HIS PORTRAIT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1190, 21 December 1894, Page 14

HIS PORTRAIT.

j From Our Own Correspondent. I London, November 3. j When a babe is born unto a house there is ! generally a good deal of discussion amongst i friends and relatives as to the infant’s ■ resemblance to one or other of its parents, i Mostly there is a good deal of flat contral diction. “ Don't you think he is the image ;of his father, ’ says Mrs Jones. “ Like his father V querulously exclaims Mrs Brown, j Not a bit of it. He has his mother’s eyes and mouth and—like hi 3 father—not a bit of it.” With father, mother and son in j evidence it is strange that folk should so j differ, but seeing that they do so in nine cases out of ten, it is hardly to be wondered at that the intelligent police officer should commit gervious blunders in arrests made on the strength of descriptions of malefactors given at head offices by chance acquaintances of the “ wanted ” one. Lieutenant Knox of the Mermara Battalion relates in the Pioneer

an experience he recently went through when travelling from Dieolali to Bombay. He got to the latter town safely after being interviewed by several chatty individuals en route. He ceuld not quite make out why they were so attracted to him, and the questions of one gentleman made the lieutenant uneasy as to the man’s mental condition. On reaching his destination Mr Knox was bailed up by a huge policeman, who informed him that he accurately answered the description pf a certain Lieutenant Cookson, an enterprising person who had decamped with a few hundred rupees of public money. Luckily for Lieutenant Knox’s comfort that night, his wife and body servant were able to establish his identity and he was allowed to proceed peacefully, only his pride being hurt at being mistaken for a fraudulent son of Mars. But you can imagine his feelings next day when he found the following description ;of the ill-regulated Cookson in the Gazette:— “ Complexion: Sallow, spotty face Hair: Brown. Byes: Not known. Marks

Sharp features, shifty eyes, scowling expression, slight and darkish moustache, prominent chin, slight build, and wiry. Husky voice.” This indeed is a pretty picture, and to show how well justified the police were in detaining him, the lieutenant runs over a few points of his own person. His complexion, he says, is a bright brick red, not yet done brown in the Indian o\en, whilst he is commonly held to be the healthiest man in his station. His enemies declare his rounded features to be “ podgy,’’ and as to the ‘‘ shifty eyes,” his wife and mother declare he has the sweetest expression they 've ever seen. His moustache is a beautiful blonde, full and aesthetically curled, and he has some fears of a double chin before many years have passed over his head ; he has a chest girth of 38 inches, and his great grief in life is a tendency to rotundity below the chest. Finally he has a tender and

deliciously mellow baritone voice which is much in request in the drawing-room. And the police nearly took him to the station for Cookson!

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