The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-05-10
Court Gossip Of Interesting
Epents on THO Continents

% e.
certain Capt. Barnaby that. when shoot
ing rabbits on the island Of Stromboh.
in the Mediterranean. on Friday. May
10. 1857. he had seen Old Booty, his next
door neighbor, running into the burning
crater there, pursued by the devil Mrs.
Booty. the widow, had the captain ar
(, rested, and claimed thousand pounds
damages for what he had said. But
4 when the case was heard, it was proved
| that Old Booty actually died within two
minutes OF THEFT he was said to have
been seen on StromboH Island, and that
lall the circumstances of the apparition
| were noted in the logbooks of three
ship captains present On Old Booty's
clothes being produced in court they
were identified by the witnesses for the
defence as those worn by the man who
ran into the burning crater" Mrs.
Booty lost her case. the judge remark
ing: ..rhe Lord have mercy upon me
and grant that I may never see what
You have seen. One, two, even three
witnesses may be mistaken, but thirty.
| never!''
The record suggestions for the budget
received by any British chancellor Of
the Exchequer certainly was during the
stress Of the Napoeonic war a hundred
year ago. In 1871 here was not an
article Of dress. boots. shoes leather
breches, &c.,-not an article in the house
locks. keys. bells. &c, which had not
been commended to him as objects Of
| taxation" The futility of all this was
] illustrated by his abandonment OF the
7 taxes on hats. gloves, and mittens, in
consequence of their miserable failure
| Nevertheless. the government was soon
driven to almost equally futile taxes on
| such things as soap, candles, and glass;
1t was the famous wag. Sidney Smith.
who INDUCED in a characteristic out
| burst against taxation in one Of his con-
tributions to the Edinburgh Review, AT
| bed or board" he wrote, "couchant or
| levant, we must pay-the schoolboy whips
his taxed top; the beardless youth man.
aged his taxed horse with a taxed bride
on a taxed road, and the dying English
man, pouring his medicine, which had
paid per cent duty, into a spoon that
has paid Is per cent, filings himself back
! on his chintz bed. which has paid % per
| cent, and expires in the arms of an
apothecary who has paid license OF q
| hundred pounds for the privilege of put
ting. him to death. His whole property
| is then Immediately taxed from to 10
| per cent Besides the probate large fees
| are demanded for burying him in the
chancel; his virtues are handed down to
| posterity on taxed marble; and he is
| then gathered 70 his fathers-'to be taxed
| no more"
The happy lot of Mr.. Lloyd-George. who,
| 1t is estimated. will have a budget sur
plus of a quarter of million. forms a
striking contrast to that Of Mr.. Austin
Chamberlain, who, in 1904. had to pro-
vide for deficit of Sc, Co., 900 in the Brit
ish balance sheet Some startling sug-
gestions were made to the member for
East Worcestershire on that occasion by
those who considered themselves capable
of teaching the Chancellor of the EX-
chequer his business. Among other things
upon which 1t was said that duties
should be imposed We're such necessi-
ties as boots. baths. lamps, hats. UNI
brellas, perambulators. and theater tick
cts. Extraordinary though these sug-
gestions were, however, they were not
more so than some budget schemes which
actually have been carried out in the past
in order to raise the British revenue.
In 1906 a tax of two shillings had to be
paid by the parents of every baby born
in England, except by people in receipt
of aims. This tax fell very heavily upon
the masses, to whom a shilling meant
much more than 1t does today. The no
bolity and the gentry, too, found the tax
irksome, for it increased according to
rank.
No small amount of fun has been made
of the bill! introduced by a member of the
New Jersey State Legislature some time
ago imposing a graduated tax on men
with boards. But it is by no means an
original proposal. Queen Elizabeth put
a tax of three farthngs on every beard
of fortnight's growth, while Peter the
Great insisted that all Russian noble who
wore boards should pay 100 rubles for the
privilege.
1t has been said often that the selfish
individual who declines to lead another
mans daughter to the altar and provide
for her for the rest of his life should be
mulcted a certain amount each year. 1t
is an old idea, for at one time the man
who reached the age of twenty-five in
England was liable to a tax of one shilling
per annum until he married. Widowers
without children were obliged to pay the
same amount until they married again,
while the gentry and nobility paid a tax
in proportion to their rank
AS Chancellor OF the Exchequer, Pitt
rendered himself very unpopular by the
extraordinary means to which he re-
sorted in order to improve the state of
the British finances. He it was who first
introduced the income tax in 1898, and
he also levied one upon horses, which
caused farmers to use a COW for the
purpose of riding to and from market
Even more dissatisfaction was caused
by Pitts increase in the window tax
first imposed in the year that the tax
on babies was enforced. This window
tax caused property owners to wall up
as many windows as possible in order to
reduce the amount for which they were
liable. In spite Of this, however, the tax
was bringing in nearly couple Of mill
lions when 1t was repealed in 1851 and
the inhabited house duty substituted.
Pitt found that his attempt to tax
fashions were as difficult as shooting
folly as it flies. There was the tax Of
1867 on French straw hats known as
"Watteaus" These hats were all the
rage in England. and it was thought
that an enormous sum would be real
lied by taxing them. But smugglers
discovered that they were quite as prof.
liable cargo as brandy or lace. and be-
fore they could be successfully COPIED
with Vatican hats were out of fashion
and the tax became a dead letter.
Perhaps the most extraordinary budget
proposal in England, however, was that
Of Mr.. Lowe, who, In order to make I'D
in deficit of 100000 in 1871 suggested
a tax on matches. A duty of a half
produce a large sum. Every one recog-
nized the truth Of this, but the match
manufacturers would have none of it.
They organized professions to Westmin-
ster, and other proposals of Mr.. Lowe
proving equally unpopular, the whole
budget was withdrawn.
Taxation is something that one can
get accustomed to-if we are willing TO
accept the evidence Of Mr.. Gladstone. |
Long before his day Lord Castelreaeh
in a burst of indignation against per-