"DRY CLEAN, SIR 2

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 168, 15 July 1916, Page 9

"DRY CLEAN, SIR 2

LAUGHABLE WHARF INCIDENT.

A DUCKINC A2JD ITS SEQUEL.

It was at 5.13 last evening, and the Takapuna Perry battt Pupuke lay alongside the wharf ready for her biggest trip of the day, sivaying in the heavy swell stirred up by the easterly'wind in a manner that caused weaker etamacha to feel uncomfortable at the sight of her. The tide was hij;h, and the bottom deck on the side, not far below the level of the wbarf, was filling up as fast as the early Vomers could rush it for a sheltered spoit during the trip. The victim was a. little, dignified-look-ing man, carrying a huge parcel undec each arm; and as he saw the cosy corners on the bottom deck filling up, he found the temptation to take the short cut by stepping friom the wharf to one of the piles, aud :£rom thle pile to the deck, too great to be resisted. The pile was one of thoec detached buffer arrangements which joive when the vessels bump up against them, and it, too, had got a nice pentfidiun swing on it. -The little man steppcal safely on to it, and ' was in the act of taking the second siep to the deck, when the pile oming in, and the boat, on. an extra big billow, Ueaved away, and -with the greatest dignity and grace imaginable, lie stepped into the harbour aiid was completely engulfed. As he fell the man managed to sling one of his parcels on to the deck, "out when he reappeared from tli« heaving billows he vrati still clutching ti>e other. A dozen -willing hands hauled him on deck, a drenched and sorry looking figure.

There had been humour in the incident for the crowd on t'be boat—for the misfortune of others is one thing that appeals most to our sense of the comic— but at the next incident thero were roaTs of laughter. Barely had the little man rubbed the salt out of his eyes, when tta-ough 'the onlookers there elbowed his way an individual with a business glint in his rjye, who made, his way to thin side of the damp one. "Excuseme,"hte conimjericed, "I represent the. firm of , dry' cleaners. Wo press and clean clothes at the cheapest rate, and with the best of finish. Pleased to receive an older from you." 'And. having- impressed hia name and address on the victim of the accident, he departol