Good Stories

Tuapeka Times, Volume 26, Issue 157, 26 January 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

Good Stories

Peg Wof&ngton as Sir Hairy Wildare in •• The Constant Couple" carried London by storm. Garrick abandoned the role to her. It was in this that she provoked the repartee of Quin, who, when she said, after some fervid demonstration on the part her of admirers, " I have played the part so often that half the town believes me to be a real man," coneoled her withSthe assurance that the other half knew to the contrary. It is told of tbe late Fitz- Greene Halleck, who, forty years ago, was one of the great figures of American literature, that a wealthy gentleman had ordered his portrait to be painted by one of our most distinguished artists, and Mr. Halleck went foOhe first eitting. 11 Before we actually begin," said he to the artist, " I have one request to make of you, and that is to paint me as a gentleman. As for the likeness I don't care a copper ; fifty years hence nobody can tell whether there is any fault in it or not." During a recent trip of the City of San Antonioy oi the Mallory line, from New York to Femandina, an old lady passenger, who was hard to please and who grumbled at everything and everybody about the ship, said to the captain, at the breakfast table, just before reaching the port: "After a!l, captain, there's one thing really good, 1 mean it. Never saw better anywhere." "Glad to hear you say so, madam," replied the gallant captain ; " we always try to make things pleasant and comfortable for our guests. But what is there on this ship you admire so much?" 11 The salt," replied the old lady. Brigham Young often bad to exert the whole of his wondeiful quick wit in order to preserve the faith that his followers had in him, but he was generally equal to the occasion. A certain elder, while chopping wood, had cut his leg so badly that it had to be amputated. As soon as he was able he came to Young and stated his case to him somewhat as follows : "I have always been a good Mormon; I have several wives and a good many children, and in my present maimed condition I do not know how lam to provide for them. I believe truly that you are Christ's representative on earth, and that you have all the power that Ho Had. If you like, you can work miracles; if you like, you can give me a new leg, and now I ask you to do it." Young assented to all the flattering propositions as they were laid down, and when the elder had finished speaking, he said : " 1 can give you a new leg, and I will, but I want you to think about it a little at first. When the day of judgment comes, wherever you are buried, your old leg will find you out and join itself to you, but if I give you a new one, tbat will rise with you, too, and the question is whether you would rather suffer the inconvenience of getting along with one for a few years here to go through all eternity with three lc^s." The choice was quickly made, and Biigham Young's reputation ar a mirack-worker was saved.

A characteristic anecdote, dating from the reign of Louis Pbillippe, is related of the Duke cle Morny. He bad then been recently elected a member of the Gbambcr of Deputies, and received one day an invitation to dinner from a rich financier of the period, who was fond of ostentatiously displaying his newly acquired wealth and sumptuously appointed table. He bad, however, one peculiar weakness, of whicb those who had partaken of his hospitality were well aware, and whicb, somebow or other, had come to the ears of M. de Morny. A certain wine in his cellar, a Leoville of exquisite bouquet and flavor, was exclusively reserved for the Amphitryon himself, his wife, and a single gutisfc, whom ho particularly wished to favor, the others being debarred from a tabte of thU delicious nectar. In the course of dinner, the privileged trio having been previously supplied witb the incomparable Leoville, wines of various sorts were handed round ; and when it came to the count's turn, he waa asked if he preferred Chateau Lafitte or Hermitage. "Neither," he replied, in a distinctly audible tone ; "give me some Leoville." The dismayed attendant glanced at his master, who, putting a good face on the matter, directed him to hand "M. le Due" the wine he preferred ; whereupon M. de Morny, negligently emptying the precious liquid fiom the claret-glass into a tumbler, tilted the latter witb water,and drank it off; then, turning toward bis neighbor, he continued the conversation with him as unconcernedly as if nothing had occurred to interrupt it. Mile. Helene Laroche, member of the ballet corps of the Grand Opera of Paris, not long siace drew one of the first prizes in a lottery, amounting to two hundred francs, the ticket having been bequeathed to her by an aunt. She devoted the entire sum to the Paris Orphan Asylum, declaring in the deed of presentation that she was happy to giveto the needy what she would otherwise have squandered in frivolous expenditure. Mrs. Patti Syle Collins, the reader of blind batdwriting in the Dead Letter Department at Washington, is an expert. S'ie reads all written languages, except Russian and Chinese, and does not read these because, as she says, vfry few Russian letters come to this country, and the Chinese are so careful in preparing the addresses, usually writing one in English as well as Chinese, that she has found no need.