WORKSHOP FROLICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2085, 8 February 1894, Page 42

WORKSHOP FROLICS.

The dull routine of life in an engineering works is sometimes agreeably varied by tne comical, frolicsome doings of some of the youngsters. An engineering works usually consists of a moulding shop or "foundry," a pattern shop, fUtiDg shop, smithsbop, and sometimes a boiler shop. The different trades have nicknames for each other. Moulders are termed « sand rats," as they work in sand ; fitters are insulted with the name "greaser," as they are usually in a more or less chronic state of greasineßS. Smiths are "scrap-iron benders " ; and boiler makers are " tin-pot bangers." When a new apprentice enters a shop a little diversion is sometimes created by Bomeone sending him to the enginedriver for a bucket of " blast," or to another shop for the loan of the " gas snuffers," a " circular tquaie," cr a " wim-wam." He generally returns struggling along with some heavy article, which, certainly looks mufih more eoiid than the name would sesm to imply. Unless the^e jokes are carried to extremes, there U but very little harm in them. Six a.m. is the usual time of starting in most works, and anyone later than 6 30 has usually to wait until after breakfast, 9. a.m., befcro he is allowed to start. This is called "a quarter" lost. An habitual quarter-loser is usually ridiculed t>y his mates, who hope by this means to get him to mend his ways. After a workman or boy has lost more than is thought to be a reasonable number of quarter?, it is the custom in many places to meet him coming late to work in the breakfast time, and to place him in a wheelbarrow or on a ladder. A procession i 3 then formed, and he is taken the round of the shop 5 , with perhaps a record of his misdeeds, or some other saitabie inscription, chalked on a board and carried in fron*-. A common form of inscription is an epitaph; for instance : — Sacred to the memory of John Drowsy, Esq., Who feU asleep October 12, 1893. NOT DEAD, BUT SLEEPETH. la one shop in which the writer worked a different system was in vogue, with the same object in view. One week a certain workman had lost three " quarters." On arriving at work on the fourth morniDg, he found " verses " and fcketches chalked on sundry boards all over the shop. One sketch represented him sitting up in bed, with hair on end, gazing at

a grandfather's clock, which told him it was 6.30, and he was too late. One of the poetical effusions ran thus : — Early to bed and early to rise Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. But our friend has found it were better be shared The bed with his wife till the streets are aired. He was complimented by some of his fellowworkmen on his ability in losing time, and was taunted by others, one of his mates in particular boasting that " he never lost any quarters." Alas I for human frailty. The speaker was himself absent next morning, upon which the other retaliated with : — Toll for the brave, Who come at 6 no more ; They are not dead, but sleep Two feet above the floor. In spite of all their boasts, They slumber and they snore. — Spokeshave. On another occasion an inveterate sluggard, on approaching the shop about 9 o'clock, was surprised to see a number of paper flags on sticks and poles projecting from the windows and door of his Bhop. On one was " Welcome to the Champion." A crowd of workmen were around the shop door reading the folio wing unofficial announcement in chalk: — FITTING SHOP-BOYAL. We have great pleasure in introducing to the public of C , for this day only, Mr Mugwump Bones, ♦• The World's Champion Quarter-103er," who has been in private training fer a considerable period, and now claims the proud title of THE WORLD'S CHAMPION. He is now open to meet any other individual, and will back himself to lose more quarters in a given time than any person living. Mr Bones is a Britisher, and, as such, we should be justly proud of him. Gentlemen ! Look out ! ! See the Conquering Hero comes ! ! ! Give him a cheer ! ! ! ! Hurrah ! ! ! ! ! And a cheer he received. This tomfoolery did a lot of good in its way, and, seeing this, the officials did not interfere. One of the most persistent practical jokers I ever knew was serving his time at the same place as myself. During breakfast or dinner time he would get out on the roof and stuff cotton waste into the shop "hooter," which treatment that useful article would resent by refusing to announce the time to resume work. The boys would sit and calmly wait until the enginedriver had climbed up, cleared the whistle, and blew it — a proceeding occupying him some 10 minutes or so, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We were working on a gallery which ran round the shop, and the foreman was usually below with the journeymen. " Bob," the practical joker, soon noticed this, and he would often blow a most doleful wail or a piercing shriek en a piece of iron pipe used trumpet fashion. He would immediately I clamber up aloft on the inside of the pantiled roof, holding on to the rafters with hands and feet like any monkey. On the foreman's arrival everyone visible would be diligently working, looking most innocent, and truthfully denying having made the awful sounds; while Bob, like "the sweet little cherub," would be "up aloft " grinning away to his heart's content. One of the most comical things he did was to get bodily inside a piece of ship's ventilator tubing with hood attached, his face through the hood and his feet at the bottom being all that could be seen of him. To see that hood perambulating around the shop, apparently of its own accord, set us all roaring with laughter. The head manager hearing us, came up the stairs. The alarm was given, and, having no time to get out, Bob promptly turned his face to the wall and kept quiet. The manager walked around the shop, inquiring the cause of the uproar, and, finding Bob missing, inquired for him, but no one " peached." He actually brushed against Bob's hood in passing, but did not in the least suspect what it contained. He never found out th 3 culprit. Bob was often blamed for his tricks, but rarely indeed were they traced home to him. His ingenuity and presence of mind in wriggling out of a scrape were wonderful, and as he rarely did any actual harm, the affair was usually overlooked.