SORRY HE WASN'T THERE.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1609, 10 April 1875, Page 5 (Supplement)

SORRY HE WASN'T THERE.

I have referred in my book to that Coroner of ours who seized an Egyptian mummy that was brought into town s summoned a jury, held an inquest on the mummy, brought in a verdict of ' Death from causes unknown,' and charged the country with the usual fee, with compound interest from the time of Moses. Well, that Coroner is still in office, and he is still enthusiastic about his profession. Last Sunday night he was at church. The minister preached a very solemn sermon upon Noah's flood, an 1 after it was over I met the Coroner in the aisle, and said to him:

' Very impregsife discourse, *Mr. "Wheeler, wasn't it? \ 'Beautiful, sir! beautiful/ replied Wheeled, ' And yet it seemed tcf be kinder mournful, too.'

' Indeed! Why, it didn't strike me in that way. It was solemn) df course ;'but its tendency. Certainly should be too fill the heart of every truly* gco"d man *itb cheerfulness and hope.'

' Oh ! I know all that,' said Wheelerj but didn't he say that there were several million people drowned in that flood ?' 'I beliei-e he did.' :<

'Well, then, I say that, when I think of all that mortality, and remember that I wasn't Coroner then, and ain't likely to be when there's another such a freshet, it makes me sick. There ain'c nothing cheerful about such reflections. I feel if I hadD't been treated right; as if I'd been bobed. — Max Adeler.