The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-12

ton he seemed loath to leave it, but
 tossed it about like juggler from one character to another until the one pun
 had grown into many, each more dar-
 ing than the last, and the whole was
 finally lost in verbal tangle of paradox
 and contradiction. But 1t is not so
 much in literature that the classic prl;
 are to be sought as iu the spoken words
 of many famous men, and this remark
 applies to the ancients as well as to the
 moderns. It is related that Helvius
 Pertinax suggested that the Emperor | Caracalla ought to take the title of Geticuss conquerer of the Getae or Goths, in allusion to the fact that he had killed his brother Geta, thereby becoming sole emperor. For this pun Pertinax lost his life, and his fate may
 be held up, as a warning to punsters.
 AS ih Goldsmfths fable, the man some times Tecoyers from the bite; 1t is the
 funny dog" that dies.
 Perhaps the most remarkable pun
 made by man of action was contain
 ed in the one-word despatch "Peccavi,"
 which Sir Charles Napier is reported to
 have sent when announcing his con-
 quest of Scinde. For brevity and ex-
 pressiveness it Is worthy to rank with
 the "Veni, vidi, vicl' of Caesar. An
 other Latin pun of equal merit was per
 petrated by Lord Palmerston in one of
 his delightfully."- ready replies to depu-
 tation. The question involved was
 fine collection of pictures presented to the nation, and which, for want of prop CT accommodation, were wasting their sweetness on the unwholesome atmos- phere of a London cellar The deputa-
 tion remonstrated with the minister on this Vandalic treatment of art; but Lord Palmerston speedily disarmed his critics by assuring them that what had been done was simply practical ap- plication of the principle ars celare ar- tenn. At another day another Liberal minister-the late Lord Sherbrooke, to wit-was tempted to indulge in lit- tie scholarly jeu d'esprit, but the sally in this instance proved to be no joke to the government of which he was member. It was when he was chan cellor of the exchequer of the Glad stone government of 1S6S-'74 that Lord Sherbrooke Ghen MT Robert Lowe) submitted his unlucky proposal to inn pose tax on matches, and he playfully suggested that the new imposb should bear the motto "Ex luce lucellum." But the small profit" which, according to this abortive proposal, was to be de- rived from light did not produce the proverbial quick returns" for the Lib eral party at the general election which few years later.
 A pun made by the great French statesman and ecclesiastical Cardinal Richelieu Is also worth recording. The Abbe Godeau, having sent him his para phrase of the Benedicite, received in return the following graceful letter ap- pointing him bishop of Grasse: Mon sieur l'Abbe Vous m'avez dome Bene- 1 dicite ct moi joyous dome Grasse," But even speaker in the house of com ! mons, while occupying his seat in the chair, Is said to have been betrayed in to perpetrating a verbal quip. A cer- tain member who had dined not wisely | but too we'll, was making long, ram bling address to the house, when sud- denly, in a loud voice, he blurted out the words of Macbeth, And damned be | he who first cries hold enough" The speaker only caught the second word, | md promptly called the member to or Ter. Tt was a quotation, MT. Speaker" explained the injured member, to whom he speaker replied T don't know whether it is a question of quotation or 1otation but should advise the hon. ,rable member to mind his p's and q's.' Another pun, which, if not classic, de- erves to become so, was made some lit- le time back within the writer's own experience. It was at a musical per ormance, and the audience had just ,een enchanted by the exquisite play ng of Lazarus upon the clarinet, when n eminent pianist of the present day vas heard to exelaim, Tt would take clever dog to lick that beggar," The vit both of the thought and the ex- ression was delightful, and 1t was the