Well, gentlemen, I don’t want to Russia, but you can not Rumania.
And so the poor Tommies had to go away Hungary.
* * * * *
The Baron Speck von Sternberg, the newly appointed charge d’affaires from
Berlin, was at a dinner where, in a purely humorous spirit the courage of
the various nations of the world was being impugned. The German’s courage
was pretty severely attacked by an Englishman. Baron von Sternberg took
revenge on him with this brief story—
An Englishman and a German were to fight a duel. They were locked in a
pitch dark room together with cocked pistols. All was still, and neither
could tell where the other was. Finally the German, not wishing to have
murder on his soul, tiptoed to the chimney and fired up it. There was a
shriek, and the Englishman, badly wounded, came tumbling down.
* * * * *
Two officers once appeared before Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden to ask his
permission to fight a duel, as one had grievously insulted the other.
Certainly, my friends, said the king. I will be present myself at the
encounter. On the day appointed Gustavus Adolphus appeared on the scene,
accompanied by a sinister looking person, who proved to be the public
executioner. Pointing to the two combatants, the king said—
You see those two men? Immediately after their duel you will behead the
survivor.
The two officers shook hands on the spot.
* * * * *
Corporal James Tanner lost both his legs at the second battle of Bull
Run. Later, when in a hospital, he and other wounded soldiers were
visited by charitably inclined women.
One day an elderly female carrying a neat basket sat down beside Tanner
and talked religion to him while he thought of the delicacies in the
basket. At length she lifted the lid and took therefrom a tract on the
evils of dancing, which she handed to the patient. Tanner looked it over
and then said earnestly—
I give you my word of honor, madam, that I’ll never dance again as long
as I live. The elderly lady departed with great satisfaction, fully
believing she had made a convert.
_Emeralds_