THE STOKER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 515, 19 November 1928, Page 8

THE STOKER

The decline and fall of the fancy dress habit represents one of the bewildering changes of the age. The other day an Aucklander and his wife decided to give a party on the anniversary of the payment of the final instalment oh the Baby Hispano-Suiza, and in a rash moment determined that the affair should be “fancy dress.” Only three turned up so attired, thus throwing the host and hostess into even greater confusion than that occasioned by their bizarre habiliments. But this minor embarrassment was soon forgotten in more absorbing masters. One of. the faithful, disguised as a stoker, had taken the trouble to steep himself in the character of the part. The steeping process had been both internal and external, and possibly inspired by the day’s happenings on the Port Darwin, the subject arrived in a thoroughly belligerent condition. He opened the party by knocking down his host when the latter reckoned, in answer to a leading question, that the steeping process had gone far enough, and he finished up by stoking the wash-house boiler to a frantic pressure by means of a pile of slack coal and a toy spade. There is one suburban home in which fancy dress is now barred, and where historic domestic occasions will in future be allowed to pass unnoticed.