A PRACTICAL JOKE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 74, 4 April 1910, Page 2

A PRACTICAL JOKE.

According to Sir H. Lucy, a wellknown American recently in London, tells an interesting story against himself. He had come via Vienna, where he had some business to transact.

His intended journey was known long: in advance among his numerousfriends in New York, and some of them determined to add a little episode to its interest. The American, intending to sojourn for some time in Europe, had a considerable amount of baggage. In one of his boxes his. treacherous friends managed to place a couple of cocoanuts bearing the outer shell. In the very steamer by which the unsuspecting traveller journeyed there went a letter addressed to the police at Vienna giving; an account of an American who, under the guise of business and holiday travel, was visiting the Austrian capital with felonious intent. A precise description of his personal appearance was given, the alias under which he would travel, and the particulars of two dynamite bombs, of quite new construction, hidden away in one of his boxes. On arrival at the Austrian frontier, the American was at once recognised by the police, his luggage carefully examined, and; the "bombs" discovered. The Austrians had never seen a cocoanut with the outer rind on, and it wa» some time before the traveller, himself puzzled at the contents of his box, was able to convince them of the ! innoxious character of the strangelooking things.