RASTUS.

Waipa Post, Volume V, Issue 235, 5 August 1913, Page 3

RASTUS.

Oi thought whin oi bared me lift te the doc oi’d still have me roight te defind mesilf wid and te weild what the pote ses is aven moightier then the soard, but loike the plans in Bobbie Burn’s mice they wint rang. Oi’ve often heard it sed three moves was is bad as a foire and oi’ve another proverb te hand down te.posterity and that is that three vaccinations are es bad es smallpox. The doc ses oi had a foine take. He ses ye’re safe, Rastus, from smallpox. Oi’ve had little consolation in the safety. Me arm swelled and me lied shrunk til it was too toight fer me brain and pinched it. Oi got rheumatiz in me lift leg and whisky lost its flavor te me. Altogither oi think oi earned the half-crown the doc gets fer doin’ it. Oi won’t say he didn’t earn it too, but he did it wroitin, the scratchin wis fun to him. O’Bryen’s had the adventure iv his loife He was wanderin’ after a spree and spint a pleasant three hours in a Maori’s camp on the roadside. Nothin’s been pleasant te him since fer it was a smallpox prtient thet entertained him. Oi’m told that can’t happen agin not aven to a sober man for the.ve put the hospital behoind a wire fince and there’s a pack iv dogs to run out at ye and warn ye off. They’re yeller dogs so there’s no need iv a yellow flag. The Hilth Department’s economy is wonderful. Whoile Oive been esc'apin the small-pox Oive missed the motor car, and a broth iv a bhoy that lies no use fer it at all, at all got it. Me intintion was te make a name fer the car, havin photographs taken iv it w aadin through our strates knee-deep in liquid road metal. Can’t ye do somethin MrEditer te the feller thet ses we’ve got small-pox in Te Awamutu ? Oi’d

vaccinate him on the finger-tips if Oi’d the chance. The city A fathers are troin te cope wid the epidemic now. Ivry coloured son iv the soil is te kape off and stay outside, in the fresh air. Oi think a bath house on ivry road out iv town would be a good idea. We’d catch the Maoris comin in and the Pakeha goin out. He’d want some place te wash the mud off before he wir.t back te the country. Tis a good thing the factory opined yisterday, The cows will take me moind off other troubles fer a toime and be a manes iv renewing me credit wid the store. Its funny how jist whin ye want a cow the proice bobs up. Cows go up and milk comes down in proice. There’s only wan thing that does’nt fall, but kapes on stedily roisin, and thats the rates and taxes and the cost iv livin ginerally, and now there’s another doctor to be given a livin too. Well, why not ? The more, the merrier. He’s all there es, the Londoner ses, and Maybe loike the lawyers, he’ll draw more trade te the town.