Scottish Thrift

A respectable public functionary in Dundee, of parsimonious habits, was one day rallied by a friend from the country upon the extreme shabbiness of his attire. ‘Hoot, man,’ answered the bailie, ‘it’s nae matter; every body knowss me here;’ meaning that, his character being perfectly known in the place, it was quite unnecessary that he should fortify his pretensions by fine clothes. It happened that the same friend met him afterwards in the streets of London; and finding his clothes no better, expressed still greater surprise than before, adding that surely his former excuse would not avail him now. ‘Hoots, man,’ answered the pertinacious miser, ‘naebody knows me here.’

Robert Chambers, Scottish Jests and Anecdotes (1832)

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