CAN YOU SAY IT?

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 254, 20 July 1908, Page 10

CAN YOU SAY IT?

a : Two common l tests which have been put from the landing above to the gentleman at the foot of the stairs, who has returned from the office ,at 2 a.m., and .is trying .not to: walk 1 around tho candlestick ho is tilting, are:—"John, can, you say 'British Constitution?' " or "Say !chrysanthemum.'." In this connection an English exchange, instances tho . case of tlie wife who. always ■ asked hor husband' to'say! "Crystal Palace" threo times.., If lie said' the. two'' words ' clearly, 1 without omitting the ,"t'.' in Crystal, his wife know he/was sober, and lot him "in. But if ho said' "Crysal Palace", sho knew ho had not 'been to a temparance ineetihg. and left him on the doorstep until, he,coula say the words plainly. -Whether-the pblica have eVer . tried' this: simple- test of sobriety is not known,'. but they-.have been'- known to try the following, which is - recalled by the closing of that old Strand landmark, Burgess's picklo and -saut'6' shop. The man who .could not say, "Ho stood at the' door of' fish sauce shop in the Strand welcoming : Kim in" ; lias been hold to be intoxicated; - Probably nine out of ten sober people wlio tried to say this sentenco quickly •would not find-it come very trippingly off tho tonguei- "Anne in an ammited mauner animadverted on-Hannah's inhumanity," and "When a twiner a-twisting will twist him a twist, for the twines of tho twist lie three times doth intwist ;- but if one of the twines of-tho twist doth untwist, the twine that untwisteth untwisteth tho twist,'' arc a couple of. good tongue twisters of which . perhaps you have hot hoard. A. companion to "Sho sells seashells" is "Shoes and socks shocked Susari," while yet. another in which the letter "s" figures vory prominently is the following:—"There was a silly -'thistlesifter.. She had a sieve of -sifted thistles and a sieve of - unsifted thistles. The silly thistle-sifter took her sieve'of sifted thistles, and mixed thenl with the sieve of unsifted thistles." "A * growing' gleam, -.glowing green" .and '.'Tho bleak breezo blighted th< bright bloom blossom" are not easy to say, and the same .'remark. applies to the. following three:— "Grime's 1 groat gilt gigwhip," "&irah ill. a silk shawl shovels soft sum slowly." and "Say—should su< V a shapcl sash "shabby stiUshcs show?"

Women in England take .1 deep interest 111 politics. They range ' Vnisclrcs in tho frankest manner 011 the side of thr leaders. Liberal or Conservative, • of-tlio day, and eagerly join thcim in tho electoral bstile in which their party is interested. Tt'ean ba said of Englishwomen «ha.t lifts boon raid •of -the British monarchyTlim- rnigft, but , tboy do not govcxn,,—"Liberty,'' Paris.