Cathedral City Gossip

NZ Truth, Issue 685, 27 July 1918, Page 6

Cathedral City Gossip

(From "Truth's" Christchurch Rep.) Things are really too miserable nowadays to talk or to write seriously; , therefore, the enow came as a relief. Christchurch had three holidays m succession —Saturday, because the law gave it to us; Sunday, because tradition insisted upon it; Monday, because of the snow. If all the people who were idle on those three days had. war work to do, something might have been accomplished towards the vanquishing of an enemy who knows not Sundays or holidays. With the rest, "Truth" went out pelting snow, and was pelted m return. There was plenty of snow to pelt—a good six inches of it. Old men with whiskers frolicked m it; merry maidens revelled m it; boys rolled m It and hoodlums took advantage of it to show their breeding. The old men and the girls and the boys were given a chance to show what good sports they were. Some notable illustrations of the hooligan idea of "sport" came under "Truth's" observation. If ever a sport (m the true sense ot the term) was born, it Is Colonel Chaff ey. The colonel sallied out on Monday morning ai^rayed m all the radiance of his staff uniform. Boys, girls and old men threw snowballs at him; the colonel met the assaults with , a bombardment of his own that either put the enemy to flight or was completed by a good-natured exchange of laughter. At Broadway's Corner, the essence of Christchurch hooliganism had assembled. They, paused, m their pelting of helpless old women, decrept old men and any limping eojdier who was too ill to show.. fight, and transferred' their attentions* to Colonel Cbaffey. About thirty of them took to him, and, even when his hat was knocked off, they continued to throw their tightly compressed balJs of ice. The colonel took it quite good humoredly, and eventually retreated, all the honors of dlgnitj' and sportsmanlike cdnduct being with him. There was nothing 1 of good nature m the way this mob took to the colonel, and there-was nothing particular clever m the way they made the demonstration.