A KNOTTY PROBLEM SOLVED.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXII, Issue XVIII, 6 May 1899, Page 605

A KNOTTY PROBLEM SOLVED.

An amusing story in connection with the great Bishop Wilberforce was told by Dr. Newman Hall when speaking at a temperance meeting in London. He once asked the bishop if it were true that on one occasion, after examining a Sunday school, he said, ‘Now, children, 1 have been asking you a lot of questions. Just ask me one.’ A lad promptly took the divine at his word and put the following poser: ‘l’-p-p-please, sir, w-w-what use was Jacob's 1-1-ladder to the angels if they- had w-w-wings?’ The bishop was said to have been puzzled, and walked the schoolroom pensively until a bright idea struck him. and Wheeling round to the boys cried authoritatively, ‘Now, boys, you have heard that question? Why don’t you give it an answer?’ To his lordship's further surprise one of the children had an answer ready, to the effect that the angels could not at that, time use their wings because they were ‘moulting.’