" Damel coolly replied, "That he had no
choice to make; he neither chose to have his head shaved nor his
throat cut;" and with this answer the ambassador was civilly
dismissed.
P.T.W.
* * * * *
_Guides_.--The guides that precede travellers in India are kept in
such admirable wind by their offices, that they keep up with your
horse at a trot, for seven or eight miles.
* * * * *
_To Cara_.
Thy swain discarded calls thee shrew;
Would'st thou, girl, prove the charge untrue,
Marry the fool who long hath wooed,
And all will swear thou art not shrewd.
H.H.
* * * * *
_The Pledge redeemed_.
Said Tom to Sam, "Dear friend, I'm bound
To see your fortune through;"
Sam lost his wealth to Tom, and found
The rogue had spoken true.
H.H.
* * * * *
_Men of no business and Paper-cutting_.--Men of great parts (says
Swift) are unfortunate in business, because they go out of the common
road. I once desired Lord Bolingbroke to observe that the clerks used
an ivory knife, with a blunt edge, to divide paper, which cut it even,
only requiring a strong hand; whereas a sharp penknife would go out of
the crease, and disfigure the paper.
P.T.W.
* * * * *
_Tremendous Explosion_.--January 4, 1649, a parish feast was held at
the Rose tavern, in Tower-street, where 70 barrels of gunpowder took
fire and destroyed 60 houses; all the persons assembled were killed
and mangled in a shocking manner, except the mistress of the tavern,
who was found sitting upright in the bar, and a drawer standing
without it, with a pot in his hand; both being suffocated with smoke
and dust.
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