A TWO HOURS’ BOOTSHINE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9090, 9 March 1908, Page 7

A TWO HOURS’ BOOTSHINE.

A gentleman who attempted to have his boots cleaned by the new automatic shoe-shiner at Victoria Station yesterday (says a recent London Tribune) made the discovery that in one rather important respect the human boot-blac£ is superior to the mechanical. It is, at any rate, possible to persuade the biped to cease work when one wishes him to. The discoverer sat in the seat full of confidence and pride in the mechanical prorgess of the century. He dropped the penny in the slot, and the brushes revolved with tremendous energy. In three minutes the boots shone like polished brass, in ten they shone like the moon on a frosty night. In twenty the shine had vanished. But still the industrious brushes went-xound. A little apprehensive, the gentleman tried to withdraw his feet, and explained to the knot of curious porters and policemen who gathered round that he wanted to catch a train in five minutes. Sympathetic spectators tapped the machine tentatively, but it took no notice. Then they wrenched at its component parts, but they were obdurate. The gentleman in the seat said something that sounded a little improper, but by this time,his rescuers were working too hard to take any notice. Two hours they struggled and strained and pushed, and pulled, and at last, tired but triumphant, they set the captive free, and inspected with languid interest the parts of the machine which had been tugged to pieces in the process.