| Show HERBERT SPENCER IN YOUTH stern of character yet human enough to enjoy a joke the eighty third birthday of mr herbert spencer has brought out among other things extracts from the anonymous diary of a friend of his early days when he was on the engineering staff of the london birmingham railway spencer apparently patently ly was neither companionable nor particularly popular his stern and somewhat harsh character stood forth in all its nakedness as at his then early age he had neither tact nor knowledge of men sufficient herewith to clothe his am cerious temperament he hied in an atmosphere of antagonism a radical amock tones a democrat among aristocrats an advanced free think er among sturdy supporters of the mother church but young thought less and careless as we were we soon realized that a young fellow of keen penetrating intellect had come among us before whom we could not hold our own in argument either in meta physics or in engineering when we presumed to differ still he was human enough to en joy and even to perpetrate a joke upon a comrade hensman by name he inserted a piece of tracing pa per daily inside the leather lining of hensman s hat in a few days the hat was a tight fit remarks were made to the victim on the palpable enlargement of his cranium which he verified by stating that his hat gave evidence of the truth of the ob by the gradual tightening of the fit great sympathy was ex pressed on the alarming symptom and great tun was caused by hens mans consternation the idea of herbert spencer play ing practical jokes will probably be new and startling to most people |
