——“My congregation would be ashamed of me if I took a glass of whisky without first saying grace,” said the Presbyterian.
——“Now, just see how congregations differ,” said the other; “mine would be ashamed of me, if I said a prayer over a glass of toddy.”
Another anecdote, while I am on the subject of grace-saying. This one is an old English veteran.
An evangelistic parson and a Quaker were seated at table together in the dining-room of an hotel. The evangelist, seeing a chance of displaying his piety, said to the quaker: “Had we not better say grace?”
——“Friend,” replied the quaker, “if you like, we can be silent a few moments.”
Be silent a few moments! that is rather out of the line of the evangelist; he does not like to hide the light of his piety under a bushel.
(D.)—Southwark Police Court.
(8th August, 1884.)
A respectable-looking working man applied to his Worship under the following circumstances. He said he had been working with a number of other men at a wharf in the neighbourhood of Tooley-street, and at the finish of their labour they were paid, and they were given two tickets for beer to be obtained at a public-house in the neighbourhood. He demanded his full wages, as he had no wish to go to a public-house; but the foreman refused to give him the money. He wanted to hear whether it was a legal transaction.—Mr. Bridge asked him if he was paid in a public house.—Applicant replied in the negative. They were paid in the office.—Mr. Bridge asked if the publican refused to give them money for their tickets.—Applicant replied that the clerk had told them the tickets were for beer. They were made out for a certain public-house.—Mr. Bridge advised them to go to the proprietor of the works and demand the money.—Applicant said they had done so, and the foreman had refused to pay it; he told them they should keep the tickets. He considered it a great hardship upon sober workmen that they should be compelled to accept beer tickets as their wages.—Mr. Bridge thought so too, and told him he might have summonses against the foreman and the publican, but he could not promise him success, as he had doubts as to the construction of the Act of Parliament.[16]
[16] In harvest time, it is still legal for farmers to make their labourers drink part of their wages.