I called
him 'Succelency.'" And "Succelency" for ever after the Governor General
was called in the West. Jim's phonetic mouthful gave the West a roar of
laughter and a new word to the language. On another occasion Jim gave
the West a new phrase to its vocabulary which remains to this day.
Having to take the wife of a high personage of the neighbouring Republic
over the line in the private car, he had astounded his master by
presenting a bill for finger-bowls before the journey began. Ingolby
said to him, "Jim, what the devil is this--finger-bowls in my private
car? We've never had finger-bowls before, and we've had everybody as was
anybody to travel with us." Jim's reply was final. "Say," he replied,
"we got to have 'em. Soon's I set my eyes on that lady I said: 'She's a
finger-bowl lady.'"
"'Finger-bowl lady' be hanged, Jim, we don't--" Ingolby protested, but
Jim waved him down.
"Say," he said decisively, "she'll ask for them finger-bowls--she'll ask
for 'em, and what'd I do if we hadn't got 'em."
She did ask for them; and henceforth the West said of any woman who put
on airs and wanted what she wasn't born to: "She's a finger-bowl lady.
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