PECULIARITES OF A VICAR.

A REMARKABLE INTERVIEW. The Rev. William Yorick Smyttaes, the \ vicar of Algarkirk, dn Liocoliishire* is described as eoceiatiric, anxi not even 'has 1 bishop disputes the- justice of the description. Theire was no room for disputing it, indeed, after ihe cleared some harmless teespaasers off a foxn^er right-of-way a yeax or so ago with a^shot gun, and announoed his intention to 'preserve the privacy of ihis home iaa this fashion even if it entailed shoting haif-a-doaen of his parishioners. But an unbelieving newspaper irepoirter did not credit the stories that ware told ofc the eccentric vicar and resolved to test them fox himself. Having made his way to the vicarage door, he .rang the bell, and at last persuaded the janitor who answered his summons to take a message to Mr Smythies. Presently the vicar appeared, followed by Mrs Smyfchies, who peered' cautiously round lier .husband's huge frame and shook her head at the visitor. "Well, wiiat X dD you want?" began Mj Smythies. , And then, without waiting for a reply "Ha! you've come to annoy me. You've come to see what I'm like, to satisfy your miserable curiosity. What! An interview?" His mouth twitcihed with anger, and he almost .snorted with rage. "Aha! You're a Teporteir! I know what you are. You're a Paul Pry! One of tiiose nasty people who live amongst refuse heaps raking out scandal. Humph! It sells *he papers. ' And then, with a sudden gleam, as of an idea had flashed across him — "This— this— bhis'll be worth ten shillings to you. Perhaps dt will be worth more. You'll put all this in the papa*" "Isn't it terrible?" he asked his wife, and the good lady having meekly acquiesced, the reporter protested tn£* he 'had not been allowed to explain has'mission. "Of comse not. Don't you see I'm too clever for you, JPv& talked you down. I haven'? given you a chance. I don't want you to aay anything." "I just wanted to tell you sir, that I've heard " "Afoa! You've .heard! Heard, have you? Someone like you came the other day. He'd 'heard.' Foolishly, I asked him in, and the fiist thing he did. was to ask me my age and the name of the lady I maav iried." In the end the (reporter had to abandon has quest and ithnmk .himself lujcky in escaping ttae attentions of the shot gun. The bishop of Lincoln, who has been appealed to oveT the matter, says that while ■he deploies the sad state of affairs that ha& arisen at Algakkk, he cannot interfere. Old age and eccentricity, he explains, -are no grounds for depriving "tibe vicar of a nice living of £1200 a F^T-

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