QUAINT GIFTS.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12757, 1 April 1910, Page 1

QUAINT GIFTS.

A contemporary notes that prominent members of Parliament often receive gifts from their constituents, 'ihe late Mr. Gladstone, who, as the result of his oratorical efforts, used to suffer occasionally from a relaxed throat, was the recipient from time to time of various throat gargles from sympathetic admirers who had had personal experience. of the efficacy of the remedies they offered. On ono occasion he received a roll of. flannel lrorn an old Welsh woman, who explained, with a wealth of well-inten-tioned detail, that it had been soaked with medicine that had given great relief to her-Jeceased husband, and th,it its efficacy was materially added to by the fact that tho gift had never been washed since it had been worn by the Grand Old Man's defunct admirer. Mr. Balfour, when Chief Secretary for Ireland, received a mysterious looking box that gave rise to considerable speculation. It was accompanied by a harmless bunch of shamrock, and on being opened was found to contain a white powdery substance that appeared to conceal some diabolical mechanism. Howeve«, the supposed deadly 'explosive— though its chemical formula (Cl 2 ti.2'2 Oil) has a -fearsome aspect— 'was nothing more dangerous than powdered sugar, while tho mechanism was a rusty corkscrew and a nutmeg grater, the accompanying missive reading : "Buy the whisky yourself; yon can then concoct the famous lemonade of Ballyhooly. and drink to Ould Ireland." When the late Mr.~ H. Brinsley Sheridan piloted a Bill through tho House of Commons, making it compulsory for railway companies to provide smoking compartments on trains grateful devotees of My Lady Nicotine sent him over 5000 pipes, a truly remarkable unanimity as to what tho circumstances called for. Not so acceptable, though equally expressive, was the gift of those two hundred individual who, when the dog tax was imposed in the days of Good King George, each forwarded to tho member responsible for the measure a hamper of dead dogs, packed like game.