STRAY THOUGHTS ON SOCIAL SUBJECTS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1455, 2 April 1873, Page 2

STRAY THOUGHTS ON SOCIAL SUBJECTS.

An occasional contributor to the Charleston Herald contributes the following "stray thoughts," which. are equally applicable to all communities on the West Coast :—/ . ' ;.; : : -.< . : About the most pleasant thing I know of in Charleston is: to go : to thelnstitute for a comfortable read. You sit down, pitch on an article, .which takes; your fancy, and just as you are worrying your brains to master an intricate thought,, some idiot^r who is: reading: Pwr^alcng9ide of you, or a " Joe Miller" column in the Australasian, bursts put into a laugh, the vehemency of which startles you,' and then commences to read aloud the paragraph which tickles his fancy, as if everybody in the room should be pleased with his half-witted selection.' Probably this gentleman continues at intervals alternately sniggering, laughing, and reading aloud bis. heart's fancies; Orj.it may be ; two individuals will pon^ bustling in talking at the top of their voices, as, if #}_ show their importance and to let people know they are there. Or, again, a couple of individuals begin a discussion, on, what they are reading, and probably ask you,r opinion on one side or the other. In fact they treat the reading room as if they had been used to a " penny gaff" or a lounge roomin a fifth-rate: " pub." Now this is exceedingly agreeable, and if only to listen .to the individuals, of which I have given a type, the room is worth yisiting— not for much else, for read it is impossible tp while they are present. You might as well try to shape an elephant with a thimble full of soap-suds and hopp to get up a lather. An^ther_a2T.eearVle- ■nniaaTvno-jwot feuil -aing is " bar-loafing. >? Go, in with a friend to drink, and, extraordinarily^] at thatvery. self-same moment one of the class walks mysteriously up to the bar. You know the gentleman ; he makes you know hirh because he will join in your conversation, and the consequence is you feel mean if you don't ask him. to drink. He invariably: does, a : ? *■ half-pint,'', and -; by this toVen alone you may pretty well know the representative iridividuaL . Watch th;e gentleman^ and you -will observe him pojp^ in on others in like manner as he hds done on you. And so ' for a whole evening he will "loaf," spending hot a shilling himself, but 'consuming unlimited '" halfpints," the whole time givinghis opinio^i on all and sundry items of conversation started . Be takes his offers too in such fa manner as he would make you believe he i/ealjy don't want the drink, but he "doesn't like tp take a shingle off." If hotel proprietors woujd only/ giye these gentlemen a quiet hint to leave., it wpuljd be many a shilling in their pockets. The class is confined yet only to a few, and they are well known and are worthless to the trade, There would be little trouble then for a respectable publican to rid his bar of them if he desired the comfort of his legitimate customers. ■ :