DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 13, 6 April 1927, Page 14

DR. FRANK CRANE’S DAILY EDITORIAL

THE VILLAGE SMITHY

(Copyright , 1927.)

PHE village smith is disappearing from under the spreading chestnut tree. He is being chased out by the automobile. The town c George’s Mills in New Hampshire advertised for a blacksmith recently. Their only smith left because his business was ruined by automobiles, and for the first time in half a century the town was without a smithy. This is a typical instance of wha t is happening everywhere. In England they are announcing plans for transforming village smithies into up-to-date repair hops, which will bear little resemblance to the oklfashioned blacksmith shops. Many who are now children will grow to maturity and old age never having seen a blacksmith. The smith was a picturesque character, brawny and sturdy, and many of us will remember when we as barefoot boys loafed in his shop and watched him pound horseshoes. The horse, alas, is going, and the garage man is replacing the horseshoer. Somehow the, automobile mechanic is not as picturesque a figure as the blacksmith who preceded him. He may be as honest, but his reputation s not equal to that of the smith. It all goes to show how the life of the community is changing, ard many callings which heretofore have been hereditary are disappearing. With the stage coach an army of ostlers were swept into oblivion ard their place is taken by engineers and b rakemen. Life becomes more complex, but it is not necessarily harder upon the working man, for the conductor of a railway train earns much more then the driver of a stage coach used to earn, and the garage mechanic is better paid than was his predecessor the b lacksmith.