A FRENCH MISER'S RUSE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2319, 21 May 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

A FRENCH MISER'S RUSE.

A well-known French miser took up his abode in an old tumble-down house belonging to him in a remote quarter of the town, having previously dismissed his servants and sold their liveries, with the exception of one solitary coat sleeve, which he reserved for a particular purpose. In this wretched hovel—for it was little else—he vegetated for many years, limiting his daily expenditure to the smallest amount neccessary to secure .him from absolute starvation, and passing his time in the contemplation of his moneybags, of which he possessed a goodly store. In the midst of the self-imposed penury, however, he was so sensitively desirous of keeping up appearances that, whenever he had occasion to open his window for the purpose of discharging, as was then the common practice, the refuse of his scanty meals on the heads of the unfortunate ,passers-by, he invariably slipped the one extended arm into the showily emboidered coat sleeve, in order that the idea "f his being his own domestic might never suggest itsself to the imagination of his neighbours.