RAID REHEARSAL.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLII, Issue 87, 9 May 1916, Page 2

RAID REHEARSAL.

TOWN'S MIDNIGHT CALL. "GRANDFATHER" AND Tin-LAMP-POST. ut "There'll bo no monkeying wif!, ,i Defence of the Realm Regulator! said the wooden-legged man. -(v ' go, grandfather and turn her "Her" was a. slim lamp-post w lt ij dazzling acetylene light blazing (>n top. It was near midnight and lamp illuminated Paradise Court l>i mouth, liko a star. '

"Masthead dooties at my tinu* < life," muttered the old gentleman dressed at "grandfeyther."' well—wonders'll never cease!'' n looked up at tile lamp-post an<i H ! gallantly upon his hand.-, "h ■, poling should come, Paradise Cour with that glim ashine, 'd be a l m |j{ eyo for her, no doubt. But whv 1, friends all, shin up lamp-pun. 7'J—an' me eeakv Ms a wlieel-b;ir rH . ilaint there a younger man in th:s w , gregation ....?" '

"Regulation'h got to bo declared the wooden-logged mini ly- "It's all in priut. When w ilta jj of appronchin' Zeppelins is giwn >l, householder outside whose Ikmim. In* a lamp has got to climb up that ]' w and switch her off or else g<>t and fined perhaps hundrdes of jHJUCfk And there's no deny m' that that th«j light be opposite your house, daddv. an' the turnin' of her out | M < i', t . job I Anybody el.so join' of it l bieakin' tho King's, law!"

"Aye," assented tin* small cvnw,i jj, semblcd in l Paradise Court. u;*m oxc-itiiif and historic occasion. "Th s . bozo! l"p ye go, daddy—quick! There goes the warnin' ! Zepp.s sighted!'''

COLD NIGHT'S WORK. U was a cold hitter nit^ht—tin o.st tli« W'rst Country has known for many years. A freezing nortlwasttf howled and hooted along the .strtvi, was a bitterness in the star* ovet head which blazed rather thj twinkled in a metallic polar Mount Edgcunibe was draped in mhw. Precisely at midnight, with most c» Plymouth snugly «b«d against ilie jnl.,, blast, the ligmentury Zeppelin » a ; "sighted" amid th« interstices nf il, Milky Way by a questing ami instantly fiendish glamor burst the town, led by a. fierce old hooter mt» a. deep bass voice, followed by a elmant chorus of steam .sirens, whistles, ;tK everything else capable of making] noise. ''To vour cellars, citizens!" The citizens evidently preferred tli«r .sheets lo their cellars. With a we. I'ortablo sigh they turned in their war. beds, listened for 10 minutes to tit goblin noise.s outside, and then went tj sleep again with the comforting *. su ranee that the auth<irities \mt« Using fatherly] cure <if them Iv.eryt'n went extaordinanly well, and it a Z<*|i pelin had come !'' PERFECT ORDER By the brave and obedient. tiou who faced the blast and watch-! the .show tinder the stars—of whom Paradise Court. gathering was typiia; orders were carried out promptly »e cheerfully. S|H>e:al constable, - to lejtort immediately to the. ncir* police rendezvous', the medical office on anti-aircraft, duty sped like tln> «;;> to tile hospital ; the police fire brig* was ready; and everyJxxly who hapie ed to be out with a "horsed took his horse otit of the shafts (' Orif '27, Z.") and stood by until the dany cloud rolled a way. And "gra ndfeyther'' in Par;i'!:Court, galvanised into Midden youths' the urge of the persistent hooters, tinned up the lamp-post like a three-w----old :m<l amid ioud cheers doused ti# glim. "Aye, but, we was propelly Wr fied!" said the wooden-legged man *• lie stumped home to bed.