People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1894 — BISMARCK’S HUMOR. [ARTICLE]

BISMARCK’S HUMOR.

He J'vfnseil a Pardon, Hut rat's the Amount of the l ine. Jhe following as an illustration of Prince Bismarck’s good humor: After he had accepted tho ministry of commerce tho pT-inee was struck by tho insignificance of many matters ho had to decide. If, for instance, anybody had been caught illicitly hawking goods and had been sentenced to a fine, but had to be pardoned on the score of poverty, it was necessary, for tho remission of the fine, to obtain tho consent of two ministers—tho minister of finance and the minister of commerce. Bismarck had taken special note of a case of this kind. A peddler had been sentenced to a fine of twenty marks (about a sovereign), and tho under secretary of state reported to tho new minister of commerce that he was a poor devil, who had to maintain a wife and child, and would sink into still deeper misery if tho fine wore converted into imprisonment. Ho therefore begged Bismarck to sign an immediate report, advising tho king to pardon tho peddler. Tho prince emphatically refused to do so, for, said he, if the king had to be advised to use his right of pardon in all such cases, justice would become a dead letter. Tho peddler has simply not to pay the fine, and must cscapo imprisonment i a order to save himself and family from absolute ruin. The under secretary of state then referred to tho traditional practice, and appealed to the heart of his chief, who answered: “All right. I’ll give the poor devil the twenty marks out of my own pocket, but shall not have my signature for the thing.”—Deutsche Revue.