STRATFORD DAY BY DAY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 74, 6 July 1910, Page 8

STRATFORD DAY BY DAY.

(From* Our Own Correspondent.) Stratford, Last Night. I hear that Mr. and Mrs. C. Bayly contemplate leaving Toko to take ap their residence ia Auckland. Mr. R. J. Paul has disposed of his interest in the Egmont Hotel at iMidhirst to Mr. O'Connell, of Mountain Road. Great interest is being taken in football circles hi the meeting of the Stratford and Tukapa senior teams on Thursday, and a good game is looked forward to. The Stratford men will 'be as follows:—Abbott (2), Harkness, Smith, Young, Murphy, Melville, Boon, James, Merchant, Bonner, Tocker, Cameron, Anderson, Dixon. "Bunny", Abbott, the All-Black fl< -tequarter, is donning the jersey for Stratford seniors on Thursday.

Tile conversation drifted, just as conversation does drift in a train, from o:ie topic to another. It opened with the weather, and, passing lightly, +oucned on Imperial politics, football, viat! Mai politic?, the train service, until local matters were reached, and there it concentrated itself. It started on Stratford, and it was easy to discern tf-at one of the conversationalists was n iccn resident, but of the otlie> - "hr-is difficult to say t.o what town or city he paid allegiance. On the future of Stratford and its possibilities 'he.'3,was pccor;;, hut as the discussion clanged from generalities to details it was noticeable that the stranger was becom 13 restive. Suddenly the storm biivst; there was no warning. Look at the streets," said the stranger, "and tell me Stratford's up to date. I don't knjw what the back streets are like, because I've never been near tfiem; but if they are much worse than your main stree.ta, the residents must use stilts." So it opened, and in vain the local resident tiieu to defend the position. His efforts only added fuel to the fire. ''Your irain street's a disgrace to iny township; it's the worst street 011 the cowt; and that's saying a lot." Then the stranger drew comparisons, and they were ccrtanly "odious" for Stratford. "The lull flowing river of speech" swept on, and gaining impetus in its course burst through all obstacles or obstructions in the form of interjections. The derfuriptive adjectives were magnificent, and rattled like hail on an iron roof, but unfortunately, just when interest wis thoroughly aroused in the masterpiece of denunciation the train stopped, and tlie stranger had reached his destination. But as he opened the door, he fired his parting shot. "Look," and he put forth a boot literally bespattered with mud; "that's from walking across that street (the contempt on that word street is inimitable) to the 'tation. You don't sweep your streets. ifou need aeroplanes in Stratford." The door closed, and he disappeared from view. The writer was sorry, for many reasons. He was interested in that flow of language, and would like to have known its limit. Further, he was sorry that he could not hear soine more comments "as others see us"—to adopt that stock heading of papers. But he was sorrier still that the candidates at the Mayoral election, who desired the asphalting of Broadway, were not present. The | writer lives in hopes that a time may come when that stranger of the scathing tongue may be present when the civic fathers defend Broadway. It should be a lingual Jeffries-Johnson flight. Some day the gods may be propftious. In the meantime there is the memory of those adjectives,