunting the Orang-outang " ; and first learning from his dictionary what an orang-outang was, be read on to th'e,bottom of the pa£d Svith increasing infcer^esE" " The orang is as large as "— he read, and, turning the page, continued— "the unfortunate Queen of Scotland, who will perhaps stand higher in, the estimation of future generations than her more successful rival Elizabeth of England." The rajah was greatly perplexed. The sentence seemed to make sense, and yet he could not for the life of him see what the orang outang had to do with the Queen of Scotland. And the worst of it was that the article immediately dropped the subject of the orang and devoted itself to Queen Mary Stuart The puzzled potentate, having tried in vain to connect the two ideas, finally gave up the orang-outang, and became so interested in the fortunes of the Scottish Queen that by the time he had reached the bottom of the following page he had almost forgotten' that there was such a creature as an orang-outang, "The house of Guise, then in power in France* -the rajah turned the page — •« devoted themselves almost exclusively to the breeding of milch cows." "Well," said the Viceroy, when, on the following day, the rajah retuined the magazine, " did you find anything of interest to you in the pages V* "Interesting enough, but so very disconnected," replied the rajah. " Why look I* and he pointed out the extraordinary sentences he had read. The Viceroy who was a gentleman, did not laugh then ; he merely smiled sympathetically, and waited until the rajah was gone. "I should have told you," lie said politely, " that the leaves were not cut. See !" He took up a paperknife and cut the leaves. "You turned from « Hunting the Orangoutang - outang ' to 'The History of Mary Stuart, 1 and from that to an article on 'Jersey Cows."' The rajah forgot his chagrin in his curiosity to learn how the magazine could be printed with its leaves all folded up. This the Viceroy explained, and then, seeing that the rajah was curiously examining the paperknife, he courteously presented it to him. The rajah then retuined home, and the Viceory forgot the occurrence until it was recalled to memory in a singular way about; a year later. Me was surprised one day to see a gayly-dressed company enter his courtyard, sunounding the friendly rajah, who was mounted upon the back of a young elephant. Salutations were exchanged, and the rajah called out, " Has your Excellency an uncut copy of the Edinburgh Review?" The Viceroy had a copy and' sent for it. " Will your Excellency please toss it to my elephant ?" The Viceroy threw it towards the animal, which very deftly caught it with its trunk. W hat was the Viceroy's astonishment, then, to see the elephant slip the uncut edges of the magazine over one of ita tusksandneatlyjand carefully cut them open. Looking more closely he saw that each of the tusks had been carved into a paper-knife with smooth blade and elaborate handle. The elephant, when it had completed its task of cutting the leaves, passed the magazine back to the admiring Viceroy. " Your Excellency," said the rajah, as he dismounted from the elephant, " a year aeo> you gave me a paper-knife. It has, as you, see, come to life. I hope you will do me the honour to receive it back again." —SL Nicholas.