"TIME GENTLEMEN PLEASE"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 52, 29 February 1944, Page 4

"TIME GENTLEMEN PLEASE"

Sir y —Your eloquent appeal for a 'Town Clock' has reversed the time piece of yours truly, to the spring of 1889. When I! heard, the old song, "Ask a Policeman" at the Alambra Music Hall Leicester Square (led by London's leading orchestra of 4.0 violins with their supporting in-; st rumen ts) the audience hit the roof with the chorus, Every, man that's in the Force. "Has a watch and chain! Of. course" If you want to know the time "Ask a Policeman." There was no "plus tax" in those days. The expenditure of 6d guaranteed four hours entertainment supplied by the. world's best artists. The fumes of wine spirits and beer, altar; of roses, garlic; and onions, mingled with Havanah woodbine clay and* briar pipe smoke to create the atmosphere London playgoers, loved. While Big Ben boomed midnight Leicester-Square became a whirlpool of cosmopolitan humanity, creating a Babel of. languages on. their way home to bed. Dukes, Lords, Amjnassadors and swell gentlemen escorted famous beauties to their cabs and carriages while their unfortunate sisters under conventions skin, were bartering their battered charms for the needful to keep them from the final cold but merciful embrace of old Father Thames, proving the truth of. Robbie Burn's immortal lines, re inhumanity meaning "The World,, the Flesh and the Devil." That makes countless thousands mourn. From Leicester Square to the* Beacon Office is a long hop, but thanks to the speed record breaker "Thought," here we are again Mr Editor, sincerely hoping WThakatane's Town Clock will soon be ticking the public's gratitude for its innovation., H. SERGANT..