A FALSE ALARM.

Temuka Leader, Issue 376, 19 April 1881, Page 3

A FALSE ALARM.

The Scotsman give an account of an almost increditable scare of which the people of Skye have recently been the victims. A Free Chlirch minister made the startling announcement on a recent Sunday morning that the Russians had invaded England, and he warned his congregation \to betake themselves at once to the defence of their hearths and homes. The Russian invasion was further declared to be prompted by domestic treason, and the Queen, actiilg on her own responsibility had committed Mr Gladstone to prison for complicity therein. The story was accepted in good faith by the simple islanders, and their consternation was unbounded until some superior person discovered it to be an hallucination. The explanation of the whole affair was not that the minister had been hoaxed or gone mad, or had played off a practical joke upon his people, nor was the story of Mr Gladstone’s Jimj risonment a distorted version of recent events in the House of Commons. The innocent cause of the scare was an English comic paper, containing some sorry jest about the Russians invading England and Mr Gladstone being sent to the tower. It had found its way to Skye, and falling into the hands of the minister, had been mistaken by that worthy man for a serious newspaper. AH Scotland is laughing at the; joke, and wondering how many minister of the like simplicity are still to be found in the Highlands or in the Free Kirk.