"TIME'S EFFACING FINGERS."

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 122, 23 May 1908, Page 15

"TIME'S EFFACING FINGERS."

The protracted illness of tho Prime Minister makes his friends glad that they succeeded in getting his portrait • for the .National Liberal Club painted while hei was in robust health. No doctor more carefully watches the health of a! patient than does tho portrait painter that of a subject. Mr. Fifth remembers to this day the shock he felt when, commissioned to paint Dickens, he found that the novelist was growing a moustache. That was not the worst ; before the sittings were ended Dickens had developed that beard which his likeness ' has now made familiar to all. There was the same- anxiety to get Archbishop Benson painted. His face altered wonderfully during the last fifteen oi his life. It gained in nobility and beauty, but as the hair whitened there was the fear ever present in an artist's ! mind that it would not form a strong enough background to the marked features. The family mentioned the portrait, to Sir .Hubert Herkomer. The artist urged speed. "I can wait, but the subject cannot," he said: Happily the fears of family and artist proved froundless ; the face and head were perect to the last. — St. James's Budget.

"Do you think Bliggins would make a good husband?" asked the conscientious youth. "Why do you ask?" enquired the girl, in surprise. "Because if you think such a fool as Bliggins could manage it, I have a good mind to take a chance my- ' self."

Mr. Smith — Just a moment, Jones. Do you know which is the more obedient, the church bells or tho organ? Jcme? — No, I don't. Smith — Well, tho bells will sound when they are tolled, but the organ says "I'll be blowfd if I do."

Judge Woolsack— l want you to meet my friend, Mrs. Carter, a most charming widow. Dr. Kaloraell — The kind you make? Judge Woolsack — No; tho kind you make.