Part 38 (2/2)
Serjeant Ballantine in his _Experiences of a Barrister's Life_, says:-”There was a singular physical fact connected with him (Sir Edward Belcher), he had entirely lost the sense of taste; this he frequently complained of, and could not account for A friend of mine, an eminent member of the Bar, suffers in the same way, but is able to trace the phenomenon to the shock that he suffered in a railway collision”
INGENIOUS SWINDLING
A party of gentleer run, came back to the station and secured a compartment As the train was about to start, a well-dressed and respectable looking man entered and took the only vacant seat Shortly after they had started, he said, ”Well, gentlemen, I suppose you have all been to the races to-day?” They replied they had ”Well,” said the stranger, ”I have been, and have unfortunately lost every penny I had, and have nothing to pay my fare home, but if you promise not to split on h” They all consented He then asked the gentleman that sat opposite him if he would kindly lend hi handed to him he took it and wrote his own name and address on the back of the ticket and returned it to the owner Nothing more was said until they arrived at the place where they collected tickets; being the races, the train was very crowded, and the ticket-collector was in a great hurry; the gentlemen all pushed their tickets into his hands The collector then asked the gentleiven it hientleman protested he had, and, moreover, would not be insulted, and ordered hi, he said he wished to report the collector for insulting him ”I make a practice to alrite my name and address on the back of my ticket, and if your man looks at his tickets he will find one of that description” The man looked and, of course, found the ticket, whereupon he said he must have been ised, and asked him not to report the case further
DANGEROUS LUGGAGE
Complaints are sometimes made of the want of due respect paid on the part of porters to passengers' luggage It appears that occasionally a like lack of caution is manifested by owners to their own property It is said that on a train lately on a western railway in Ae of explosives One man contended that it was impossible to prevent or detect this; if people were not allowed to shi+p nitro-glycerine or dynae This assertion was contradicted ehed at, flouted, and igno up in his wrath, he produced a capacious valise fro it emphatically on the cover, said, ”Oh, you think they don't, eh? Don't carry explosives in cars? What's this?” and he gave the valise a resounding thues in that air valise; sixty pounds of deadly h to blow this yar train and the whole townshi+p froh,” he continued; but he ithout an auditor, for the passengers had fled incontinently, and he could have sat down upon twenty-two seats if he had wanted to And the respectful way in which the baggagehandled the trunks and valises was pleasant to see
The neglect of carefulness appears, in one instance at least, to have involved inconvenience to the offending official ”An unknown genius,”
says an American periodical, ”the other day entrusted a trunk, with a hive of bees in it, to the tender e-smasher' The company will pay for the bees, and the doctor thinks his patient will be round in a fortnight or so”
-Williao a Philadelphia gentleman took his little son on a railway excursion The little felloas looking out of the hen his father slipped the hat off the boy's head The latter was rieved at his supposed loss, when papa consoled hi that he would ”whistle it back” A little later he whistled and the hat reappeared Not long after the little lad flung his hat out of the , shouting, ”Now, papa, whistle it back again!” A roar of laughter in the car served to enhance the confusion of perplexed papa Moral: Don't attempt to deceive little boys with plausible stories
EXCURSIONISTS PUT TO THE PROOF
A good story is told of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln Railway Company A week or two since, the company ran an excursion train to London and back, the excursion being intended for their workmen at Gorton and Manchester There was an enormous dean, to use an expressive term, ”to smell a rat” But the sale of the tickets was allowed to proceed The journey to London was ratulated the But on the return journey they made a most unpleasant discovery
Their tickets were demanded at Retford, and then the ticket-collectors insisted upon the holder of every ticket proving that he was in the eined There were more persons in the train who had no connection with the company than there were of the company's employes; and the forive their na summoned We hear, from a reliable source, that the fares thus obtained amount to about 300
-_Echo_, Sept 23, 1880
A MONKEY SIGNALMAN
We learn froes the railway traffic at Witenhage, South Africa The hus, and has trained a baboon to discharge his duties Jacky pushes his master about on a trolly, and, under his directions, works the lever to set the signals with a most ludicrous imitation of humanity He puts down the lever, looks round to see that the correct signal is up, and then gravely watches the approaching train, hisat hand to correct any uard of an English railway carriage recently refused to allow a naturalist to carry a live hedgehog with hinant, pulled a turtle frouard replied good naturedly, ”Ho, no, sir It's dogs you can't carry; and dogs is dogs, cats is dogs, and 'edge'ogs is dogs, but turtles is hinsects”