Each citizen paid what he liked. If the sum proved
insufficient he was apprised of the fact next morning by having his
left hand amputated; a second error of judgment--it happened rather
seldom--was rectified by the mutilation of the remaining member. "Never
argue with inferiors," was one of His Highness's most original and
pregnant remarks, and it was observed that, whether he condescended to
argue or not, he generally gained his point without undue loss of time.
"It's so simple," he would say to those perplexed potentates who
flocked to him from the mainland for advice on administrative
questions. "So simple! One knock to each nair. And keep smiling."
It was the Good Duke Alfred who, with a shrewd eye to the future
prosperity of his dominions, made the first practical experiments with
those hot mineral springs--those healing waters whose virtues, up till
then, had been unaccountable neglected. Realizing their curative
possibilities, he selected fifty of the oldest and wisest of his Privy
Councillors to undergo a variety of hydro-thermal tests on their
bodies, internal and external.
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