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TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The men who aspire to the Knowing position of taxTcab driver London, in London—and there are

thousands of them —liave to know their London from east to west, and lilcewiso from north to south, for they havo to pass a stiff examination beforo they can receive a license. Candidates present themselves at Scotland Yard, and having satisfied tho powers that be that physically they are fitted for the work, they await their turn to face the three examining inspectors. A recent applicant found himself alongside an ex-bus conductor, who had been through the examiners' hands before. "Yes, it's a terrible stiff exam.," he said; "you see, in the o'd 'orso days it didn't matter so much if you went a bit out of th© way with a fare, but now, with tho taxis recording every quarter of a mile, you 'aye to know tho shortest route from everywhere to anywhere This is my fifth attempt, but I 'aye failed each timo, and there aro many of us hero who 'avo 'ad our ninth or tenth try.'' For the purposes of examination tho candidate is treated as though ho were the driver of a taxicab, tho inspectors being the fare. They ask to be driven from, say, the Marble Arch to Parson's Green, and the candidate must stato tho quickest route between thoso two places. Sometimes tho places mentioned are on opposite sides of London, and the prospective driver must clearly show tho quickest route to follow, naming ©very street in its proper order. A_id if any candidate appears to be over-confident, tho inspectors have a few traps which they set. For instance, they will ask, "Where is Gresham place?" and are generally told "Off Gresham street." That is where ono would expect it to be, but it is not there. How many people, who profess to know their London, could travel from Cloak lano Police station to, say, the Thatched House Club? The situation of every theatre, hospital, railway station, music-hall, and club, must be known, and mucii more besides. "That inspector's hot stuff," said one disappointed candidate.; "sMit mc back for a week because I didn't "know on what side of the street the Britannia Theatre at Hoxton was." Despite this very hard examination, there aro thousands of licensed taxicab drivers iv London.

The "Saturday Review," The which lately discussed "IreHappy land in Myth," and "Ireland Isle. in Stone," might devote an-

other column or two to "Ireland in Popular Song." A volume edited by that great collector, Dr. P. W. Joyce, "Old Irish Folk Music and Songs," gives an agreeable field for comment. Thoso misled by a too memorable line to believe her "tho most distressful country that ever yet was seen," would be astonished to find in what placid, sunny ways the peasant poet has usually wandered. He celebrates "The pleasant hills near Cootehill town, where I spent my youthful days," or declares, with firm conviction.

"Of all the fine places that ever I did see, Cork and sweet Munstor, ochone, for mc." If he mourns, it is for a good romantic reason:

"My heart it is uneasy for a fair lass that lives near home." If he meet- that lass unexpectedly, it is always in tho happiest surroundings; "On a fair morning,'' "thro' meadow and green lawn," or "down by yon hawthorn hedge, near where you see the cow." Love's path, indeed, is quite

remarkably bestrewn with flowers. Sometimes the hero meditates on the fact in the pure English to which, in verse, he constrains his conversationally Irish tongue: "Alono as I walked on a fine cummer mornWben"Flora's gay bounty tho earth is adornFilling'with fragrance tho leaves and green bowers. „ ... Bespi-itflinß* the meadows and valleys with flowers/ And sometimes the heroine is introduced amongst that bounty: ■This fair maid to tho meadow is gone, To pull tbo flowers just as they spring, And every perch she a flower does pull Until sho has her apron full." Though, in such a land of blossoms, ono feels that the "wee lassie" of another song, who "the blackberry blossom round her fair neck does twine.*' might have chosen a somewhat less prickly ornament. It is notable that these makers of folk songs almost completely avoid the 'darlint-," "asthores," and "allannas," of which we hear so much in modern ballad song. Also there is very little hint of Celtic melancholy. There is a good, honest, open lament for a lover across the sea, or for a maiden obdurate; there is an occasional tragic story" of murder or accident; but Ireland herself is always tho happy isle, where "As I roved out on a fine summer morning' is as self-evident a beginning as "once upon a time," and ideal bliss may be achieved quite easily in: "A snug and compact little farm, Three acres of ground With a ditch all around. To keep tho potatoes trom harm.'' The aeroplane accident of Tho • this week must have grieved Falling a cheerful historian who Peril, lately reviewed the wholo of reported accidents from 100. to the end of 1910, and ended his chronicle with a remark that the sum total of "human life claimed by aerial disasters was, after all, not very groat. So far, this year, thero has been a notable diminution in fatalities. But an accident like this last ono at Kursk, which injured "many" persons, and killed five, will bring up the 1911 figures rather seriously; and besides, it had the unpleasant feature about it that the sufferers were mere spectators, not thc adventurous flying-men themselves, who may be supposed to "set 'their lives upon a cast" as often as 1 they set their machines in action. To fall a victim to a new moans of locomotion without ever having the pleasure of trying it, i.s a paradoxical sort of tragedy now within sight for a good many people whose controlled ambitions would never havo led them either to invent or to .ail off in an aeroplane. As aviation proceeds, no doubt we shall hear of somo noble deeds done to avoid excessive slaughter. The hero will employ his last conscious efforts in contriving to fall on a church roof rather than on a populated market-place; or he will stick to the ship, endeavouring to stemit to some solitude before it drops, while his passengers, meanwhile, aro saving their lives by jumping off with ,sa f ety parachutes. These safety parachutes, by the way, may assist in making the landing less dangerous for those below as well as thoso above. Tho device is attached to something above the flying-man's head. Ho has only to raise a handle in order to spread the parachute, and the fall is then checked to tho rato of only l J feet per second. Experiments made with a lifo-sbe dummy proved most encouraging. The parachute spread, and the dummy landed slowly and gracefully, without the slightest hitch. The inevitable guineapig, faste/icd to tho dummy, was also found to have landed with that mental calm bequeathed him by long years of connection with scientific experiments. Anyhow, this is an experiment in tho right direction. If aeronauts must fall, they should certainly study how to fall with a deliberation of movement really rr.oro comfortablo for themselves, and of value in giving thoso underneath a little n.oro time to dodge their descending iorros.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19110529.2.18

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14055, 29 May 1911, Page 6

Word Count
1,229

TOPICS OF THE DAY. Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14055, 29 May 1911, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY. Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14055, 29 May 1911, Page 6