"TRUTH" TALKS

NZ Truth, Issue 882, 21 October 1922, Page 4

"TRUTH" TALKS

WITH THE MAN AT THE CORNER

ON TOPICS OF THE TIME

, The übiquitous "Man At The Corner" strolled m again this week with another budget /of more or less apt commentaries ;\on things m general. These included a discussion on the domestic disabilities pertaining to the sharing of houses and the difficulty of the adjustment of costs of incidental expenses; the value of Porirua. m its increasing use as a pure Rest House; the elegant language and admirable manners of Pussyfoot Johnson m public; a review; of the same gentleman's programme as a Prohibitionist; the City Council's casual abhorrence of captured rats; and the Government's quiet closure of the Lahmann Home, an expensive and luxuriously-furnished establishment, which could be turned into a whole lot of flats for hungry house-seekers, if Bill djd not prefer to let it lie empty. . : '

PATIENTS AT PORIRUA. "I see the Rest Cure Resort has been m the limelight." "You refer" to Porirua?" "Yep — as Pussyfoot says it., I could tell you a whole lot about Pori. What surprises me . about the village on the Jilll- — you know, ..there's over a thousand souls up there — is the waiting list of people, mostly young women, at that, who want to get on the staff." , ' "How do you .know, — been up there?" - "Don't be funny. You don't need to be a member 6"£ Parliament to know the House is full of gas! There -are well over eighty., men and over seventy women on the staff— that is, warders. It's a hardening jobi not well paid, and full of long, hours-" "Well, what makes them rush the job?" "Blowed if I can fathom that. On some of the shifts the women start at 6.30 m the morning and work till 8.36 at night.". . "Oh, come off? -..l've been told that these workers get two months off every year on full pay."

"So 'they- do — one month off every six. Also one week off every month. Yet, despite that, it has been worked^, out by a mathematician that, with all ' time off counted, these asylum work-, ers do an average of eight hours per day!" "Any more about the Rest Cure?" "Rather! The world and his wife would be astonished if they could see the Wellington folks who voluntarily take the Rest Cure periodically at Pori." . • ' "Really? Are you serious?" ' "Sure, and so are they. You see, it is a good idea. And I'll tell you — that chap who ran amok with a motor car m Wellington is back on the hill some more. It is a development of these nervy times. The only way for some people to get a genuine rest cure is to, go to* Porirua, because they are put under discipline, not only as to hours and exercises, but also as to dieting and drinking and drugging." "Aren't you overstepping the mark?" "I'm not. There are very many of Wellington's very best, people — from business and professional ranks, and quite a number of our Society dames — who have the Porirua Habit, and it does them the world of good m recuperation. It is worth a dozen seaaide resorts and health refuges. Go give it a try — and see whom you meet up with amongst the hills next time you get. the jumps yourself." RATS! "May I introduce my friend, 'Truth'?" and the Man from the Corner added m an aside, "He's maybe a trifle dull, but he wants to get something- off his mind, he says." "What's the trouble, Mr. Friend?" "It's about them rats the Mayor asked for." "We can't supply them, we don't keep them. Try one of the butcher's or a baker's or any restaurant, or almost any other place." "I don't want to buy rats, I did want to get rid of some." ' "Take them to the City Councii. We saw Mayor Wright's appeal to people to help m the clean-up; give the Sanitary Department a ring and they will send round a few t inspectors to gather up the corpses for -inspection. Another slight precaution, you know." "Did ring up the office where Jimmy Doyle used to be and let them know I had a cageful, and was told that they knew nothing about rats except what they had seen m the dailies; nothing official or anything of that sort, and didn't want rats at any price; wouldn't have 'era at a gift." v "What then?" "Well, they were no use to the City Council apparently and no darned use to me and the wife, so we let 'em go again. Thort we was do in' our duty to our town and country m catch in' the dirty brutes m the fust placeWhen does this Health Week start, anyway?" MORE, ABOUT "PUSSYFOOT." ""The Man at the Corner" m Dunedin is an example of a somewhat rare combination. He is a staunch teetotaller and not a Prohibitionist. "Hullo, Pussyfoot!" was the greeting he got when he sidled into "Truth's" office the other day. "Oh, for heaven's sake don't talk to me about him," was the reply. "I'm fed up with him; I'm fair disgusted." "How?" "How? Well, were you at the St. Kilda meeting, 'Truth'?" "We .were." "Well, did you heat him call decent men at the back of the hall 'Germans'? Did you hear him tell some members of the audience who disagreed with his statement to 'go back to the' pothouse' where they had been 'spewed out'?" "Truth" had' to admit having heard the elegant language. .— / "And did you hear him tell decent' railway workers, juot off duty and who had dropped m to hear him, 'to go home and wash their faces'?" "We heard him tell somebody that." "Were you at the Port Chalmers meeting-, 'Truth'?' 1 "No, too far away."