THE WORLD'S RECORDS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5558, 8 April 1905, Page 13

THE WORLD'S RECORDS.

REMARKABLE FEATS IN THE ART OF HUSTLING. This, is an ago of hustle. The fact that “time is money” has been borne in upon all classes and professions, and the characteristic feature of the centtury is hurry. “Hurry, or bo left,” is the motto of the up-to-date man of action, who has forgotten tho meaning of “Festina lento,” and hurry he does to such good purpose that some of the foats performed by him almost appear to verge upon the miraculous. Some of tho great feats were performed by a single brain, others were the acts of groups of men. Some represent instances of unpremeditated bustle, while upon others long and earnest thought had provided beforehand for any contingency likely to occur in tho rush for tho record.

IN THE ENGINEERING WORLD locomotive-building was onoe very popular among hustlers, until the Great Eastern Railway turned out an engine in 9hrs. 47miu in 1891, and set up a seemingly unapproachable record. Now the most popular phase of hustling has taken the form of a Titanic game of “bridge” that oulmindted in a structure, 906 ft long, crossing tho Raritan River and the Delaware and Raritan Canal, being moved by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company on to new abutments in the brief time of eight and a half minutes. Tho actual time taken for the removal of the structure, weighing 2400 tons, through 14ft Gin was 103 sec, the balance of the time being occupied in removing the belts and making the disconnections and in making fresh connections at, the ends when the bridge was in its new position.

In Britain a few days ago the Midland Railway removed a bridge near Attercliffe-road Station, Sheffield, and substituted a steel structure in five hours ten minutes; while a 420 ton bridge on tie London, Tilbury, and Southend line, in the neighbourhood of Bow, was last summer placed in position between 12.40 on the Saturday night and 10.30 on the Sunday, morning, noth withstanding the fact that the old bridge was not got out of the way before 4 a.ra., and the new bridge had to travel 30ft. The West London Extension Railway Company succeeded in moving an- old fifty ton bridge in the neighbourhood of Battersea Station in 1902 and substituting a now structure or double the weight in forty-two minutes ; while other instances of British hustle could be quoted, but for exigencies of .space. There have of late been

SOME NOTABLE FEATS of picture postcard production, notably in the case of last year’s Derby and of the fire that a few days before Christmas reduced the Elarl of Lindsey’s residence, liffington House, near Stamford, to ashes. In the first instance within three minutes of the finish of the race at Epsom an illustrated postcard, showing . the winner and its jockey, was published in London, and distributed, with such celerity by twenty-five motorcars. fifty bicycles, and 573 boys, that by a quarter to four 120,000 copies had been sold. In the case of the fire, rather longer was occupied in getting out the postcards, but even in this instance pictures of the conflagration were issued before it was finally put as these feats undoubtedly were, they can scarcely be said to have eclipsed the two butchering efforts of a Ballarat bookmaker backed himself in 1900 for £lO to place chops on a gridiron in ten minutes from the time he took the sheep in hand to shear, kill, and dress it. It was a Ballarat bookmaker who made the wager; it may, therefore, be accepted that the feat was performed in the time specified. "Wo have in this country a sprinter in butchering feats, who is a veritable Duffy on the block and cleaver. American meat-dressers hearing of his fame have journeyed across the Atlantic with the idea of. figuratively speaking, wiping the floor with the British champion. Their return tickets have come in useful. The English representative in this line of hustling is Mr Stanley. Warth, a foreman butcher of Ipswich, who in 1900 performed the remarkable feat of dressing a bullock and a sheep and running a mile all within half an hour. Warth dressed the bullock in thirteen minutes, the sheep in sis minutes, and then, throwing aside hie apron, ran the measured, mile in ' five minutes, thereby winning his wager with five minutes to spare. With the aid of machinery MANY MAR VEILS can he accomplished.- In 1900 there was exhibited at the Islington Agricultural Hall a machine that would wash 200 shirts and gloss fifty to sixty per hour, and perform other useful services in addition; while on another occasion there was shown at the same, venue an intricate mass of wheels, awls, and cranks, that although it resembled a certain soap, inasmuch as it would not wash clothes, was capable of sewing 260 buttons on to hoots in five minutes, and another that out out

and worked 5000 'buttonholes in a day. Left to itself io ( work its wicked will upon a pair of boots it is believed that the latter machine would convert the same into one big buttonhole in less than forty-five minutes. There _ has been a certain amount of competition in rapid shoe production of late years. For a Paris exhibition of some years ago a pair of lady’s boots were made in the presence of a notary public, who timed the performance, in twenty-four minutes, by utilising the services of fifty-seven different operators and fortytwo machines that proceeded to convert 2C pieces of leather, 14 pieces of cloth, 21. buttons, 24 buttonholes, 80 tacks, 20 nails, 2 box-toes, 2 ; steel shanks, and 20 yards of thread into a dainty pair of lady’s footgear in the time mentioned.'' Nobody went to sleep over the operation; but since this feat was accomplished the hustlers of Lynn, Mass., havo performed a like feat in thirteen minutes. Particulars as to the number of minutes required to wear the footgear out are not to hand. The genius who is assisted by

