FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 194, 5 November 1927, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN”

GUY FAWKES FOLLY In the words of Hazlitt, “I cannot but think, that Guy Fawkes, that poor, fluttering, annual scarecrow of straw and rags, is an ill-used gentleman.” After all, the fellow merely tried to blow up muddling politicians, and was ready, “sitting pale and emaciated, surrounded by liis matches and his barrels of gunpowder,” to be transported into Paradise for his devotion to a cause. It is silly to commemorate a traitor at all, but it is sillier still to abuse the commemoration. For at least a fortnight past in Auckland hordes of children, beating the clock far ahead of anything achieved by Mr. Sidey in the saving of daylight, have roamed the highways and byways, seeking gifts as desert beggars importunately plead for alms. This is a vicious habit, and one, by reason of its associations, that should not be encouraged. Many of these scarecrow “guys” have frequented public houses in search of pennies, and have experienced the blithering generosity of drunken men. Is there not a Young Citizens’ League in Auckland? It should give attention to the abuse of Guy Fawkes Day by a multitude of street arabs. THE STONE WALL GRAZE A visitor to Auckland might well imagine that this is a city fearing an invasion, and preparing to resist it yard by yard—backyard by backyard. Almost everywhere are old stone walls and almost every new house seems to be considered incomplete without this addition. Inside these walls, very often, are concrete yards, which could pardonably be mistaken for gun emplacements. When the civic authorities form new parks they, too, become seized with the obsession of the stone wall; the great schools are walled — in fact, these lines of blue metal become depressingly monotonous; they have a formidable look which would be suitable to a German fortress town, but which is altogether out of keeping to a city of such natural beauty. The miles of old stone walls, too, are a menace to health, for they are mostly not cemented, and rats breed by thousands in their crevices. There is abundance of stone scattered over Auckland in its natural state, and in the rough it often looks well and completes the scene. In long lines of walls it is reminiscent of -gaols and barracks. GASH ONLY The law which fined a publican in Wellington for having accepted other than cash (to wit, a quantity of cigarettes) in payment for an account for liquor is a very good law. At one time a certain class of publican would accept anything of monetary value for drink, and many a man “in his cups” has “liquidated” a gold watch or chain, or both, in the course of an afternoon. It is related of one hard Boniface in a country drinking den miscalled an hotel, that he had everything but the trousers and singlet from a client who had arrived there a week before with a full portmanteau and six months’ pay ill his pocket. The man offered his trousers for a last few drinks. Outside to the stables went Boniface, and returned with a chaff bag, in which two holes had been cut for legs. The exchange was made, and the guest was sent on his business with a bottle of liquid murder. He finished in the asylum; the Boniface now resides in the city, retired from trade, and puts his shilling ill the plate quite regularly.