VOTING CONTEST

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 6996, 9 December 1909, Page 10

VOTING CONTEST

Prominent among tho lady workers Is .Miss E. M. Bodmin, who is reaching out for first place with a determination otiicr-j might well emulate.

Occasionally a eonte-itant says that they say that somebody said that they (the contestant) has no chance to win. It is not what "they say" that ccunto in this game, but it is what the candidate "does."

Tho workers will bo winners. Tho public admires pluck, ■plu-np and push, and plenty of perseverance, and it you bo>st" yourself others will taost you.

An e.litor recently received the following letter: —"Please send me a few copies of the paper whia'h had tho obituary and verse about my child a week or so ago. Also publish the enclosed clipping about my niece's marriage, and i. wish you would mention in your local columns, if it don't cost anything, that I have a couple ox bull calves for sale. Send mo a couple of extra copies of the paper this week. As my subscription is out please stop my paper. Times is too hard to waste money on newspapers." Let us hope that wo have no contestants like this enterprising gentleman. Our prizes will ccet you tome work. Friends will not present you with votes, but they will enjoy working for a worker. Boost—don't knock. Don't try to pull yourself over the winning line by your own boot-straps. You can't do that, but willing workers will find willing friends. We want candidates and more candidates, but if you are simply entering yourself to see your name in print please keep out. There will be .no scratching after the first result of the voting is announced.

A world's tour and nino other valuable? prizes—just have another look at them and then get a bump on.

When a contestant meets a friend who trios to discourage him or her, just tell the pessimist to plank domi a little encouragement in the shape of a substantial subscription.

"Oh, vou haven't a ghost of a chance," remarked «. friend to a contestant yesterday. "Haven't I?" enquired the candidate. "Just you give mo an annual subscription, and then watch my vote grow," was the sensible and sententious answer. Good!

"A. stern chaw is a long ohase," and so is this contest a long ohase —nearly four months. .Don't expect to find votes scattered by the wayside waiting to be picked up. Everything comes to him who waits, but in this case tho waiter must also work. Get busy.

The ''Times" does not anticipate that everybody will endorse this contest, but those who 'keep out of it either a 9 contestants or voters' will find themselves awfully lonesome. :

• There'll be some tall hustling during the 'holidays for votes. When a candidate approaches you remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive. That one month's subscription to some contestant may mean the ■ world's tour, w : hile vou would regret having refused after you saw tho final result announced. • ■

Vote 3 placed in the ballot box will be announced to the public from time to time. . No record will be given of the votes held by the contestants.

It sometimes occurs that ono friend is more valuable than three friends. . If one friend give you a three months' subscription you get 200 votes, while three friends who give you one month each can only vote 150..

A fair young contestant, after a day's strenuous canvass, with a goodly number of votes to her credit as the result of her labours, fell into a gentle slumber and dreamed. • She 'stood before the "Times" window and."heard an animated

and heated argument between the ten prizes,. From its lol'ty perch, the hundred guinea." piano was gazing down ui>on its lesser-companions with disdain, while tome invisible hand strummed sweet melodies and lively martial airs. «"Your tick, tick, cannot equal inv soul-inspiring mu-ic," said the piano to" tho watches, "and 'while you are possessed ot hands you cannot extend | the.m in greeting friends. As for you, I Mr Camera, you deal oat shadows without tho substance. 1 have a profound | contempt for tea and coffee pots that 'can only aid man's vulgar appetite, and as for sewing machines and bikes, people inuit cxhaiL-t themselves physically to derive anv benefit, while I—l By this time" there was a confusion ol ■sounds, and oandemonium broke loo?e. The little watches ticked with an.ominousnoss that threatened destruction to their delicate mechanism; the bikes wheels were revolving at the rate ot a million revolutions the minute; the sewing machine was buzzing like a 90-mile an hour motor car, while the cameras •*utters were snanping with a vigour tuut threatened the vain piano's glossy front. Suddenly ivbove this unseemly chorus roared the deep, -sonorous voice of the World: "Hold! You quarrelsome, envious pieces ot wood, wire, iron and gold! Keep your peace while I do a turn and disclose to this fair dreamer mv advantages over such inanimate objects as you arc" Tho noise ceased, and the huge glebe slowly revolved, and there passed in rapid panoramic view b"lbro the slccner's visions oi fancied airy flight the beauty and glory of the world. Fir,-:t came Sydney and her magnificent harbour, then in quick succession Melbourne. Adelaide and Freniamtle, then the blue Indian Ocean, and suddenly there burst into view Ceylon, the tropical garden of the world, then Aden—Suez—with its bleak dissert shores tin either side, dotted here and there with tho nomadic tribes of ancient times. Next .Cairo, with its numerous picturesque minarets and . Mahomuiedan temples and great pyramids, and tile silent frowning Sphinx. Then away to Port Said and Jaffa, the ancient city that received the cedars of Bebanon to be used in the building ot King bolomen's Temple. And there was Jerusalem, the Holy City, now in the hands of the Turks, but still .peopled witn the same families of the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, more beautiful than ever with its many magnificent places 01 worship erected to the glory of Cnristianity. Again the dreamer stands upon'the roomv deck of a modern leviathan steamer, skirting the rocky shores of Italy, until Naples, frowned upon by Km oka and fire-belching Vesuvius, came into view. Thenco by railway tho traveller is whisked across the Continent, through Rome, the Eternal City, Genoa, Florence, Venice, Paris, across the ever-turbulent channel, Home—London, the birtholace of the mighty AngloSaxon family, whose influence for gcod and greatness has spread to the utmost confines of the . earth. "t onder stands the Old Bridge and Tower, with their mysteries of love, life and tragedy, the old Yoeman Guard in his ancient costume, and the magnificent Crown jewels that would ransom a kingdom. l<rom the Tower the dreamer gazes down through the smoke and fog into the heart of a mighty city, whose commercial =obs and-pulsations make the world akin; while the teeming millions rush here ■ and there "like a. cup of tamed vipers," each striving to get his head ■above the rest. But the world rolls on, and London, with its riches and poverty, fades away. Another great ocean monster cuts tho waves of the Atlantic, and then comes Nctv York—a turreted peninsula, whose mighty buildings almost ~ penetrate the clouds. Ch'"ago, tho" windv city of the wonderful" West, Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Victoria, with the great seas of waving corn and grain, are 'soon passed. then comes the'peaceful Pacific, crowned here and there with many beautiful tropical islands that enhance tho dreamer s pleasure until Auckland and her native shores disturb the sleeper and dissolve the vision of the revolving globe m the "Times" .window. The fair dreamer is wide awake this morning, and working might and main to make tho dream a reality.