The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-10-21
BISHOP wHIPPLg.s STORY.
1t Was Not New, but Was just as Good as
New to His English Hearers.
(From the St. Paul Pioneer-Press. }

OiAO Nv. = o4A L Itbb.
Perhaps no American clergyman issheId
in higher esteem among Englishmen who
know him than Bishop Henry Benjamin
Whipple of Minnesota. He has paid fire.
ouent visits to conferences and other
gatherings of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in England. During the recent
Lambeth Conference he preached in West
minister Abbey, and a tremendous audi
ence went to hear him. But the Bishop
is fully as popular as good story teller.
In the latter capacity he has done effec-
tive missionary work in converting the
British mind to an understanding and
appreciation of American hunor.
Before the Bishop had succeeded in
arousing this understanding, however,
he met with several experiences which
would have been embarrassing had not
the narrator been gifted with irrepressible
good humor The Bishop on one occas-
ion told story the point of which was
overlooked by his stolid English audi
ence.
s'This is story" said the Bishop, "of
.he Western frontier, and illustrates the
brevity of pioneer speech. Years ago I
had charge on the extreme western line
of civilization, and saw great deal of
wild frontier life. At that time every
man carried firearms on his Eperson and
kept rifle or pistol within easy reach of
his bed at night. One night one of the
coolest and most courageous mon on the
frontier was sleeping, as was his custom,
with his rife lying beside him on the
bed. He had the reputation of being a
dead shot, and it was we'll known that
no one had any chance when Dick once
he got drop on him.
"Will you explain what drop means
in that queer Western usage'?' asked a
sedate Bishop.
''Why, it means" said Bishop Whipple,
"that one man has another covered by
his gun-pistol l mean"
"You made use of the word gun in
advertently, of course, for pistol. Is 1t
commonly used in-ah-the States'?'
'sNot at all," replied the Minnesotan.
'tWe say pistol but the people in the
ion gun.
''And, excuse me,' said another digni
tary at the end of the table, "but do you
mean by dead shot that the man you
get the drop on with your gun is equal
to a dead man?'
TF6C1S6ly, S1Iu BISHOP w ulppl6.
Well, as l was about to remark, Die
was awakened one night by a noise at his
window. Slowly turning his face toward
the noise, so as not to give warming tc
any possible enemy there, he saw mans
head and shoulders framed in the open
window. Dick, still as motionless as q
serpent, reached for his rife. He raised
it slowly under his own body until the
barrel was in line with the intruder's
head. Dick always made sure of this
point, and his adversary as directly in
front of his weapon before using any
palaver. He hate1 SO to waste amInu nj.
tion."
."And, pray, what is 'palaver?' "asked
a Bishop who had not heard the same
word as used by the English themselves
in Africa.
ooh, 'palaver' means talk; idle
Words
LAS soon as Dick felt that he had the
drop on his visitor he sung ont:
You gitl'
stantly that the dead shot had him coy
cred with theirife, and replied coolly:
:" You bet! and dropped to the ground
and disappeared"
Not mitred head lost it's dignity by
approaching the humor of the story.
There was a painful silence for a
moment. Then one member of the
solemn hierarchy said:
What does git mean, Bishop?'
why, git is American for get and
means go away 'be off. f."
''Ah, 1 see" replied the Englishman.
Then another Britisher asked:
''And what, pray, does you bet
mean?''
That said Bishop Whipple, with a
smile, "is slang phrase, meaning, 'of
course or that the proposition is SO sure
that YOU can bet on it. -
''Ah, very clevah, indeed" said another
Anglican, "but what queer words you
Americans make use of. Do you all talk
that way?"