SAFED THE SAGE AND PLENTY OF BANANAS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 77

SAFED THE SAGE AND PLENTY OF BANANAS.

“ Beloved, thou canst take a Party around the world, and show them Little or Much, aud it shall prosper with them and with thee if thou Feed them well. Every party that doth travel abroad is a success if the Eats are good, and no Knowledge or Kulture that is to be gained by Travel can '•ompensate for a Poor Dinner. “ Now, upon a ship, the Eats are usually Good, and they are more than sufficiently Abundant. But it is a relief now and then to get ashore and eat in an Hotel. And I can tell thee where the Hotels set better tables than the Ship, and they be not many. But if a man shall say, I desire a little Variety, then may he eat a Dinner at the Washington at Panama, which belongeth unto the Government of the United States, and he will depart with an enhanced opinion of the management of his Government. But such hotels be few. And I can name many that double the price for Tourists and cut down the Menu. “ Now there is an hotel in a far-away .land where they undertook to feed Six Hundred American tourists for a fixed price, and I think they intended to retire from business thereafter and live on the profits of that one meal. For, though they were well paid, the portions were exceedingly small, and everything was cold except the Ice Cream. And when their food gave out then did they bring in Great Baskets Df Bananas. “ And if thou shouldst say, I desire Fish, then would the waiter say, Yes, sir. “ And he would disappear. And if he ever came back, it would be with a Basket of Bananas. “ And if thou should st say, I desire some of the Roast Beef which is printed upon the Bill of Fare, then would he say, Yes, sir; wilt thou not also have a Banana? And he would give thee the Banana, and thou wouldst see him no more till he appeared for his tip. “Now I have known men whose Ideas are of this sort. They have a very small stock-in-trade save for some Hobby, and they Perpetually Bombard their defenceless fellow-men with that one idea. And thou canst not steer them into any other channel so that they may be required to furnish thee with some thought for which tljou mightest care. It were better to have Bananas than no food, but there cometh a time when too free an offering of Bananas may imply a lack of anything else.”