CALLING ON THE EDITOR.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2902, 17 January 1911, Page 7

CALLING ON THE EDITOR.

An editor can usually take a joke as well as anybody, but there are times during the rush of business when he is apt to miss the point.of the joke for some moments. Such an instance happened recently in an Australian up-country newspaper office, which resulted seriously for the joker. The joker in question happened to be the editor's own brother, whom he hadn't seen for ten years. He came to surprise his brother a nd to pay him a short visit, and, being more or less given to practical joking, he determined to wait upon his brother in the guise of the "feller what wants to lick the editor." He was a big, strapping man, well fitted to enact such a part, and when he forced his way into the editor's private office he had his hat pulled down over his eyes and a cigar elevated at an angle of forty-five degrees, causing him to look very tierce. "Is this the editor ?" he asked, as he faced his brother. "It is," replied the other. "What can I do for you ?" "Nothing," returned the fiercelooking man. "It's me what wants to do for you. Are you prepared to take a good licking ?" "Charmed, I'm sure !" replied the editor, and with this he picked up a portrait block and slammed it into the visitor's face, knocking him under the table. The foreman of the composing room had a roller in his hand at the time, and, hearing a strange noise in the office, came running in just in time to stand on the strange man's chest and run the roller over his face. When the man came to his senses he explained the little joke, disclosing his identity, and all is now peace and joy, barring a piece of his ear that is missing where the stereo glanced off his head. It took some time to get the ink' off his face, and his chest is still a little tender where the forman's number elevens tracked it up, but otherwise he is doing first-rate.