A PROFANE REMINISCENCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 349, 3 February 1881, Page 2

A PROFANE REMINISCENCE.

The following is from the Bt. Paul'*. Pioneer Press:—J. Ross Browne was. once sent upon a mission out West by the Government, to investigate, among other things, the character of a certain improvement on a far-away stream, which bad absorbed a good deal of Government money, and which the authorities at Washington desired to have a little light shed upon. It had been reported to Brown that a mill stood upon a dam near, which he was instructed . to pursue his investigations, but never a J mill could he find. The dam was there sure enough, but the mill had gone to ic where the woodbine tvyiueth. ” He accordingly informed the Government in a grave official report that he had arrived at this destination and had discovered the dam by the mill site, but no mill b a dam site 1 We have never heard that the authorities called the language of Mr Browne’s report in question. On the contrary, we can imagine ~ that the' solemn official mouth of the Government when it came across -this passage in the report, widened into a grin -stretching from ear to ear, and that the joker waft rewarded for his temerity in introducing a stray sunbeam into the musty record* of red tape by another mission and bigger pay. *