A STRAPPING JOKE

Thames Star, Volume III, Issue 1668, 23 April 1874, Page 2

A STRAPPING JOKE

A French musician lias been creating considerable social and public disturbances by his inveterate disposition to play practical jokes. His chief object in life seem* to be to worry Custom House officials. Arriving at a place on the frontier, provided with a quantity of luggage, he would pretend to conceal a huge trunk and a small one from the eye of the officials, only the more to excite their curiosity. At last the larger trunk would be opened. It would be found to contain thousands of second-hand trowser straps—an appendix of trousers now perfectly obsolete—which had evidently been packed by hydraulic pressure, for the most franctic effort on the part of the employes could not put them back again into the trunk. In toe mean* time hundreds of passengers storm at the detention, while the practical joker calmly looks on at the bother he is causing. But the second and smaller trunk hat now to be examined, and the Custom House people hope there to find him in default. They ask for the keys. The practical joker draws bunches of ponderous keys from every one of liis pockets; none will fit, until, at last* their patience exhausted, the Custom House officers threaten to burst the trunk open. The possessor of of the trunk calmly asks the angry offloer is he married. " What business is that of yours P" is the surly reply. " Only tail 7: That before you open that trunk I would advise you to po home, shake hands with your wife, kiss your little children, write your will, call at an undertakers as you. come back. There are rattlesnakes in that trunk. I never travel without them." Of course the man leaves the trunk instantly, and a messenger has to be sent to the head director, -who is shrewd enough to be aware that he has to deal with some practical joker. Presently the official returns, and asks . pompously, "How many snakes have/ you, sir." " Only fix," is the replj—"look for yourself." "Oh, only six; The he*} of.the department says six snakes can paps, but that seven would have to pay. duty. .1 am instructed to state to you that if you do not leave this office—trowser strap*, snakes, and all—-in five minutes, you will Ibe forcibly ejected." "And who is to repack my precious straps, a collection unequalled in the world P; The law entitles me to all my goods. You took them out; put them back again. The best period of my life is being devoted to finding pairs for these straps.' ,