MOTORISTS' CRUEL JOKE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 99, 29 April 1929, Page 9

MOTORISTS' CRUEL JOKE.

HARASSING A MECHANICAL

POLICEMAN.

TOO SENSITIVE

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SAN FRANCISO, April 4

The "mechanical traffic policeman" stationed at Thirty-Fourth Street and Powell Avenue, in Philadelphia, has gone "berserk." That may not be exactly the right word, but it has a sound that describes the way the mechanical traffic policeman has gone.

To the uninitiated, let it be said that a mechincal traffic policeman is an electrical contrivance that automatically changes the "stop" and "go" lights upon hearisg the sound of the motorist's horn.

When the announcement came out in the Philadelphia newspapers that a mechanical policeman was to be stationed at Thirty-Fourth Street and Powell Avenue, a lot of people, having little else to do and wishing to keep up with the world, motored out to see how it worked. They found the mechanical policeman was an oblong box with an honest open face fastened to a pole by the roadside. It was certainly not much to gaze at in the way of a policeman. Along came a motorist and blew a clarion blast. The mechanical policeman seemed to shiver, and the light went from red to green. Right behind came another motorist and he blew in a different key, longer and louder. At the other side of the cross-roads more motorists arrived and began to blow.

The light went from green to red, paused on the amber, and then went back to green. More blowing and more blowing, and more changes followed, until the poor mechanical policeman began to show signs of getting berserker and berserker.

was "duck soup" for the motorists. Never before had they seen such a sensitive policeman, for they could drive down to Broad and Chestnut Streets and blow their horns until their batteries gasped for air, and it had no more effect on the regulation traffic policeman than if they were a couple of love birds twittering away in the spring sunshine. That was how it was with a traffic policeman who is regular at his trade. But the mechanical officer —that is something else again. And so the motorists were having an enjoyable time "kidding it along," well realising that they seldom had the opportpunity to "kid" a traffic policeman.

And so the rapid changes from red to amber and green to amber to green to amber to red continued with the chorus of many horns until a fellow came along with one of those sporty ta, ta, ta-ta horns attached to a showy little roadster automobile. That "berserked" th« mechanical policeman. His lights went out altogether, and stajeg out, ~