INSPECTOR GOLDIE AND HERCULES.

Observer, Volume 4, Issue 99, 5 August 1882, Page 323

INSPECTOR GOLDIE AND HERCULES.

The disgusted Queen-street shop-keeper, who complained to his friend the other day of a domiciliary visit from the " Inspector of Nonsenses " was not 'so far out after all. The famous Twelve Tasks which Hercules performed at the command of the Pythian for Eurysthens were but trifles compared to the multiplicity of duties which weigh down the shoulders of Inspector Goldie. If the Grecian hero had to bring up from the Infernal Regions the three-headed dog Cerberus, G-oldie is expected to " run in" the many -headed collarless tykes that infest the city slums ; if Hercules had to get possession of the girdle of Hippolyte, Groldie is held responsible that no article of apparel, male or female, sign-board or. other thing, shall impede the free passage of the footpaths ; if he does not cat#Ti the horses of the Tracian Diomedes he > must keep a watchful eye on the cabbies ; and a greater task than the cleansing of the Augean' stables devolves on him

in ensuring the purity of thousands of backyards; and yet we have not exhausted the list of his duties. The wonder^ is that any man •jailed a " Sanitary (or Sanatory as he is often called) Inspector " can remain perfectly sane under this tremendous pressure of responsibility ; and if, under a load of care, and smarting under the badgering o£ incensed delinquents, poor G-oldie occasionally exhibits some irritation, he is more deserving of sympathy than blame.

<l . It is pretty evident also that he does not receive that degree of support which ought to be accorded to an official in his position. By the ordinary policeman, absorbed in the study of criminal characteristics, or the pretty faces of the street loungers, any active participation in G-oldie's peculiar business would be regarded as degrading to the uniform, and the 'esprit cle corps of the service. Even the Bench is "disposed to view the Inspector in the light of one in pursuit of natural P l<e Jj just as^a certain eminent judge did the genus policeman, while the whole tribe of defaulting dog-owners, shopkeepers, cab-drivers, and creators of nuisances, et hoc genus onine, look upon him as their arch enemy and oppressor, and individually and collectively defy his authority and resist his prosecutions. There was a striking example of this a few weeks ago, when he had to atteifJ the Court no fewer than ten times on different days to secure a conviction against a man for keeping a filthy piggery in the very heart of the city. The defendant protested his innocence with so much earnestness and apparent candour that he actually prevailed on the worthy Eesident Magistrate and Clerk of the Court to pay a visit to the yard, a cursory glance at which, to say nothing of the olfactory evidence, was enough to warrant a summary conviction and the infliction of an adequate penalty. Meantime, however, this unsavoury case had monopolised almost an entire week of the Inspector's time, to the neglect of other equally important duties.