WITHIN AN ACE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2263, 15 July 1897, Page 57

WITHIN AN ACE.

The vigilance of aa old-time customs official ib may he said, came, perhaps, within an ace oi changing the course of French history. One day a mother who had been to a countrj house returned with her son to Marseilles. II was twilight. The child, eight years old, had been put in a peach basket borne by a donkey, and the mother, fearing tho child might; take cold — it was in November — had covered the boy with a thick brown shawl. Tired with running about the country all day, cony and warm under the thick dhawl, the child was. soon asleep, and hidden by the sides of the baikat. When the city gates were neared, the mother, forgetting nil aboub the child, walked some distance behind the donkey, and did not make him stop ab the custom house to be searched. The customs officer seeing the donkey jog on without stopping, suspected that he was laden with smuggled goods, and ran after him to thrust hi« sharp steel probe through the basket. Luckily the mother observed him, ran forward, and screamed • " Don't use your probe ! My child is in the basket ! " The child was Adolphe Thiere, the future President of the French Republic.

— Fully one-third of the land in Great Britain is owned by members of the House of Lords. — To restore the elasticity of the seats of a cane chair, turn over the chair and with hob water and a sponge wash the canework no that ib may be thoroughly soaked. If the canework is badly soiled, use a little soap. Dry iv th« air, and it will be as good as new.