Untitled

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 255, 5 March 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

" Are you a conciliator 1 " demanded a husky-voiced e'ector of Captain Jackßon Barry at the conclusion of his addreFS to the electors on tlyj Wei lingtcn wharf the other morning. " I'll give yon a lift under the ear if you come harracking me," retorted the veteran, who had just prev'ously offered to give any man of his own age a start of 10 yards and run him for £IOO. It is related of Mr TVrriss, the actor, whore tragic diath was recently recorded, that he went into a hatter's in the Strand one day to buy a hat. The assistant took his hat for the size, and disappeared into the back of the shop. Just then an archd-acon in arehidiaconal attire came in and caught sight of Mr Terriss standing there bareheaded. Taking off his broad-brimmed hat, the archdeacon said to him. " Have you a hat Ike that ?" ,l No, I have not," said Mr Terriss, rather nettled at bsing mistaken for a hatter's as-is'ant, " and I will tell you what ; I'd be hanged if I would wear it if I had." So-called printers' blunders are very often, as "X" points out in the Daily News, other people's blunders. The reporters are not blameless. 1 call to mind several that are attributed to the latter clasj. Speaking two or three years ago at a public meet ng, Mr Chamberlain said, "I feel like Figaro in Beaunnrchais." The reporter of one of your daily contemporaries I suspect 1 e lives in the convenient suburb of Brixton) made him say. " I feel like Figaro in the Bon Marehe." During the discussions on the Crimes Act in the House of Commons a Liberal politician—Mr John Morley, I think—said, "Some of the resident magistrates in Ireland arc no more capable of stating a case than they are of writing a Greek ode." In au Irish paper the latter part of the passage ran, " riding a Greek gont." The reporter's ear nrsled him, and he did cot pause to inquire whether peop'e ride goats, or whetker Greek gcats are harder to ride than other goats. These two amusing .blunders I can vouch for. There is another which comes from America that is perhaps less authentic. It is said that on the occasion if a mayor of a little town in the State of New York being entertained at dinner, one of the speakers described him as " a noble old burgher p:oudly loving his native State," and that the report had it, "a nobby old burglar prowling around in a naked state."