GLIMPSES IN CUBA STREET.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 592, 21 August 1909, Page 11

GLIMPSES IN CUBA STREET.

i [Br Jenny Ween.] One wonders what tho attraction can. be that keeps .so many of tho younger inhabitants of Wellington in town on Saturday afternoons. True, numbers of,them do get ' \ away as the early afternoon trains and > tho ferry boats bear witness, as well as the drags s crowded with footballers, but still so' many

' remain. , , On -the one day whon they aro ■ ' free, instead -of- spending it away out, in ■the conntry,'or, at any ot the bays that are so easy of access, there they are to be seen strolling up .and down the streets the whole - afternoon —girls, rows of them, sometimes — decked out in all their bravery,, young men

_, puffing clouds of smoko iuto people's faces, ' ' taking entire , possession of tho tootpath as they walk along, and hundreds of couples, { thejr only object being apparently to gaze into tho ,various shop windows —the railliner's, for discuss tho, cuuous , shapes and, trimmings. The young men should certainly becohie connoisseurs of hats i v after a few afternoons of this. j At any time, owing to some of the streets ' being , so narrow and the objective of many people undorgoiu" so many sudden chaDges, progress is .a matter of time, ,but on these days it is positively -perilous. There are whole families out intent , on getting in supplies—tlio father laden with packages and on infant or two, the mother calm, relent- » less, oblivions of all obstacles, wheeling the youngest in a porarabnlator—a juggernaut on a entail but uncomfortable scale. Sometimes one is deluded into the 'belief that tho "pram" is stationary, -and, in order to get a .nearer view of aome object in a window noar ' steps_ in front of it. t Immediately the evil thing shoots on again, and, unless one happens to possess the slenderness of a -- match and tho agility of a cat, indignity, mutilation, and pain await one, while tlio juggernaut, calm, unmoved,' rolls on, looking for fresh, victims. A benevolent-looking, leisurely old gen- *■ tleman t with . a stick or an umbrella clasped horizontally under x his arm will suddenly stop short, apparently" to consider whether he uill go any further, and nearly , gouging out 'one r 3 eyos with the point by doing so, is'another Cuba Street' "scare" that fills .one with breathless a&tomshmcnt at the thoughtlessness of man It is so palpably dangerous, and is done so often. Further on, a, man rushes out from a pork butcher's shop in t a violent hurry, nearly overwhelming a" passer-by with a bright new z pad filled with sausages, , hoth'ing but , eausages! ! Truly life on' land , is encomP a , s Asd .J wi . tn dreadful ,-perilsu«od m A stir 4s caused when two women with two small children start to cross tho road Quite' unconscious of an approaching tram. When they are' just- on''the line they bod it sear them. The young woman, ,who is holding the smallest ohild's hand in her own, grasps it tightly, and makes a wild rush for the pavement, 'while "grandmother," just as she is about to follow suit, looks round for the other child, sees it, confused, running along the line, and darts after it. The motorman pulls up, and poor heroic "grandmother," , who had quite forgotten her own danger, gets safely across with her charge, and goee on her way, startled but rejoicing. < r At opposite corners/of the road two bar- , row-men are' holding 'an animated competition in fruit, their carte piled with deepooloured mandarins and 'partK-russot, partly-golden Fiji oranges. One—a big, red- ,. faced man with a hard hat stuck jauntily on J one side -and. a deep subterranean voice— might have' walked 'straight out from th'o Eages of any of Jacobs's books, so seafaring e looks.',-He is an artist in street crios The 'cheapness of his fruit and , the size of it tempts the frugal mind, and' probably' 1 slender purse, of someone or other of the women passing along, 'and half shamefacedly she will stop to buy, becoming frightfully absorbed 'in a shop window at the back while the Jacobs man is getting her purchases together.' Tho beaten track is sometimes hard to leave. Further down the road a worn, haggard-lookmg old man , is seated besido a gramaphone possessing a most ex- \ tensive repertoire. ' All sorts of music-hall ditties » are carolled v forth to a listening , crowd, principally made up of toil-worn labourers. All at ( once a woman's voicq steals out singing that most heart-breaking of Bongs, ."Oh, that we Two wero Majing," and even such a fiendish instrument as it is cannot do away with tho beauty of tho voice, the. longing and,tho sorrow that is in it. • Till the last nch ( deep rioto dies away it holds thorn spellbound, and then, ashamed of etheir emotion, they joke, and talk, and shuttle about, and oven get up a fight. And so the afternoon wears endloss throng drifting or hurrying along through the streets. As the light begins to ■wane and the world about grows dim and misty, there is a slight ebb in the tide, but only fora .while. It comes forth again lostlossly Bauntenng up and down—up and down, looking in the glare of the great, gas lamps, Vhite, big-eyed and haggard, or else gatherqd in great ordwds wherever tho bande, are performing, 'and tho earnest, ivholeeouled Salvation people are threatening or entreating as to their welfare. Away "at the back, remote from the city's feveiiihness, tho hills—dark shadowy masses, lit by thoubands of gleaming diamond points—raise their heads -Xo the stars, while at their feet tho sea, robbed, 'despoiled of its own, moans and sobs and whimpers its wrath and sorrow, searching with eager foamy fingers for somo imperfect, spot in man's handiwork whereby it may regain its own—they the witnesses of the ages, and we iwho vanish like snows of yesterday.