Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1893 — "Just Like a Page.” [ARTICLE]

"Just Like a Page.”

Court pages seem to have been forgiven a good deal of mischief, if we are to credit the annals of European courts. The thought suggests itself that the high dignitaries were at times weary of etique'tte and magnificence, and were secretly grateful to an audacious youngster for creating a diversion. One day an important official of France, who went often to Versailles, was waiting in an ante-chamber for the coming of the king. He leaned back in his chair, and rested his head against the tapestry on the wall. A page slipped up behind him, and with a great pin fastened the official’s wig to the tapestry. Just then some one cried, “Here is the king!” Up jumped the official, leaving the wig hanging to the tapestry, and confronting the king with bare head. He was not at all disconcerted, and said gravely, “I did not expect to have the honor of saluting your majesty to-day in the guise of a choirboy.” The king repressed a smile, and at once recognized the incident as the work of a page. He insisted upon knowing who was the guilty one, and then ordered him not to appear before him again until he had begged the official's pardon. The page retired after receiving his orders. At midnight he decided to execute them. He galloped away on horseback to the residence of the official, and waked the household and the whole neighborhood, declaring that he had a message from the king. The official got out of bed and put on some of his court garb in order to receive the king's messenger properly. A t last the page was ceremoniously admitted to his presence. Then the boy said, “Sir, I am here at the king’s command. I have come to beg your pardon for pinning your wig to the tapestry.” “Sir,” replied the official, calmly, “you need not have made such haste. ” Then the page retired with much bustle and ceremony. He appeared before the king the next morning, and was promptly asked if he had done as 'he was told. He answered that he had, as many witnesses could testify. When the king was told how the page had executed his orders, .e shrugged his shoulders and said, That is just like a page.”—Youth's Companion. Loud Brassey, the English yachtsman who went around the world in the Sunbeam, navigating her himself, takes with him on his cruises a large and powerful hand organ, with monkey attachment, of the kind familiar to dwellers in all the large cities. Upon this instrument his lordship is accustomed to perform every evening, finding in the operation a congenial form of amusement and exercise combined. Out in Washington they have mart bears. One story teller tells as of “a bear which stood down by a waterfall and caught the fish and threw them up the bank to another bear, which guarded them until they had enough for a dinner, when the two united in a square meal.*’ A wash-out never brings the same feeling of satisfaction to the railroad man that it’doetl to the laundress.— Buffalo Courier