Ways of Living.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 369, 4 June 1903, Page 2

Ways of Living.

* -"';'-' Is*''- -^ BLIND CLEEKS USE '^HE^ThB

; WBITEB.S- K ' ; U ■" % fT may seem strange to the fortunate sighted people that the blind should be able not only to write shorthand, but to manipulate a typewriter with perfect ease and considerable speed. Yet thie is the case, and there are already Wind typewriters' officesiipLondon,says; • Morriss's Trade Journal,' where authors' manuscripts, letters, circulars, and. general copying are attended to; by operators. The shorthand is taken on a special machine, which. embosses in the • Braille' system of ' dots.' "Tfiere'"are only six type keys and a spacing key. The matter is recorded on a roll of. tapelike paper, which travels, along automatically into a basket, somewhat after the manner of the ordinary 'tape' machine. With the aid of the machine verbatim reports can be taken at as high a speed as 140 words a minute, and thus a very, remunerative and pleasant means of employment is afforded for the blind. The transcribing is done with any typewriter, the user having once mastered the position of the keys. There is, however an attachment for those who are deaf, as well as blind, to indicate when the end of a line is near. .Instead of the usual • tinkle,' a wire is so fixed that it falls on the fingers, no matter in what part of the keyboard the hands may be. The London Society for Teaching the Blind : has recently made a feature of this shorthand machine in its institution. A blind Clerk has been instructed in the new pystem, and has already done some good work.

LITEEAEY BECOBDS. The largest circulatioE of any English novel in copyright is that of East Lynne/ of which the public have bought nearly half a million. The earliest published work still, in copyright is Tennyson's 1 Poems by Two Brothers/ which dates from 1837. The largest amount ever given for serial rights in England is .£7OOO paid by 'Cornhiil' for George Eiiot's ' Eomola.' The largest cheque ever given to an English-author is £20,000, received by Lord Macaulay for his History. The most expensive single volume lately issued is Morris's' Chaucer,' published at £2O. The thickest single volume in print is the ' Catalogue of Current Literature,' which measures acroES the back. The highest price given for a first edition is 545 guineas for an uncut copy of the Kilmarnock • Burns.' GIGANTIC WASH DAYS,

The sight of a British rej; iment drawn up for parade on a bright summer's morning in India, dad in immaeu'ate white clothing of a highly-sartorial cat, would send-an English laundress into the seventh heaven of delight,/ especially when she learned that there are .75.000 soldiers possessing from three to twelve such suits each. •■••■■" ?■: Perhaps a closer investigation would dispel this illusion, for the following reasons. At all home stations Mrs Atkins washes for the officers and men residing in barracks, earning in many cases .£1 a week or even morej but is 'lndia's sunny cli mo,' this good lady, be % she ever, so lowly, would scorn to soil her hands j. consequently, to use her. own phrase, she ' puts her washing out.' -' • Now to assist in keeping' Tommy in that state of virtue which we are assufed is'next to godliness,' India provides an absolutely unique set of washermen, known as' dhobies.' 7 : ; : ;

T These 5 -dhobies' are -',<• by far the healthiest and most muscular of all the workers of India, owing chiefly to their lives being spent in the open air, and' to the constant muscular exertion which takes the place of the steamy soapsuds which form a balo around our English washermen. v- ,

'The 'dhobie's' modus operandi is as follows :

Early on Monday morning he drives a couple of pigmy asses into barracks, and then proceeds to collect Tommy's ' duds,' and, after marking them with hieroglyphics, which have up to the present puzzled the British Museum authoiities, bundles them up with other lots into a great bale, and then sallies away to the laundry, which is generally situated near a stream.

The laundry consists of a long wooden trough containing water. The linen is first; of all rubbed with a vile compound, and then flung into the trough, after which the 1 dhobie 'steps inside, and corn- 5 ruences to tread cut the dirt with, his feet. After changing the water a couple, of times, they are considered fit for stage two, which takes place in a streamstudded with smooth-topped boulders. Two 'dhobies' having each seized—say a pair of trsuserß by .the bottoms, take up a position facing ono another before one of the rocks. No. 1 souses the article in the water, and after whirling it frantically around his head, brings it down on the boulder with a resounding flop, utteriag the word, ' Europe 1' No, 2 follows suit, bat with the ejaculation of ' No soap!' •■'-' ' 70; Away they whack, like a pair of blacksmiths at an anvil, utterißg their cries of 'Europe!' 'No soap!' until the regulation amount of exertion has been expended What remains of the articles are then placed on the ground to dry, which, under the burning sua of India, is a quick process. The articles are once more loaded up on the donkeys, and taken to the ironing room, which is a flat board on the ground. After ironing fhem with an instrument like a rolling-pin the garments are. packed up and delivered to their owners. The charge for this labour is a halfpenny a-piece, large or small. Needless to say, the life of clothing is very brief after such a proceek -

Another class of washermen are known by the name of ' Flying dbobies,' because they will wash, dry, iron, and return a suit within six hours. I have on more than one occasion shod my white clothing at breakfast, handed tbem over to the 'flying dhobie,' and gone on parade the same evening wearing the same suit, and: which in the interim had been, through; the wash.

These dhobies charge the exorbitant price of two-pence for each article; thereby occasionally reaching the height of |i, dhcbie's ambition, viz, to lend money to his poorer brethren at usurious rates. A third class of 'dhobies,' who cater for the rich, go by the name -pp pinwallahs '; these people use European soap and hot water. These high-class artists believe in tie motto; ' Time is money,' for they never bring back an article under a fortnight, and charge according to time. The last class is known-as the'port dhobies, 1 who do the washing for sailors. They wait until .the ship has the anchor up, and then rush aboard r when Jack lias not too much time to count his articles; carefully; consequently,-■"lie- does hot always get the right number or the right articles. Taken as a whole, the ' dhobies' are a happy, industrious class, who, although their ,means are crude, return their articks smelling much sweeter than" is the case with many laundresses in great towns at home, whj»* are iperforce obliged to wash amidst unsanitary surroundings, and dry the linen i-u a smoky atmosphere.—C, T. 0. Cooke.