AN OMNIBUS STORY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4870, 3 July 1901, Page 4

AN OMNIBUS STORY.

An amusing incident that occurred on the top of a Paris omnibus the other day is recorded by the Paris correspondent of the ' New York Herald.' The persons concerned were an, old hosier, his young and pretty wife, a gentleman who looked like a 'retired military officer, and a woman carrying a basket. The young and pretty wife was seated between the gentleman with military aspect and the woman mth the basket, the old hosier having been compelled to , go to the end of the seat. As the Omnibus went along the young wife imagined that the military lookiog man was ogling her, and moreover she imagined that she felt his arm around her waist. The man of martial aspect ; continued to take a peep now and then at the pretty face near, him, ancT the lady thought that the movement around ber waist increased in intensity. At last she felt a decided nip. She could stand it no longer. She exclaimed, ( You rascal ! Make eyes at me if you wish, but don't pinch me.' The husband jumped to his feet and knocked the military man down. The latter retaliated. The omnibus stopped and a small riot began on the top which only ended when the conductor and two policeman climbed up. The husband and wife told their indinant tale of woe. The military man gesticulated frantically and denied the charges. At this moment the woman with the basket, who ap« pears to be have been deaf, and had not understood the meaning of the row, suddenly had a spasm of intelligence and started to laugh. ' Here is the culprit,' she said, raising the lid of the basket, and out popped a long claw of a big live lobster sbe was carrying home. To prove the case a thread or two from the wife's cloak was hanging to the claw.