The Tables on Cabby.
One night, after Parliament adjourned, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, then Bishop of London, was driven to his home, Fulham Palace, by a cabby who, noting what a distinguished passenger he had, undertook to get from him a big fee. Determined not to be taken advantage of, Bishop Temple tendered the exact legal fare, two shillings, and refused to add even a modest tip.
Cabby did not protest. He tried flattery. He knew that most bishops of London had reason to expect promotion to Canterbury in the event of a vacancy in the primacy of all England. So he said, in a begging and martyrlike tone:
"Do you think the Archbishop of Canterbury, with his big salary, ought to ask a poor cabby to drive all the way to Fulham late at night, and then give him the pittance of two shillings only?"
"Decidedly not," returned the Bishop. "The Archbishop of Canterbury lives at Lambeth Palace, and the cab fare from Westminster to Lambeth is not two shillings, but only one shilling. Good-night."
From a Student in Adelaide.
I am a student in the University of Adelaide. One of our professors is Dr Stirling, who is much interested in Central Australian discovery. A short time since he told us some facts about an investigation he helped to make in connection with an exploring party, two or three years ago. Perhaps it will interest American readers, for I read that in your country there was a race of people who lived there before Europeans came. That race is dying out, is it not? The Australian aborigines are, at any rate. Here is the account related by Dr. Stirling, as I copied it in my note-book. He read it from a circular sent out by a scientific society, but he helped to prepare the circular, and he has helped also to explore some parts of unknown Australia.
"The present inhabitant of Australian wilds is a descendant of a stone age. He still fashions his spear from flint. History he knows none. He has no traditions even, and a poorer and more meagre language than any savage known even in Africa. He is a savage brute in the form of a man. He is jolly, laughs much, has a good eye, and has never yet been known to wash. He has no private ownership of land, save the dirt on his own body. He does not till the soil, but lives on roots and game. He lives in a climate that affords a 15° Fah. temperature, yet he never uses the skins of animals for clothing and rarely makes a fire. He goes about perfectly nude, and eats his food raw. He has no religious belief whatever, and has little or no sense of honor or of truth. Attempts to civilize him prove disastrous failures. He is being 'civilized' off the face of the earth, I am sorry to say, and soon only his flints will remain. I hope this will interest you."
F. B. Van Braagen.
Adelaide.