INSPIRATION is capable of some feats of hustling that tho ordinary individual is unable to perform, even when time is no object. Lord Tennyson, for example, is reported to have told Dr Butler, of Cambridge, that lie knocked off “Crossing the Bar” in ten minutes. Sir F. O. Burnand is believed to have written bis famous burlesque of “Diplomacy” in five hours; Captain Basil Hood, when interviewed some flew months ago, put on record the fact that tho playlet “lb and Little Christina” was the work of three hours. Mr Solomon J Solomon is credited with having completed his famous Academy portrait of Mr I. Zangwill in five hours, and the late Sir Arthur Sullivan, who composed and, scored the elaborate overture to “The Yeoman of tho Guard” in twelve hours, is said to havo performed a like feat for the equally tuneful “lolanthe” by ten consecutive hours ot strenuous toil.

A lady coming across “tho herring pond/' whose father boarded the ship from 'the. pilot boat when the vessel was still two hours away from the land-ing-place with a small army of modistes and' dressmakers and the tidings of her husband’s death, is said to have walked down the gangway with the other passengers clad in the dernier cri of fashionable mourning. But the most popular form of hustling, so far as tailors are concerned, is over the “sheep to coat” course. This feat in the art of hurrying received a great impetus in 1811, when Sir John Throgmorton made a bet of £IOOO that at eight o’clock on a certain evening ho would sit down to dine in a suit the wool of which had been shorn the same morning. It is now a matter of history that the various, processes were completed in thirteen hours, and that Sir John won the wager with an hour to spare. That modern methods have improved upon those of almost a hundred years ago was made clear a few years ago when a great effort was made to heat all previous records at Shroudsberg, U.S.A.. and the “sheep to coat” course was accomplished m the marvellous time of six hours and four minutes, of which, period six tailors were engaged for two and a half hours in completing the tailoring portion of the work. S.M’s WORK.

Mr Chapman last April disposed of sixty-three charges of drunkenness ’ in forty minutes at Southwark Police Court, inflicting fines which worked out at an average of 12s 6d a minute. Had Mr Chapman been an agriculturist he would have proved a formidable rival to those athletes of the reaper.and mill who enter for the “ear to loaf” record, which is at present held by Messrs Taylor and Sons, of the Sheaf House Farm, Blockley. These gentlemen started operation at 5.30 a.m.; as fast as the sheaves were cut they were carried to the granary and there threshed and winnowed—time, 64 min. The grain was then conveyed to the mill of Mr J. H. Painton, and there ground and dressed —time 5} rain. To the adjacent bakehouse the flour was then transported, and at 9 a.m. seven small loaves were taken from the oven, and ten minutes later four of greater proportions, one of which was despatched to the King. From “.ear to loaf” occupied thirty minutes on this occasion, or nearly two hours short of the time representing the “tree to newspaper” record <2hrs 2omin) held by a paper and wood pulp manufactory at Eisenthal. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT I Seme few weeks . ago in the course of legal proceedings instituted at New York it transpired , that a certain George Lehay mot a girl at the theatre for Hie first time during the performance of “The Forlorn Hope” and durthe third act ho proposed to and actually married her the same evening. This was a smart performance, and apparently the bridegroom duly smarted, for he speedily obtained a . divorce on, the ground that the lady already possessed a husband who was living. Nowadays those who marry in haste do not even repent at leisure; this is an age of hustle, and repentance is hurried through at express speed. Some few days ago it was announced that the building of the Theatre Royal, Birmingham, that occupies an area of

18,000 square feet, and was opened nine months after the laying of the founda-tion-stone, was. accomplished in record time. Certainly this was a noteworthy feat, blit it cap scarcely bo mentioned in the same breath with, that of erecting an iron church, seating 200 persons, near Philadelphia in 3hra sSmm., and compares unfavourably (in point of time only/ with the rapidity with which a New Jersey man a few years ago, with a wager of £2OO depending upon his capacity to hustle, ran up a tivo-fltory carpenter’s shop with the aid of seventy-five willing workers, in 4hrs 10 minutes. With re* speot to the stability of the church and tho shop ive possess no data, bat wo may mention that some remarkable records in building have been performed in this country—-by children vvitkpock* of cards.