AN IRISH GEM.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 26, 1 April 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN IRISH GEM.

Pri.ate Patrick O'Hara was told off for orderly duty, and his name duly appeared on the company notice board. He was, however, caught surreptitiously erasing hi> name from the said board, and forthwith hauled before the officer in charge and harangued in the following terms: — ■'No.v. my man, what's this I hear about you trying to shirk orderly duty? lie a true soldier and own up to your name being wilfully obliterated from the board." "No, sargent, an' me name ain't that at all; shure, an' how can ut be when it's Patrick O'Hara, from County Tyrone.'' THE GOOSE-STEP. A Paris paper gives an amusing explanation of the manner in which the goose-step was introduced into the German army. Every year, at the approach of Christmas, immense flocks of geese were despatched from Pomerania to Berlin. In order to save money the geese made the journey on foot. ' To protect them against the rigours of the road the geese had their feet dipped in glue and covered with fine gravel. By the time this operation had been repeated a dozen times the geese had acquired semiartificial feet, which they raised with a jerky, staccato movement every time they started walking. One day the Kaiser met a flock of these Christmas victims on the march, and he was so delighted with the spectacle presented' by the feathered tribe that he ordered his soldiers to copy them. That was the origin of the goose-step, and shortly after it was introduced into the German army.

Fogarty (a moderate drinker): "I'll bet >'• th' Roosnians are beginning t' feel th' loss iv vodka." Flaherty (warailv) : "Don't ye lose any sin pe over it. Mar-rk me wur-ruds, they'll retake it again before long!"