"HOBSON'S CHOICE."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11512, 7 October 1915, Page 4

"HOBSON'S CHOICE."

Tho term " Hobson's Choice" has been variously accounted tor. The common tradition is that there lived in tho university town of Cambridge, England, a rough-and-ready old fellow, who was in very easy circumstances, created by keeping a livery stable, from which ho hired out to the young students and others a great many horses for riding and driving in harness. He was merciful to his horses, and jicted on the invariable rule that each steed should leave his stable in turn—tho horse in the stall next to the door, or none at all, being trotted out on each new requirement. Inasmuch as there is a difference in horses, as there is in men, there was some inequality in old Hobson's equine property. Sometimes, too, a real judge of horseflesh, ou getting n wornout or clumsy animal, would remonstrate; the iuvaviablo reply being, "That or none!" This urow i UL <> a proverb, and hence tho phrase arose, Hobson's choice;