PLAYING FOR PENNIES

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1930, Page 14

PLAYING FOR PENNIES

UNEMPLOYED MUSICIANS. SYDNEY STREET SPECTACLES. Sydney, July 31. One of the. most distressing spectacles in the streets of Sydney jtist now is that of well-dressed and recognised musicians who are but of work, combining as orchestras and. depending upon a benevolent public for their living.. It mi.st bo humiliating to these men, whose orchestral music in the neighbourhood of the arcades is one of the bright features of city life during the busy shopping hours, to have to place themselves by sheer force of economic - circumstances on the same level as the beggars to be met with at every step and turn in Sydney’s busy thoroughfares. Pennies are the coins most frequently dropped into the boxes. In contrast with this poignant feature of city life is the Gilbertian spectacle of a big body of unemployed who have been put on. relief works by the Government ‘going out on strike. What they are getting on these relief works is ad-

mtitedly a small wage, but one would imagine that half a loaf is better than no bread for men who have been walking the streets in search of work for many , long months. . It is unfortunate for tlu-se men if agitators have got among them, for there are thousands of men anxious to rush their jobs.