WILLIS STREET, WEEKLY

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 444, 1 March 1909, Page 8

WILLIS STREET, WEEKLY

Introducing my Friend the Domocrat as an Excuse to* Say Something about Saturday Might. [liv "Mere Onlooker."] State control of gin-mills was what 110 said ho wanted, but tho policeman at the corner of Manners Street seemed 1 to think that State control of his footsteps was the real want. I think he feared the same tiling, for ho linked his arm through mine and called mo "Mato." So, like two war-canoes lashed together, wo weathered the lamp-lit antagonist in blue, and straightened out tho lights of Willis Street. Out of tho tangle I bad fished mconsequontly a gesticulating Democrat. Wo had not met bel'oro, but he was a supremely approachablo man; and when I presently agreed with him that State Control might upon 'occasion bo a good • thing 011 a hot night, 1 found myself already his friend. It is true that 1 found his wit a littlo heavier than his gait, - his accent almost as incoherent as his reasoning; but a man like 1110, companionlcss 011 a Saturday night, is like a live and amiable mariner forlornly adrift among the mossed wrecks of the fabled Sargosso. In the circumstances, my friend tho Democrat did very well. Ho told me stortorously'of his beliefs, and lie lifted for a moment tho dingy veil that hid his Paradise. His name, I am willing to presume, was John Smith; but he did not disclose it. It was sufficient that I had proved myself of the communion of the Chosen by my proferred opinions stated above. Strong in tho confidence bred of that confession, he was candid as a child. He talked much and mysteriously of some strange creaturo that he named Tho Worker. Ho said that The Worker (when be. came into his own, would only work four hours a day, live days a week. And this, I gathered, was the Paradiso he dreamt of: a place, Wellington for choice, in whicli The Worker would work four hours a day without supervision, and receive as pay ono pound an hour, the price of commodities and tho ruling rents—all unaifected by The Worker's royal earnings—being somewhat notably lower than they arc at present.

I am not a politician, and tlio dreams of my Democrat bewildered mo. But this state of exalted tremor was not for long. In a tea-shop, or thereabouts, my friend met another Democrat—his brother to a hair— and the other Democrat jangled certain coins. Our new-formed friendship was immediately at an end, and again I was alono and nnbefriended. But since then I have thought a. good deal about that Paradise —a good deal, that is, for a man with no special knowledge and no enthusiasm for politics. This mention of my friend tho Democrat is a trick worked subtly, by way of introduction. My design was lead you insensibly on—to fit you to with meekness my panegyric of Saturday night in Willis Street. You will understand. • You, being you. < I have heard just persons complain of this throng and thoroughfare I praise. I hava heard it said that the behaviour of tho multitude that wanders round town each seventh day gives cause of sorrow to the moral and discreet, i have hoard good folk say that it is absurd to walk up and down AVillis Street on Saturdays, with no aim or object. It might be—but thero you have a point arrogated. I urge that the strollers have an aim, and'that their object is at least defensible. 1 think that "Willis Street 011 a Saturday night, is a sort of moral safety-valve, good to let off inoffensively, or with slight offence, tho congested moral vapours of the week. I am of the number of those who think that there is a certain virtue in uncalculated gladness, Regarded as a forco, I hold that Willis Street on a Saturday night is of greatly mote value to tho community than Willis Street on any other night. ' A very wise and beautiful man onco wrote a very wise and : beautiful, essay, which he called "An Apology lor Idlers," At all' risk of citing a.deJight,,faniiliar-r,I quote-him "Extreme busyness, whether at school or college, kirk or market, is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetito and a strong sense of personal identity. There is a sort of dead-alive, y'hackneyed peoplo about, who are scarcely conscious of living except in the exerciso of sorno conventional occupation." ' 1

Saturday night in Willis Street is of vital usefulness to the community, because it helps thousands of peoplo to get away from their conventional occupations. It is a night on which tho absolute idler reaps all the best fruits of tho harvest. The folk who simply go round in a perspiring flurry from shop to shop, buying things needed, miss much of tho true joy of tho occasion. Thero is, when you come to think of it, a special pleasure in seeing exposed great stores of food, when you are not for the moment in the act of working for it. The starving man who sniffs savoury odours outside a restaurant, goes away not altogether unrewarded. I can, I think, the better delight in the spectacle of a delightfullydressed woman when I am myself in my accustomed raiment of tho discarded Ishmaelite. The cat that looks at a king may have all tho best of tho game. Tho workingman who lies abed on Sunday morning, enjoys his indolent moments tho better if he happens to" think that, somewhere on a railway, men are working. There is a thing called human nature. No man ever yet satisfactorily defined it; but it's thero. Recurring to our main subject, _ I would have you note that there is a certain recreative magnetism of the crowd, which most men only have opportunity to enjoy on Saturday nights! In the multitude of councillors "thero is often foolishness, but in tho multitude of men thero is uplifting. "Whenever I get into a crowd and rub shoulders with Bill and Jim, I'm protty sure that it's a reasonably good world that I find myself in. Breatho a man's air,.and you somehow diluto tho poignancy of his sorrows, and as you do it your own. burdens become for the moment less oppressive. You may bo on the rack, but you forget the thongs —the raw wounds cease to throb._ It is the difference between walking on a lonely strand and sauntering along tho same beach full of happy folk, bright with children and their innocent sports. Willis Street on a Saturday night suits mo very well.