Here and There

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 21, 13 June 1914, Page 10

Here and There

AT THE WINTER SHOW. '■CABBAGES AXD KINGS.'' Tlie versatile American writer .Mr. 0. Henry, onee wrote a book called "Cabbages and Kings," and lie might have drawn his material from a visit to the Winter Show hist Thursday night. 'Cabbages and Kings.. j s rt . diverting series of incidenti shedding a whole battery of side Sights on the ways of mankind. Till is also is tlie show which contains more cabbages than O. Henry ever heard of, while the mammoth turnip basks in regal state conscious of the attention they attract, niul the homage they receive. On the whole. (). Henry .might have written that book 4 bout tlie winter show. Taranaki people have been accused of lack of. that unity which is popularly supposed to make for strength, but apparently they declared an armistice ot an armed neutrality, or patched it up somehow, if there is really anything in the innuendo, for their unity seemed to he evidenced by tlie strength of their determination to all be at the show together. Because they were there, with as many of their sisters and their cousins and tlieiv aunts as ever enteied Gilbert and Sullivan's operas. One learns many things in the intervals of pushing one's way through the crowd which unceasingly moves round the show, meanders into the side shows, j and pokes enquiring fingers at the bees behind their glass barriers. This is one of the ways of the Rome into which the visitor ha* wamlei'ed. aifl he learns to do likewise and extract a surprising amount of enjoyment out of it. His ejes ! are opened to the aristocracy of agi ieulI ture and he listens with tin interest tingI oil with awe to the comments of the all I powerful expert who dares to pas* judgment 'on the mighty mangel or criticise the rotundity of a drumhead I cabbage, while as to the gentleman who j pokes a tester into a box of buttei. with r in air of casv nonchalance, the humble ] amateur feels that a life long sojouin in ' Rome could never endow him with the assurance of this Roman. Milking ma- | chines whirr .out their challenge to the hand-milker, each one proclaiming suf periority over its rivals in a mannei i which leaves the casual and inoffensive j visitor obsessed with a realisation of his appalling the respective excellencies of teat cups and vacuum crejating releasers. Great is the power of j agriculture, and its realm is tlie winter I show.

If you don't .know anything about ''pop holes." "bee broad," frames full of "brood." and honey which granulates at the bidding of an instrument called the hydrometer, you'd better hide your ignorance and smother your feelings of awe if you want to imitate the Romans who worship at the shrine of the busy hecs who improved the shining hours for the beifofit of the winter show. Bee talk is more mysterious than golf, | but it may safely be .mentioned that if "foul brood" is as dire an affliction as it i sounds to the untrained ear, the bees in the hive exhibited at the show haven't got it, for a happier lot of insects it would be impossible to see anywhere. One has only to notice the affectionate and intelligent interest with which they eye the gentlemen who mi-mister to | their wants with syrup poured down a ' mysterious long hole in the top of the | hive, to see that the fiercest of wax moths would have no chance of forcing I an entry into their world of industry. There are other regions which might be explored if the visitor could tear himself away from the appetising cakes and succulent fruits which sit in haughty disdain behind their wire netting guard. There are the upstairs regions of fancy work and feminine finery; in which mere man dare not display his ignorance even could he pass the fiends of the patchwork quilt raffle. One need not, however, do more than push on with the crowd to see one of the most interesting features of the winter show.

There is something irresistibly charming about a show crowd. It is not like any other sort of crowd, nor is it the least like the much maligned miblilc whom everyone is popularly supposed to exploit, and to which we> all belong, although we contemptuously diwnvn it. It wants to see everything, and if there is something it knows nothing at all about, it is all the better pleased and passes its criticism with greater assurance. It is withal delightfully simple minded, and will accept the assurance that it is physically impossible to fail to ring the bill of a white wooden decoy duck in a tub of water and thereby win "two shillings or a duck" with the complacency with which it would assuredly pocket its live duck if it won wne. Also it prases interestedly under the stand of a bored looking young lady endeavouring to sell a toy which is guaranteed to operate upside down or any old way. Presently she drinks the health of the crowd, and "hopes it will have more , money nest year." The crowd does noi deny or admit the soft impeachment, but passes on to the blandishments of the exponent of a really excellent little side show which lives in the fastnesses of a galvanised iron annexe. Moreover, the crowd gossips. It tells each other amiably that its sister's, aunt's, cousin's little boy 'is doing beautifully, and it really believes that Nora and Joe have made it up again because they're over there looking at the root crops. There is little fault to find with this very excellent and all-embracing show. Perhaps the Siamese twin persuasion has a little too much space in the centre of the floor, but then there isn't too much space anywhere when the people >re out to look at the show in which most of them have a part, and those who haven't wish they had, and try to claim relationship with the gentleman who won the prize for the greenest or the most prickly pear in the whole building. Doubtless the show will grow, and perhaps in the dim future judges will enter into a fuller conception of their duties and give everyone a prize. But then everyone would want to exhibit, and there wouldn't be room for all the eats and dogs and pickles and cabbages and peas, so perhaps on the whole things are best as they are.