GIANT AND HIS SONG

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21248, 30 July 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

GIANT AND HIS SONG

INTOLERABLE INFLICTION Weary of labour, a giant of a fellow in Paris, named Antoine, took to singing. But his repertory was shockingly meagre; it was, in fact, limited to a couplet lingering in his memories of childhood's days. Over and over again ,\e sang a couple of lines which may be thus translated: Good luck, my friend, you'll surely reap, By kindness to the chimney sweep. Influenced no doubt by the promise held out in the first line, the listeners suffered the repetition for a while and Antione collected some coppers. But the flow of sous ceased when the pathetic lines burst on the ears for the fiftieth time. Moreover, he made the fatal mistake of giving his performance every night in the same district, and matters came to a crisis one night. No sooner had he begun his " Good luck, my friend . . •" thap a cobbler, to whom the sempiternal ditty had become intolerable, made an offensive observation about the " chimney sweep. Antoine, who is over 6ft. in height and weighs 16st., committed a most violent assault on the little cobbler, and now the only person likely to be inflicted with the song is a prison warder. (