SANKEY MONEY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 253, 21 July 1919, Page 9

SANKEY MONEY

■ — * —— . ' ' I have iust returned from the North of Eiudimd.. from ,1 visit to the Durham .coalfield.'.to be. precise (writes Mr. Sydney Walton, in the "Daily Mail"). The streets', of the mining villages were paved with cold at the week-end. That is the only figure of speech concerning the iS'eiv .ternsnlem one can apply to these townships, 'where houses are huddled together in unloveliness. Paved with gold, 1 say, because the Sankev money was abroad. "What with hack money," said to me the mother of a collier family, "sixty pounds has dome into our house this week.- I'm grins: to .spend it i'isht away." . j "What about putting it by for rainy davs " I said. .j . "There'.s no fun in that/' replied the good dame. "1 want tlio fun of spending it. Besides, it's holiday and penes is here. f can't be 'niggardly. And mv man likes to see nice things." Jjot tho unkindly critic remember that Encinnd tl exclude Scotland) has ncvor taught its people anything about- . the finer use of money and leisure. Music, hooks, tho drama, folk-singing, and dancinir. ami all tho golden ladders of escape, from drab drudgery, they simply «re not to be found in these municipal blemishes (I cannot save by-courtesy.tall them towns) of tho mining north. "A miner and his wife came-in hero vesterdnv afternoon," a tradesman, told me. "threw ,£2O upon the counter, ' and risked me to give them what I could in exohancc.' They went away new-fangled with pretty clothes. What can one do? I know thev ought to bo thrifty, but tho sordid conditions set a premium on extravagance."