WHEN G. W. HUNTER DRIED UP.

BEFORE telling you the following amusing story of one of our great comedians, I should explain a custom which seems to have died out in recent times. Some years ago many of the leading provision and grocery stores were in the habit of exhibiting the head of a huge pig with a lemon in the mouth for the Christmas displays. What the exact purport of this was I cannot say, but it certainly added a touch of humour to the shop windows during the festive season.

One Christmas season, G. W. Hunter, the well known comedian who has since retired from the stage, was performing in a pantomine at Glasgow. As part of his turn he had to perform some card tricks--he was no mean conjurer, I might add--and he always asked someone from the audience to assist him.

Once he had got his victim on to the stage, he always raised laughter by making the volunteer look small. This he did by the well known tricks of moving his chair to different parts of the stage, advising him not to fall over, and so on. On this occasion he more than met his match!

The man who agreed to assist him was a bluff, hearty looking Scotchman, who seemed the ideal man for Hunter's purpose. After a certain amount of cross talk, which went mostly against the volunteer, Hunter invited him to take a seat.

"This is a very clever trick," he said, turning to the man. "By the way, I suppose you have never seen me before, have you.

"Of course I have," was the surprising reply.

"You've seen me before? Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Whereabouts?"

"In Lipton's shop window with a lemon in your mouth!"

The audience roared at the smart piece of repartee. Hunter felt very small, and the scene was finished there and then. When next the comedian appeared on the stage, he was laughed off, and it was some considerable time before the audience had sufficiently recovered to listen once again to his clever quips and gags.