“NOTHING NEW . . .”?
I see the closing o£ the famous Paris restaurant, Foyot’s, has caused a hoary joke to be revived, says a Daily Telegraph correspondent. The story as printed runs: The Emperor Francis Joseph, on being charged a fantastic price for eggs, said, “Eggs must be very rare in Paris.” The restaurateur’s retort was, “Eggs are not rare, but Emperors are.” This story has often been told with the substitution of peaches for eggs and King ■Edward VII for the Emperor Francis Joseph. It is also tacked on to a whole range of pre-war Russian Grand Dukes. Sir Charles Petrie, the historian, is also a genealogist—of stories. I remember him telling me that it was possible to trace most of the stories told about Hindenburg in his old age back to Francis Joseph and also to the Emperor William I of Germany. The drily witty stories told of Clemenceau have an apostolic succession that runs through Taleyrand back to Henri IV. Even the Goering uniform jokes can be traced back to the ex-Kaiser. The Bar could also, I imagine, produce such genealogies among its great figures.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19371224.2.81.5
Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 305, 24 December 1937, Page 10
Word Count
186“NOTHING NEW . . .”? Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 305, 24 December 1937, Page 10
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