HOLLOW PROMISES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16411, 27 April 1921, Page 6

HOLLOW PROMISES.

(By WALT MASON.) I hired a dozen delegates, at divers times, to prune my trees, and do odd jobs on my estate, like washing dogs and herding bees; they vowed they’d come. these shiftless skates, with sounding oaths and hully cnees. I had to do the work alone, for no one came to give me aid, though 1 was fixed with buck and bone, to see that labourers were puid ; I had to lift a ton of stone and dig a post-hole with a spade. No fellow cares to ply a tool, no toiler to the vineyard comes; there is more fun in playing pool or rolling bones down in the slums ; and this is why, when nignts Are cool, the parks are full of busted fums. We read about the unemployed, and o’er their sufferings men sob ; hut all such tales are null and void, the , empty frothings of the mob, and I would be quite overjoyed to find a man who wants a job. I’m weary and disheartened now, I’ve tried so long to find a guy who’ll come around and paint the cow and make the trusty bucksaw fly ; and all are ready with a vow, and every promise is a lie. Men break their pledges with a grin, when they should wring their hands and weep, and when they ought to toil and spin they calmly snuggle down to sleep; methinks that our besetting sin is making vows wo do no keep.