QUEER WAYS OF AMUSING.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 10017, 15 June 1895, Page 5

QUEER WAYS OF AMUSING.

Strange It is, but true, that one often remembers men for years on account of some little peculiar accomplishment, when all the same man's ordinary actions are forgotten.

The writer well remembers one very oßtiujablo tradesman who BDJoyed an immense reputation on account of the surprising way in whioh he would play billiards with hia noee, which he uaed as a cue, and whioh be invariably chalked in a moßt solemn way ere he began a game wilh an ordinary cueist. Another celebrity, with a groat fame In a certain way, waa a man who always atruok matches on his teeth.

To quote another instance, the beat Imitator of the aouuds made by animals — on the stage or iff— that the writer has ever hoard was a working man, who could, in the most remarkable way, reproduce all the sounds made by pigs, youne and old, and the noise made by the hoofs of horeea when trotting, galloping, and bo on. A very celebrated local obaraeter in a certain district waa one " Bottle Bill," a barman In nn old fashioned inn, who was always playing tunes with a metal crusher upon the ornamental bottles ranged behind him. The atrapgo thing was that, apparently unconsciously, he used to strike up tunes appropriate — or horribly inappropriate — to the ouatomer last served. Say that an undertaker

went in, be would strike up "Down Amongst the Dead Men."

One of the most remarkable of the

men with little accomplishments tbat the writer ever saw was one who, with long flexible fingers, oould imitate the walk of any man. This man oould act a perfeot little play by the motion of his fingers.