Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1891 — Ready Answers. [ARTICLE]

Ready Answers.

Most of us aro able to supply r repartee if we are given time to think it over, but a repartee half an hour after the occasion for it has passed is like a blank cartridge. It is the readiness of the retort that makes it effective. The great Russian soldier, Marshal Suvoroff, was in the habit of asking h s men difficult questions, sometimes foolish ones, and bestowing favors on' those who showed presence of mind in answering them. On one occasion a General of the divis on sent hi.n a sergeant with dispatches, at the same time recommending the bearer t > Suvoroff s notice. The ma rshal, as us' al, proceeded to test him by a series of whimsical questions. “How far is it to the moan?” “Two of your excel eney’s forced marches,” the soldier promptly replied. “If your men began to give way in a battle, what would you do?” “I’d tell them that just behind the enemy's line there was a wagon load of good things to eak ” “How many fish are there in the sea?” “just as. many as have not been caught.” And so the examination went on. till Suvoroff, finding his new acquaintance armed at all points, at length asked him, as a final poser: “What is the difference between your Colonel and myseit?” “The difference is this,” replied the so'dier, coo ly. “My Colonel cannot make me a Captain, but your excellency can. ” Suvoroff, struck by his shrewdness, kept his eye on the man, and soon afterward gave nim the desired promotion. Emperor William is striking blows at vice in Berlin, beginning at the lowest stratum of society. If vice, like the fruit and vegetable receptacles, has the largest and most flourishing specimens at the top, the Emperor is beginning to reform society at the wrong end. The “revolution” in Brazil is anther evidence that the South American republics are only military despotisms. The condition of affairs there calls to m.'nd the harmony which prevails in “United Ireland."