Foreign News: Forgetful Pill Man

Sir Thomas Beecham, famed orchestral conductor, son of the potent pill tycoon, read in a London newspaper last week that he had been fined £10 ($50) for failing to answer a summons.

The item reminded Sir Thomas that he had crammed the summons into his pocket weeks before, when a call boy had shouted it was time to conduct a concert.

Fishing in the same pocket of the suit he wore at the concert, negligent Sir Thomas found the summons, hopped to a telephone, rang up his solicitor.

“Sir Thomas Beecham is a busy man,” explained the solicitor to the judge, who promptly remitted the £10 fine when the solicitor pledged his word of honor that a hotel bill for £16 which busy Sir Thomas had also forgotten to pay, and which was the cause of the original summons, would be paid at once.