EVERYDAY "STARS"

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 82, 5 April 1924, Page 16

EVERYDAY "STARS"

SIGHTS THAT ABE NOT FULLY APPRECIATED...

It is not only on the stage that "stars" are to be found, declares S. Donald Cox in the "Daily. .Mail." In 'everyday life there are many who, in the coarse of their ordinary occupations, perform feate which would win them well-earned; applause from apy audience. The successful equilibrist needs a steady eya and a very strong nerve,: but'the housebreaker, who balances himself on the top of a 60ft-wall while he swings his pickaxe at the bricks below,, must be at least equally as sure of himself. The stevedore at the docks must: also have exceptional^ powers of balance. Few people can push a fully loaded wheelbarrow straight. Yet the stevedore spends hours wheeling such a barrow across' a 12in plank that bends and sways beneath his weight. Trapeze artists, too;'-have their counterparts in industry. The crowds who watch the telephone linesman as he hangs m his cradle over Fleet street recognise' in "him an everyday' "star" of more than usual brilliance.

Weight-lifters abound in * the great markets. Many a music-hall expert might, pause aghast at -the ease with which the meat porter lifts 'a' side of beef or the way a fish porter will carry two hundred .pounds of fish on his head At'the! vegetable markets the iu""-ler is* srpreme. The man at Covent Garden who«,balances fifteen or twenty baskets ;on his head and dodges past other pedestrians without upsetting :his load", is per-forming-a feat which few professional jugglers would care to undertake. Nor should the builders' labourers be forg6tten. .. It is no ,easy matter to catch Tuid throw two bricks at a, time, although many labourers will- do this for ari hour or more without making a mistake, while the flawy must be very sure of eye to be able to swing a sledge hammer with the. accuracy which is needed. Most skilful of- all the everyday "stars" is probably the porter who moves the milk churns. Skill, strength, a»d. precision in remarkable degrees 'are ajl necessary, and the man who rolls three" churns along the platform simultaneously is truly wonderful. ' .