Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1914 — REALLY LITTLE DAMAGE DONE [ARTICLE]

REALLY LITTLE DAMAGE DONE

Joke, It Appeared to Comedian, But to Curio Store Proprietor It Was a Horror. George Robey, the comedian, frequently drops in for a chat with a dealer in London. In the outer room are vases and jars, eups, groups and sets of pieces, valued at anything from 50 to 500 guineas. Inside is the proprietor’s private apartment. To reach him you gingerly pick your way through the thousands of pounds’ worth of valuable china. “One day, not long ago,” Robey says, “I had been chatting within, and a friend was waiting for me in the saloon without. As I bade the dealer ‘Good morning!’ and passed through to the street I hoard a dreadful crashing of broken china! My friend turned upon me an eye glassy with anguish. Never shall I forget the proprietor's expression of supreme horror as he rushed from his sanctum and saw us standing amidst the debris of broken chinaware which lay strewn around our feet. He was speechless—choking. '■* “Legal proceedings? Five thousand pounds? In a word, what was the damage? you inquire. Well, I am sorry to have to confess it (for the proprietor was in bed for a week as the result of the shock), but it was a gag prearranged. For my friend, who had brought with him a couple of dozen cheap soup plates, had, at a given signal from me, dropped them in a heap upon the floor.”- —London TitBits.