ADVERTISEMENT VERSUS TRADITION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 12, 15 January 1932, Page 2

ADVERTISEMENT VERSUS TRADITION.

In an age when customs are being abandoned, e ven in countries where life moves particularly slowly, it is rather agreeable to find traces of something fro m the past. Such is the town crier of the little French beach resort, Bandol, on the Mediterranean coast. This personage is a salaried official who wears an ordinary citizen’s Ichalfi hiding suit, but a city gendarme’s cap. Unlil(e the town crier of Shakespeare s day, who walked through the village with his lanter n and bell, this gentleman rides. His vehicle is a bicycle. He pedals through the whole of Bandol, e ven visiting the beaches, with an efficiency that the slow-going town crier who walked must surely have I acked. His bell, of course, is a bicycle bell, and is used only for traffic. To stir up an audience to Its ten to his news, he unties a cornet from his handlebars and blows a bugle call on it. Dogs bark, heads p ol(e out of windows, a crowd gathers. The town crier shifts his official cap to a new angle on his head and begins his announcements. Again we discover a note of modernity. Instead of calling out the hour and saying all is well, the town crier tells the assembled citizens where they may find a good motion picture, have their films developed, or get a permanent move. Once in a while he drops a piece of news. It usually consists of an announcement that a bracelet has been lost and a handsome reward is offered. Whatever he says has a flavour of advertising. We have seen other old cus toms take on that flavour. Will they all do so eventually?