OVER-RATED HUSTLING.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12905, 17 February 1906, Page 3

OVER-RATED HUSTLING.

■» . .. '. j ; Mr John Morgaa Bichards, an American residing in London, telis the "Standard" : that he- lately visited New York in search oi evidences of hustling, and found thera ; not. i " When I explain that three hours is '. laken at the landing stage of the Cunard ane by the American Customs to take de- ; clarations, examine- -and clear passengers' ' iuggage, one cannot say that the • hustling ' .' begins there. My trunks did not reach j my hotel, a distance of three miles, until J four hours after I had secured my rooms. The hotel porters did not place my luggage in my room for more than one hour after I saw it arrive at the hotel, though urged to do so. The first evidence of 'hustle' I saw was in. the management, of the 'lifts.' These certainly ascend and descend quicker than anything seen in England, but no attention is paid to the lift " bell-call.' You simply wait till the 'cage' comes in sight, and watch your chance "to call out 'up' or 'down,' and you are allowed to enter

" la simple matters of boct-cleasing and barbers' shops, double the time is taken for these details as in London. Public telephoning is accomplished quicker—notbecause the attendant 'hustles,' but because the mechanical appliances are better. In shops, people crowd up to the counters, and ' hustle' one another, but those who serve are in no hurry whatever. Ther? is not a. shop in Xew York that succeeds in placing in your hand a purchase, together with a biii and your change, as readily as in large English establishments of similar character. Clearing merchandise at New York Customs requires all the patience, and more, than I have found in the 'Long-room' at Upper Thames street, the red-tape being quit* as carefully observed. The street wheel traffic is distinctly slow, everything giving way to electric tramcars, motors, and elevated railways. "Of the American 'quick lunch' I no experience. I found both at 'uptown' clubs and 'down-town' clubs an hour to an hour and a half was the average indulgence, time being taken, for ' coffee and smoke." At restaurants and lunchcounters one could ' hustle' over a ' piece of apple-pie' or a 'bowl of milk,' but I did not observe the least inclination to hurry up more than would occur every day in London y at such places as ' Pimm's' in the Poultry. "I will say this, that the American temperament is optimistic and speculative, and men will decide important questions, giving the irrevocable ' yes' or 'no * with less deliberation than would happen in England. It would be just to say that Americans are less bound by precedents, and ' will 'hustle' through a negotiation if they are struck with the 'proposition.' " I every day saw more idle, well-to-do. and well dressed people lounging about hotel corridors, bars, and reading-rooms--, five to one, than I wonld ever meet with in London, with the very extreme of deliberate plans to kill time, and without the least element of ' hustling' ©r making baste. For punctuality in keeping engagements, replying to correspondence, and for general considerateness in all matters where the tame of others is involved, either in matters social or commercial, the English people cannot be excelled."