Life at the Docks
It seems to bo perfectly true that Morley Roberts is studying low life at the docks, but not in thecharacter of a navvy. An interviewer, from that peculiar periodical the Novel Review, sought the realist out, and found him painting a ship's sido. The interview does not amount to much, but it contains one good story. •Do you see that young Arab ?' said Mr Roberta, indicating a dark lad slouching along the deck. ' He's a cmeor chap if you like. He and I were over the side of the vessel the other day painting. Says he to me ' I saw a man drowned n week come Tuesday at Globe stairs. Another fellow jumped in and tried to ; pick him out He was nearly drowned j too. I could easily have saved him.' Well, you young swab,' said I, ' didn't you try to ?' ' No,' he replied calmly, f I didn't.' I was thunderstruck. ' liiu,' I said, ' why did'nt you ? You can swim like a fish.' ' Well, you see,' quoth the youth in a matter-of-fact way, ' 1 didn't want to spoil tuy clothes.' ' Good Heavens, man, what were your clothes compared to a fellow-creature's life.' He looked at me reflectively a moment, as if turning over the idea in his mind. Then his face brightened, and he replied with the air of one who clinches an argument by an unanswerable fact : 'Ah ! but you see they were my best clothes.' — ' London Gossip ' in the Dunedin Star.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/FS18930105.2.22
Bibliographic details
Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 84, 5 January 1893, Page 3
Word Count
249Life at the Docks Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 84, 5 January 1893, Page 3
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