Storyettes

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1815, 25 July 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

M. Labiclio's Wit.

. «.. 0 .-» Some of the Famous Sayings of a Bright

And Learned Frenchman.

M. Labicho, who died in Paris not long ago, waa a member cf tho Frenoh Aoadomy —one of the forty literary " immortals " of. France— and famous fcr hia witty and goodnatured remarks. The quality of hia vtii, says tho Youth's Coirpanion, was not of tns keen, incisive sort thcis we ars accustomed to reading of in aneodotss of Sidney Smith cr Tom Hood ; it ia rather of tho corfc which finds in every dtuation gome material for an iDßfcant, unpremeditated remark which puts all listeners in good humor, and merely inake3 them laugh rather than arouses theic intellectual admiration. M. Labicbe originated the saying, not now unfamiliar in characterising a person who, though ignorant, inßisla upon making a great; shew of what ho knows : "Heis a man of va3t and varied misinformation," Libiche expressed the thought in this way : "He haa a great and varied ignorance." Not long after Labioho had used thia expression, and had embodied it in a literary woik, Prince Bidmarck said of some one : " Tuatman possesses a perfect euoyclopediaa ignorance." Labiche insisted that Bismarck had borrowed the phraso from him. " Ha at least ought to give us back Alsa3B and Lorfaino iv return for it," said tho Fr=nchman. But it ia more probable that the repetition was a mere coincidence, as Bismarok himcelf is a man of genuino wit. _ At the marriage cf his son, Labiohe gave a little party, and, bs he was quite unaccustomed to ceremeny of a social sort, he was at first puzzled to know what he should fay in greeting and parting with so many people. " I have it I I have it 1" he exclaimed, finally. "I will Biroply cay to each person as he arrives, 'At last I" and to eaeh~s3 ho goes away, * Already V " Hs carried out hid programme, and all hia guest 3 were very much il Mcied. Libiche carried his diepoeitiun to make a jtst of everything to hi 3 daath-barl. Oa arse of his last days he eaid to his friend : " I have just had a very plessaafc visit from & priost, but I have bc-coine so deaf already tbat I did not hear a word the good man aaid. Ah I I hope he did not take advsntage of it to give mg any bad advico." And then emiling the smile of a man bound to ba gay as long as he lived, hs added : "Auy way, if ho did, there won't much longer bo auy danger of my following it I" It was eaid of Labiche that Borne of hid mots or jokes had made a fortune, but this was trua only in the sense that the faculty of making such mota as pleased the Parisian world, and knowing how to put them together deftly, waa as good as an abundacS fortune.