BSD TAPE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 82, 18 March 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

BSD TAPE.

A SUNDAY EXPERIENCE IN PARIS

1 have looked upon the tape when it tv red, and 1 know new h«.« rt “ ““J the French Budget tas run short ot funds to help the thousands of homo lew sufferers from the flood* *B | ov ?*’ France * write* John N. Raphael* in - St. James’ Budget ). On Sunday morning a little vowe over the tefenhone informed ■me that no money, was In hand for my trunk commumcarions. I use the telephone a good deal with London. The Bnimh public would have been annexed with me on Monday it 1 had been unable to tetaptame important news through on the Sunday night, so I took an umbrella and went out to my £5O deposit to the telephone people. 1 . went to the central office at the Bourse. 1 tcok my hat off to Mr. the Receiver, and' told him that 1 _had brought him £3O, plus two-pence-half-penny for the receipt stamp. Mr. the Rtemver received me most politely, as the song cays, but it was another pair of cuffs (that ta a French exprataon) when I produced £3O (M 2jd- •• But it is Sunday, my good sir,”

said Mr. the Receiver. “ Ye». and it *a* Saturday yesterday." 1 answered. •* Que vculw-rous quo io vans due. moi?” he replied. Then he looked at my 'telephone card, and, pointing a grimy huger at it, “ Ah,” he said, and shook it. * “ This is not year office. Yon ... jntwt go* to office No. 51, whieh 'is the light place to pay at.” It was a pouring wet day. and very . cold, but 1 buttoned up my overcoat again and trudged off to office No! 51. Office-No. 61 had put its shutters up. On Sundays and fete days a number of the Pwa part-offices are closed. But on the door there was a notice saying that office No. s was open. So 1 trudged off to office No. d. It is a ve>-y pretty prut-office, on the site of the old Maison Dore, and cost millions of 1 rance to build. I believe. A BUSY OFFICE. There were very few clerks in it because, as it waa Sunday and so many other office were there waa rather a greater rusl of business than ijnml. So I had some time to wait. Eventually, when my turn came, I took toy hat off and presented myself and nr telephone card to tho clerk Me<received me moat politely- He was VP* fectly willing to sell me postage to take a telegram, to cash a ptnw order «if I would prodnee proon Mr identity, two envelopes addremed to me. a birth certificate, ar elector s.cted, er an india-rubber stamp with my on it), but he would have nothing to do with my £&>, and he positively sneered nt the odd twopence-halfpenny. So I went to another <tork. and Tro wn. very nearly rude. He sort itet it mas ban enough to have to wwk jm Sunday, all the tame, without having one’s time wasted like that, jfterybody ,knew, he jaid» .that the Booms was the proper plaoe to paj> money tor telephone oft. So I wont back to the Bourse. I had no «s«gUßaenteuntil fairly tote that day, and my doctor w always bring rude to me, because he says that I take insufficient exercise; and 1 didn’t mind misting my lunch. Mr. the Receiygr at the Bourse received me most politely until he recounted me. Then “ Ah, mam non! ” he said, and turning to a colleague. told him that “ it waa the man with the £5O asam." 1 began to feel a little uncomfortable. 1 wondered whether, vnthom knowing it, I were any relation to little Mbs Ffite in “ Bleak Hauee, ’ whose documents were ench a joke m Chancery. But 1 persisted, and Mr. the Receiver got very angry. He was a grubby little man in rtmsee, md extremely fluent. I tort htefamly ttat the post-office would hawp to take those £5O er guarantee roe tetaptamic oom munication from my office to IrondanHe told me that I might call up " Cbmplainte ” upon the teupnQne- ? I drt “ Complain ta’’wure«k*cd, for it wajtSundaw. 1 went hack th Mr. the Reeffiver torch a misnomer too), and cut him short in the act of que voutaayous one ie rows dwe? ” -ing «® again. Then he shrugged his shoulders and Xted to know whethur I didn’t trmt office 51. cr why 1 wtirtd not puy “T’rapted that .the letter-box at ofc, 51 wouldn’t pre me aJ*®*?** and that that waa J" office that was open- Then ne produced a fargC book, hw “J after ten minute® hard work rind me that office No. 8 was open-BACK-AT NO. 8. I felt weary, but I vrtnt back to effic.No 8-rt asked for Mr- the Re-

ceiver there.-He »«* abaurdlv like M. James in appearance, and be receivea nra aort politely. But wbenlprcduccd the £5O and the taropence halfpenny, he said ofiee No. 51 . I asked for a glass of Mater, and as T ronlfc’t getthat put a PW*? 1 ® the slot of a hospital machine behind and refrrehed myself with eome exeellent gtnn from thi bsmt <** • Jt? tiink stamp. Then I explained that office 51 was dosed, and “M. James'* cot a vohime off a shelf, licked his finger, and fire minutes afterwards eaid ’•that is tree.” I pointed feebly to the .€5O On 2|d. We argired the question for a quarter of an hour, at the end of which time “ M Jarmen” studied my telephone eard, said that the photograph on it was an excellent likenea. and that my French was wonderful for a foreigner. I thought that he was weakening and pointed sternly to the £5O Os SJd. He threw hie hands up, shook his heed, and said that I was abusing my position on the press to tfrrorise a poor devil of a functionary. I began to feel a little hit ashamed of myself. My day’s work had softened my brain a bit, and I began to wonder whether- in some mysterious way 1 were not trying to persuade these honest men to nib the Third P ? pnbbe. But I wanted to assure telephonic communication from my office to London that evening, and I mention'd august names, and said that there was going to be considerable trouble mile*’ that double of M. Jaures gave nw n r-eeint for £5O Os 2jd. que voi’a., Re asked me what I would that he siionkl ?>ts to me. and turned his back on roe " b.vn I that he should eay ‘ T'-ark vo'i ” and give ms a leeeipt l'i’> £6O Oh 2Jil. And then 1 rerormb»T.-l the name of a powerful personage in the telephonic department w*i-ut I ita;’- »■**» to know. I went downstmis to t’w bsaeiMmt, and called him up v>pt»n »be telephone He received me m v»t politely, and two minutes afterwards I was watching the back of Jaures U* bead as the grant chief spoke winged .■•.•nk ■cares the wire to him. Jaures 11. walked part me without * word, and

went back to his desk upstairs. I followed, put my £3O Os 2)d upon the counter, and this time it was my turn to say, " Que voulez-vous que jo rous disc, moi?" “ M. Jaures " sighed, took the money, examined the coppers, held the not?s up to the light, wrote out a receipt end gave it to me. So I telephoned to London after all on Sunday evening.