MIGHTIER THAN THE WHIP.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1966, 17 April 1919, Page 4

MIGHTIER THAN THE WHIP.

STAR DEALS WITH A PUGNACIOUS CRITIC. MAN WHO WANTED TO THRASH THE PRESS. Says the Auckland Star: —In the early' hours of Tuesday night, the period when evening calm succeeds the pulsating activities of a nightly newspaper, an apparition armed with a business air and a huge stockwhip crossed the threshold of the Star office and raised a hullabaloo which startled the solitary clerk into falling off the office stool. The intruder, a hefty individual approaching middle-age, was apparently seeking primitive retribution, for his advent,-which was like unto (he bursting- of a gas shell, was signalised by a vigorous cracking of the whip and the shouting of his genial intention to murder all within the precincts of the building. He was temporarily taken aback by the devotional quiet which brooded over the lower office, but espying the aforementiuued clerk talcing cover behind the glass screen, he uttered a. dramatic “aha!” and made what the gentleman in question feelingly deseribed as ‘hi bulldog rush” for him. Our.representative, having had the training in the science of hostilities which had qualified him for the returned soldiers’ badge, deemed it expedient to get in first, and nipped round the counter to extend the whip-holder a hearty welcome on behalf of the establishment. The pair affectionately embraced in the alleyway, the champion of the pen being lucky enough to snatch a strangle-hold in the first eluleh. A brave joust ensued ‘twixt “the accuser and the accused,” to employ the Shakespearean language, and the combatants turkey-trotted round the office for fully live minutes in the earnest endeavour to claim the final mastery. Put from the start tin 1 Star bad got (be wood on its adver.-ary, and finally, breathing stertorously, I be intruder lapsed into a state of quiescence, just as the boxing editor and Director of Political Endeavour appeared on the scene, too late for tbeir professional services to lie requisitioned.

Uncertain as (o the motive animating the intruder, (he staff courteously inquired whether he had mistaken the Star office for some other place, hut (he ini ruder cm-phatii-ally declared that he had his full bearings, and (hat he desired to see categorically:—(l) The manager, (2) the editor, (3) Ihe printer’s devil, and (-1) Mich other members of I lie stall’ who cared (0 make his genial acquaintance and would submit to being Hayed alive. By way of a card of introduction he added informatively that he had purchased a brand new whip. The gentleman was ultimately persuaded that his request was quite unreasonable in view of the fact that the forthcoming poll will require the full services of the staff, and, with the maguamity which the British Empire shows to a beaten foe, (he staff conducted him to the door in pi-oference to the police station.

The formidable weapon relinquished by the 1 Vrc-s critic was retained as a trophy of the event, and adorns (he editorial wall as a reminder to callers (hat the pen is mightier than the whip.