BROKEN BISCUITS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1927, Page 7

BROKEN BISCUITS.

"SIXPENCE A SLIPFUL" QUEER SATURDAY MORNING TRADE. WHERE THE BITS GO. Every Saturday morning anyone curious as to how the other hah" lives may have been rather puzzled by the number of kiddies to be seen with rolled-up pillow slips in their hands. on Short land Street. If you trouble to wait you will afterwards *ee them come down the street with their improvised bags bulging, and the Youngsters munching vigorously. _\ \, ov J,, an errand is always a joyous spectacle Like Stevenson, he believes absolutely that the arriving does not matter- the journeying is the thing. No real U.v misses a second of the eotac\- of t> way, and there is generally a do~ j n the party. Anyone who *ha; never! watched the way of a youngster an,! a dog going an errand, looking for the longest way round, and for the maximum of incident, has never under.-too-i the joy of boyhood. Being rather curious as to the mean-' ing of the pillow-slip procession a , "Star" reporter this morning penetrated down the narrow lane that ahsor!*,] and disgorged these chattering, munching' youngsters. Leaning up against the! gateway at the baek of tiie factorv \vaa young hatless. bootless. touzleheaded. wearing a coat that reached hi? ankles. ' and ha.J evidently belonged to father, or wa« a "ift from .la«per lalder. With him «a* a 1 nice, sleek little fellow very eorrecUr ! dressed, with a rolled-lip pillow «- a «e in ' one hand and a sixpence clutched in the other. "Xo. he's a mean typo, the ii'oke in i there. He won't give us any, and there! are plenty, my oath!" It was the Bolshevik who made himself spokesman. , but as one hand and his mouth were full of biscuit, either his criticism wa* i faulty or he had made a prab as well as an exit. j The sleek little chap explained that' they had come for broken biscuits.; There was no fixed charge epparentlv. •'Just as much as the slip will hold, ari 1 ' you give them sixpence."' After the : manner of children he opened his hand and produced the coin as evidence. It seems that after the biscuits make their long journey through the ovens—| on a sort of endless-chain bottom, regulated to travel at a speed that means dough at the front end and a eri»;.. brown biscuit at the back end—they | fall into a trough, and are then parked into the tins with the pretty labels. During the handling there are quite a lot of accidents. At the week-end the "accidents"—perfectly good wholesome food, but mutilated—are distributed at a nominal charge, the purchaser having to find the bag. The idea seems to be to help the poorer folk, and the B-lshevik evidently did not '"click" because his companion who carried the pillow -.lip looked rather too prosperous. You won't find broken biscuits quoted in the commercial columns, but any Saturday morning yon ran see for yourself that it is of considerable importance to some of the back street?. An I i people like our frien<! the little 80l- i shevik find that biscuits, like butter, may also have their heart-burnings arising out of control.