A Long Time Dead.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7811, 2 May 1905, Page 2

A Long Time Dead.

A somewhat startling, answer Was given not long ago to a Judge of Probate who, to the coujvo of a will casp, askpd a chjef witness, a very olid but vigprous Irishmanf ' Have you any brothers or sisters ? ' ' None, your honour, said the witness ; '• my only brother died a hundred and lifty .fears ago." 1 What's that ? ' exclaimed the Judge. ' Witness, you arc too old a man to indulge In such trifling. This it( no place for pleasantries.' ' I'm not trilling, your honour. M.V father married when he was nineteen, and soon afutwards had a son, who died in infancy. a widower before ha was thirty, my (atSfrr married again, when he was seventjj-livc ; and (luring the same year had a second son, myself. Now, whether I look it or not, I am nine-ty-Tour years ol age, as can be proved by the entry in our family Bible and the register of Baptisms, in the old church at home. If you add ninety-four and fifty-six, the number of years my father's first son had been dead before I was horn, you will fmd that the sum is just one hundred and lifty. So, 'twas not fooling. I was but telling you the straight truth when 1 said my only brother died a hundred and fifty years %>.' ' Your explanation is satisfactory, witness,' commented the Judge; 'but you will admit that the Court had reason to doubt your seriousness. A our brother has been n long—a very long time dead.'