“RUBBER NECKS.”

Putaruru Press, Volume II, Issue 12, 4 January 1924, Page 4

“RUBBER NECKS.”

MEANING OF THE TERM. In England ” rubber-necks ” (the term originated in America) as a class are a rapidly growing- feature of modern life. They arc (says the Daily Chronicle) fully prepared to look at your joys or sorrows, share your triumphs, or gloat over your discomfiture. You must not expect, however, a nice discrimination in this insistent anil ‘ jpervaslve attention. The slightest incident will deflect the shallow trickle of the “rubberneck’s ” sympathy and turn his fractitious “ hooray ” into a silent acquiescence in your misfortune. For he acts upon the principle Mr. Pickwick enunciated with firmness with the rival crowds of partisans at the Eatanswill election. In a crowd the “ rubber-neck ” shouts with it; but, if two or move crowds are present, he follows Mr. Pickwick’s advice, and shouts with the biggest. Not that the English variety of “rubber-neck” has any habits not shared by his compeers in other parts of the world. In the great square in front of the Invalides, the Parisian counterpart at the fair will look on with the same curious intensity at the crowd at Hampstead Heath. Down on the East side in New York the “ rubber-necks” are as insnstent as the idlers in St. Mark’s square at Venice, or the hangers-on outside the cafes at Port Said. Perhaps in India the masses of labourers who look on at every opportunity exhibit the avidity of the “ rubber-neck ” at it* highest strength but all over the world the traveller will meet its manifestations. The worst of the “ rubber-neck ” is that he looks on, and docs nothing else.