HE DIDN’T KNOW WHY THEY LAUGHED.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 42, 17 October 1891, Page 500

HE DIDN’T KNOW WHY THEY LAUGHED.

A clergyman, reading in public from ‘ The Tramp Abroad ’ unconsciously turned into a farce the description of the ascent of the Alps and the ensuing accident. ‘ The snow gave way,’ he said, ' and hurled five of them, all guides, into one of the crevices of the glazier.’ The audience began to titter. * I suppose you people don’t know the meaning of a glazier,’ said he angrily, and continued his reading until he reached the passage, • Dr. Forbes uttered the prediction that the glazier would deliver up its dead at the foot of the mountain thirty-five years from the time of the accident,’ when the audience laughed aloud. ‘ I really don’t know what you people are laughing at. It’s quite true,’ said he, more angrily than before. ‘ Forty-one years after the catastrophe the remains were cast forth at the foot of the glazier,’ whereupon the chairman nearly rolled out of his chair with laughter. ‘ I don’t know what you are laughing at, Mr Chairman. I should have thought it was very sad. The deceased had carried food with them, and the guide said that the mutton had no odour when he took, it from the glazier.’ Shrieks of laughter brought the reading to an abrupt conclusion. The indignant clergyman refused to go on, and to this day he has never been able to see the joke.