Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1883 — Bismarck and the Tardy Shoemaker. [ARTICLE]

Bismarck and the Tardy Shoemaker.

Herr von Bismarck had a shoemaker who had often broken faith with him, despite his most solemn promises, and he at length resolved to put an end to this sort of thing. One morning at 6 o’clock a messenger was dispatched to the dilatory shoemaker with the simple question: “Are Herr von Bismarck’s boots ready?” Being answered in the negative the messenger departed, but in ten minutes there was another ring at the shop door. A second messenger thrust in his head with the inquiry: “Are Herr von Bismarck’s boots ready ?” And so it went on every ten minutes,the same question all the day through until evening, when at last the boots were finished. Never again did the shoemaker keep Bismarck waiting for his boots.