ANECDOTES OF THE GREAT

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 72, 17 December 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

ANECDOTES OF THE GREAT

General Robert E. Lee was once asked what he thought of a certain young officer whom Jefferson Davis was considering for an important position. 'Lee gave the officer an excellent recommendation, and tlie young man was immediately promoted. “That officer has said some very bitter things about you. General,” some of Lee’s friends told him, “and we are surprised that you gave him your recommendation.” “I -was not. asked,” said the greathearted Lee, “for the officer's opinion of me. 'but my opinion of him.”

While poring through the books in a second-hand' stall. George Bernard Shaw found a volume containing his own plays. It was marked down very low. The volume was inscribed to a friend beneath whose name on the fly leaf was written. “With tlie compliments of George Bernard Shaw." Mr. Shaw bought the .book ami wrote under tlie inscription, "With renewed compliments. G. 8.5." Then he sent it again to tihe original recipient.

The President's; favourite slogan came quite handy in seeing me through a rather delicate situation, wrote an American, Gabriel Wells- Entering the tearoom of a “West End hotel in London, I found every table fully taken ; except one where a distinguished greyhaired woman sat by herself. I asked permission to take a seat at her table. She nodded gracefully. Presently the waitress came to take her order, asking if we were together. "We are only good neighbours," I replied wth a smile. The lady seemed tobe pleased with the answer, f thereupon explained that it was a pet phrase of our President. .In the end, wo were not qniy good neighbours 'but understanding 1 riends, • * Americans, always impatient if they don't get results immediately, might ! learn something from Jimmie Yen 'the I great Chinese scholar. A graduate of ■ Yale and Oxford, a student of the ' world. Yen several years ago selected | j a group of provinces in China with the 1 idea of modernizing the education of

I the ]>eople. IJe wrote a new dictionary ' for China, so that the masses of the I people might learn to read and write. I When 1 asked him how long it might I be before he could report results in I his provinces, he replied : “I should I think about thirty years."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, at a dinner in London, related a bantering conversation which he once had with a £2-a-week actor who was in the cast of one. of his plays. The young chap laughingly suggested that the two agree to divide their incomes with each other for the rest of theif lives. Naturally. Sir Arthur refused such a rid'culous offer. He admitted later that he regretted having made the refusal. The £2-a-week youngster was Charlie Chaplin.