Jim Was Wrong: An Australian Incident.

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume IV, Issue 1116, 11 October 1904, Page 2

Jim Was Wrong: An Australian Incident.

A Mkliiourne commorcial traveller telle an e {change of a little experience ho had in tho back blocks of Australia not very long ago, I had gono to the railway tori minus, itnd was continuing my round in a trap, and one evening put up at a little roadside hotel. When I entered tho hotel I was amazed to seo a man spread out on tho dining-room table with two other standing over him, digging at his | legs with penknives. Tho man on the table was groaning dolorously, and shedding bittor tears; he was also bleeding liko the proverbial porker. Good heayensl' I crH, 'What aro you at? You'll kill the man.' 'Oh, he's allright, mister,' said one of tho operators cheerfully,' we're only diggin' a bit o' shot out of him.' I looked closer, and s:iw that this was really what they were at. They jabbed the tips of thoir knives into tho poor wretch, and jerked out pellets of shot, ' How did it happen ?' I asked. 'Dead easy,' answered the second operator, an' ho ain't got no one to blame but himself.' ' Was it an accident then?' 'No, not exactly a haccidout, You sec, Jim hero bid me a qui! I could not hit him if I gavo hi in & start of lliirtv yards. Well, Jim was wrong, that's all" This, I think, is a fairly striking illustration of tho extremes to which tho betting proclivities of Australasians will go.