THE UNDEMONSTRATIVE ENGLISH.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 62, 10 September 1904, Page 11

THE UNDEMONSTRATIVE ENGLISH.

W« Anglo-Saxons are apt to prido our- 1 •elves upon being undemonstrative (witcs Jerome K. Jerome in M.A.P.). Max Adsler tells a. talo of a boy who was sent out by his father to fetch in somo wood. Tho boy took the opportunity of disappearing and did not show his face again boneath the parental roof for over twenty years. Then dne evening a, smiling, well-dressed stranger entered to tho old couple, and announced himself as their loug-lost child. "Woll, you haven't hurried yourself," grumbled the old man, "and blarm me if now you haven't for.cotten the wood." I was lunching with an Englishman in' a London restaurant one day. A man entered and took his seat «it a table near by, and glancing round, and meeting my friend's eye, smilod and nodded. "Excuse me a minute," said my friend ; "I must just speak to my haven't seen him for over five . years. " He finished his soup, and leisurely wiped his moustache before strolling across and shaking hands. They talked for a while, then my friend returned to me. "Never thought to see him again," observed my frionid, "ho was ono of tho garrison at that place in Africa — what's the njane of Mtf— that * the*' Mahdi attacked. Only throe of them escaped. Always was a lucky beggar, Jim." "But wouldn't you like to talk to him somo more?" I suggested ; "I can see you any time about this little business of ours.^' "Oh, that's all ri^ht," he answered ; "we have just fixed it up— "shall be dining with him to-morrow."