WHILST HISTORY WAS MADE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16590, 12 November 1919, Page 7

WHILST HISTORY WAS MADE.

I - a ( The following delightful story is got j ing tho rounds of tho clubs, says Pour- ! quoi Pas? (Brussels): —In onp_of the i i State rooms at Versailles, tne Big 0 : Four were seated, wrestling with decis- . ions of world importance when the :1 • door opened, aud a little French boy, ii j afterwards discovered to bo a son of tho caretaker, walked quietly in. _ ' e “I want to ask a question,” he said, t I “I want to know if anybody here can s , tell mo first what a ‘rising circumflex’ f is; aud also a definition of ‘concession e and unequal antithesis?’” y The Four looked blankly at each other. The boy was a nice, polite little 1 fellow, and the interruption, causing a y brief spell in their mental wrestling, a was'regarded more or less sympatheti- ;- cally. Yet with the best intention y in the world, not one of them could j answer. ‘ “What aro the questions, applied :1 mechanics, algebra, or what?” queried b one of tho statesmen, r “No, they’re elocution,” replied tho boy, “and teacher said this morning that I was a worthless good-ror-nothing because I couldn’t answer.” He paused a few seconds, resting on the handle of tho door, looking from one puzzled face to another. At last the silcnco was broken by Hie door opening, and tho boy walking sadly trom tho room. Tho injustice of being expected to know points in elocution, that even the four greatest talkers in the world were ignorant of, evidently appealed strongly to him.