STORIES OF BALFOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 110, 12 May 1930, Page 6

STORIES OF BALFOUR.

The following are among the stories told of the late Earl Balfour:

He was being shown the Woolworth Building in New York, and told its size, value, accommodation, etc., the narrator winding up with the information that "it 'is completely fireproof." "Really?" said Lord Balfour. "What a pity!"

At a dinner Frank Harris was holding forth about the condition of the world, and ended by saying truculently, "All the evils of our time are due to Christianity and journalism." Arthur Balfour responded in a quiet tone: "Christianity, of course, but why journalism?" "He has no mind," somebody had said of a certain peer. "Oh, I shouldn't say that," pleaded Lord Balfour peaceably. "Why not ?" "Well, he's a half-wit."

On one occasion, at Ranelagh, he was preparing to negotiate a critical putt on a green overhung by a tree. Presently a bird began to sing. He looked up and remarked: "How sweetly thai throstle eings!"

At the Paris Conference M. Clemenceau, after listening to Lord Balfour discussing pros and cons for twenty minutes, looked up and said, "C'est fini? Mais—are you for or against?"

His passion for alternatives amounted almost to a vice. The story is told how he forbore' to buy a house with a double staircase since he knew that he would never be able to decide which of the two descents to choose.

Mr. Balfour once showed signs of impatience during the Manchester election of 1906, and someone shouted: "Don't lose your temper." With the most charming smile there came the quick reply: "I won't. I have lost many things in my life, but never my temper."

Once in a family gathering at Whittingehame the talk turned on remorse and a sense of sin. After a pause Arthur Balfour was heard to say meditatively across the table to his brother Gerald, "I never remember suffering from a sense of sin—do you, old man?" Rising to follow a well-known Front Bench bore, he mildly complained that he bad listened patiently for more than an hour. "I only spoke for fifty minutes by the clock," interposed the Minister. "I beg the right lion, gentleman's pardon," said Balfour, "but it seemed longer."