AN UNLICENSED LISTENER

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 10, 23 September 1927, Page 15

AN UNLICENSED LISTENER

The following interesting, but pathetic, little story of the wireless age is taken from the ‘Children’s Newspaper." It teils of the love of a seal for music, and of the great trust dum) animals have in man, who, unfortunately, does not always prove himsel! worthy of the trust. One night, in the full moon, there was a party in a house in a little town in the lonely Orkneys. It was one of those nights when islanders feel that dwellers in cities on the mainland can scarcely be said to be alive, ‘The moon shone on the great Atlantic rolling softly up to the harbour wall, on the houses of the little town, on the lonely island stretchés, and drenched them in a silver, magic light. Presently out of a house whose garden ran down to the grey sea-wal) and the shining sea came a sound o! ynarvellous music. ‘The host was the delighted owner of a multi-valve wireless set, and he had called up a London band to make melody for the dancets in that moonlit louse in Brit ain’s lar North. Shining in the Moonlight. The windows were open, and_ ott over the sea floated the rhythmic strains. From end to end of the harbour, in all the seaboard homes, this music could be heard, and what it meant, the bewitching spell of soun? and dance combined, can only be understood by those who know how wearying is the monotony of daily life in lonely places. After a while the moonlight called some of the dancers down to a walk on the sea-wall. The throbbing music followed them as they went, laughing and talking. Suddenly someone pointed to something in the harbour, and said, "What is that?" It was a queer object that moved occasionally, shining in the moonlight on ‘one of the lobster boxes that float in the harbour. Could it be a man? No, it was too small Tt was a seal held spellbound by the music. The dancers went tiptoeing back indoors lest they shonld break the magic, and left the listener in the harbour. Ther knew how much seals love music o! any kind, how thev will follow boats where there is a fiddler or a whistle: on board. The Lonely Listener. The next night, when the loud speaker was going, they tiptoed out again and saw the seal on the same box, listening. He became to them 9° friend, and thev determined to protect this uninvited guest from the great seas. As the days went bv the seal learned, to his surprise, that the harbonr was a safe place. It was against al! his instincts to believe this, for the coast meant danger and the ocean safety. He began to come in the davtime, longing for the magic sounds to creep down out of that house whose garden ran down to the sea-wall Some boys tried throwing stones, but thev were auickly stopped. It was understond that the lonelv listener-in had to be left unmolested. A Man of Death. "Alas for human kindness} Alas for a wild creature’s trust in man! There was a man of death not far away, watching that seal with a gloating eye and a heart of steel. He could not see a creature of the wild without wanting to kill it. There came a day when the friends of the seal ran down to the harbour and saw him stretched lifeless on the hox. Someone had made a sly and easy shot at a defenceless animal that had learned to trust human beings and allow itself the ranture of the mmsic ther made. We hope the man who nsed that gun will read these lines, will learn in what scorn he stands in the eyes of the world, and will throw his gun where it should go-into the depths of the sea.