The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-12-10
FUN FROM ABROAD.
Sir Mancherjee BhOwnuggree Tells
Some Witty Stories.

One Turns on the latin Phrase Used
to Express Indefinite PostpOnement.
Another Shows the Ambiguity of
Our Wen Loved Language.
To hear Sir Mancherjee NJ Bhownug-
gree, K. G. l. E., M. P, speaking in the
house of commons, so earnest is he in his
work, one who does not know him per
sonally would hardly imagine that he
cared much for the humorous side of
things. But he has indeed keen sense
of humor and has great store of quaint
stories, which he tells with all the enjoy
ment of a man who appreciates bit of
fun.
Sir Mancheriee told the other day a
rather amusing incident which, he said,
tickled him tremendously at the time. 1t
happened in India that on one occasion he
was sitting chatting with an old native
minister about the affairs of his state,
which was then involved in rather seri-
Gus and very troublesome lawsuit. The
minister's son, bright youth who was
studying English law at one OF the gov
eminent colleges, was with them to give
the benefit of his two or three months
legal experience, when a telegram was
He looked puzzled for a moment, and
then handed the missive to the learned
young man, saying:
''Here my son, you are an English
scholar, you tell me what this means!"
The young law student took the docu-
ment, but looked still more troubled than
his father.
1.-THE case is postponed" he said.
hot iad
man, "but why? What are those two last
words?'
Another awkward pause. Sir Mancher-
\ lee was beginning to feel amused. He
guessed at once what the puzzling words
were, but waited to hear what this clever
young man would make of them, antici-
pating some fun.
"It is a Geographic error" said the
clever young student of law. THE word
is spelled sine instead of sire. The
case is postponed sire die, which means, of
course, that the defendants father is dead
and the case can It go on.
The old minister stared in bewilder-
ment.
"But his father has been dead for six
years" he said 40
Sir Mancherjee could control himself
no longer. he burs5 into fit of laughter,
and when he explained what sine die
meant he did not know which was fun
nier-the confusion of the son or the eX-
preston of the fathers face, which all at
once betrayed the saddest reproach and dis
appointed pride in his boys knowledge of
the law.
On another occasion he was visiting
native state on the west coast of India, and
in a large shed down by the harbor he
found about 100 little black boys, all
naked shouting and rompipg, and appar-
entity enjoying themselves immensely.
"What are those little chaps doing
there?" Sir Mancheriee asked the native
official who accompanied him.
"Oh," was the reply, ''the burra, cap
tain sahib, was here yesterday looking at
the harbor and he said he should require
to put out number of little boys in the
channel to warn ships of danger and keep
them on the proper course. These boys
here are all we have got at present"
Poor little boys!
During his last electioneering campaign
Sir Mancherjee had some very smart lady
canvassers who worked hard for his return
to parliament. One day lady volun-
teered personally to conduct him among
few of the people in the constituency
whom she knew. One washer butcher, to
whom she first talked very sharply about
the toughness of the last joint he had sent
to her house. The butcher was penitent
and showed it by promising the candidate
his VOTE
When they shook hands before coming
away, the lady WINGED and remarked:
CHOW am convinced you do not I'M
derstand the meaning of tender joints"
'sWhen he shook hands with me, (" said
Sir Mancherjee, concluding the story, 81
thought the lady was right. Judy.