ANOTHER ANECDOTE ABOUT GLADSTONE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1769, 23 August 1884, Page 2

ANOTHER ANECDOTE ABOUT GLADSTONE.

■ A curious adventure once occurred, .in tHe" London offices of the late W! Lindsay, merchant, shipowner, and M.P. There once entered a brusque, but wealthy shipowner from Sunderland, inquiring for Mr Lindsay, As Mr Lindsay was out, the visitor was requested to wait in an adjacent room, where lie fonnd a person busily engaged in copying some figures. The Sunderland shipowner paced the room several times, and took careful notice of the writer's doings, and at length said to ; him, •" Thou writes a bonny hand, thou dost." "I am glad you think so," was the reply, " Ah, thou: dost. Thou makes thy figures well, thou'rt just the chap I want." " In : deed 1" said the, Londoner, "Yes 1 , indeed," said the Sunderland man. " I'm a man of few words. Noo if thou'lt come over to caimyatild Sunderland, thou seest I'll give thee a hundred and twenty a year, and that's a plum thou dost not see every day in thy life, I recon, Noo then 1" The Lpndotier/.saidftMt ibe. was .very miich obliged 'for the 1 offer,- : and that ! lie would wait' until ;Mr Lindsay returned, and would consult upon the subject. Accordingly: on the; jof: the latter; Ke' was informed of' the shipowner's tempting, offer. " Yery well," said Mr Lindsay,';"l should bo sorry to stand in your way, /. One. hundred and twenty j bunas is'more than I can afford to pay you in the department in which you are at present placed. You will find my friend a good and kind master, and, under; the circumstances, the sooner yon, know each other the better, Allow me,' therefore, Mr —, to introduce you to the Eight' Hon, \V, E, Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer." The Sunderland ship-owner, you may be. sure, was. a little, taken aback at .first, but lie; soon, recovered his-self-possession, and enjoyed the joke as much as Mr Gladstone did. '