There was a man during the reign of Kaiser Otho, who wore puffed
breeches. Puffed breeches then were filled with flour, and when the
wearer of the breeches sat down on a seat he sat down on a nail, and
the nail tore the breeches and the rent emitted three pecks of flour.
Why he should have sat down at that particular time, and in that
particular place, is a mystery; and why there should have been a nail
there, is to me an inscrutable mystery; but there is the fact, and the
sufferer I consider an ill-used man.--GEORGE DAWSON.
(1505)