DEAD DRESSMAKER'S DUMMIES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2373, 29 December 1921, Page 4

DEAD DRESSMAKER'S DUMMIES.

Mr Frederick Villiers, the famous newspaper artist, and his triend Cameron, of the Standard —afterwards killed by the Dervishes at Aim Idea —were the first lwo Europeans to enter Alexandria on the morning following its bombardment by our fleet. Practically the whole city was in flames, set on fire by Arab looters.

The two friends made their way to the great square in I he centre of Ihe city. Not a living soul was to bo seen. The splendid buildings surrounding it were blazing furiously. “Suddenly,” writes the author, in his hook, “Five Decades of Adventure,” “Cameron drew my attention to a number of ghastly-looking objects in the centre of the square. With healing hearts we approached cautiously towards them, then in an alcess of horror we gasped, “They are mutilated bodies, armless and headless.’

“A thrill of terror passed through us, but as we drew nearer Cameron caught me by the sleeve and we came to a halt. Then we both burst out laughing. For the ‘ghastly objects’ proved on closer inspection to be only dressmaker’s dummies looted from shops in the square, stripped of their finery, and left to perish in the flames.” In New York, Mr Villiers met an American just hack from his first visit to England. Asked what had impressed him most in London, he heaved a deep sigh, and replied without a moment’s hesitation; “Those elegant bar-tenders in the railway restaurants.” “You mean the barmaids!” laughed Villiers.

“Yes; the gals in black, with snowy-white collars and cuffs. They are perfect peaches. How charmingly they serve you with a drink — those ghastly drinks with no ice. Guess those gals are the novelest thing about your country. As you know, we have only men behind the bars in the States. I miss those gals.”