MILLIONAIRE'S JOKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 100, 5 August 1910, Page 3

MILLIONAIRE'S JOKE.

STRANGE AMERICAN HUMOR NOT APPRECIATED. A despach from Seattle, U.S.A., describes a new society diversion, introduced there by a prominent New ¥ork millionaire, a well-known clubman, and an accomplished whip, who conceived the brilliant idea that an attack upon lhs 'four-in-hand by bogus highwaymen would prove a highly successful practical joke. The coaching party included, half-a--dozen ladies, including a niece of President Taft. On the highway at a lonely spot, two of the husbands of the lady passengers, with three others, all miasked and with guns, held up the party and compelled the women to drop their valuables into a bag. Those who fainted were relieved of th«ir trinkets. The matter was reported on the arrival of the party in Seattle, and the po'ice rounded up the "desperadoes.' Then, after an explanation, they were reIgQgAQ It is hardly likely that this society diversion will become popular, even in the Far West, and the New Yorker who arranged the hold-up says himself that it was never intended that the ladies should faint, or that the matter shpuld come to the knowledge of .the police. "To speak frankly," he says, "before we knew exactly what had taken place, the 'joke' outran itself, and we found ourselves in distress. The real trouble was that the ladies refused to believe that they had been hoaxed, and before I could make explanations they became hysterical, hit some of us over the head with bottles, and started our horses off] in a mad flight." j