" Keep to the Right."

Otago Witness, Issue 2284, 9 December 1897, Page 52

" Keep to the Right."

A J?reucbmftD, newly arrived in London, im" patient to see ,the place, bat fearful of not find* ing his way back to Lw'.hotel, copied on a c»Td the words painted on the wa'l at the corner. oE the >treßt. He then confidently set out on a r*mble, much upon the plttn vulgarly known as " following one's nose."

The whole' day he strolled and stared to bis heart's content. Wearied at last, he jumped into a cab, and with tho easy air of a man who feels perfectly at home, he showed the cabman the card on which ho had, as he thought, prudently preserved the name of the street he dwelt in. •

Cabby grinned horribly, gazed in his fare's astonished face, and ended by, sticking his hands in his pockets aud roaring with laughter. The foreigner was indignant ; he appealed to the passers-by, who gravely liatened to him at first, but upon beholding the card joined in chorus with the coachman.

The Frenchman now waxed furious, swore, stamped, gesticulated, like a candidate , for B'jcilana. He even threatened tho laugherd. A crowd assembled, and all sympathised with. him till they learned the circumstances of the case, when they forthwith joined in the infectious hilarity. *

Up came the police, those guardian angels oE bewildered foreigners in London'u labyrinth. The , aggrieved Gaul felt sure of sympathy, succour, and revenge. But the gentlemen in blue roared like the rest — compunction, doubtless, mingled with their mirth, yet they guff* wad exceedingly. To what extremities* the desperate Frenchman might have proceeded it is impossible to say had not a gentleman acquainted with kis language appeared upon the ocsne. He, too, laughed violently on beholdingr the card, acd when ho had cpoken a few words to the Frenchman the Frenchman laughed likewise, which was a signs 1 for the recommencement of the general -hilarity. The address so carefully copied by the foreigner at the corn.cc of his street was " Keep to the right."