POWER OF THE PENNY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIX, Issue 22, 30 November 1907, Page 26

POWER OF THE PENNY.

EXTRAORDINARY PURCHASING POWER OF A SMALL COIN. That most emphatic of philosophers, Thomas Carlyle, once said that the man who had sixpence in his poeket could command the resources of the workl—“to the extent of sixpence.” Had the “Sage of Chelsea” been spared until the early years of the twentieth century he would have been enabled to reduce his hypothetical figure by fivepence and’ then have been as near the truth. To-day the man who has a penny in his pocket can command the resources of the world to some purpose, says a writer in the “London Express.” If he is inclined to be thrifty there are numerous ways of investing this wonderful coin. He can purchase a periodical which has cost many hundreds of pounds to produce, which will afford him two or three hours’ amusing and instructive reading, and will insure his life against accident for £l,OOO. Or he may make an initial deposit in a penny bank which will, perhaps, lay the foundation of the necessary stimulus for the acquisition of fortune. FOR THE LITERAY PERSON. The literary person with a penny at his disposal has a wide field of choice before him. He may revel in the thrilling adventures of Deadwood Dick, Frank Read and his Steam Man, or Sweeny Todd, the Demon Barber. He may run the whole gamut of the poets, from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Longfellow and Tennyson, or he may feast on fairy lore until our utilitarian twentieth century becomes an ugly dream. For the dramatic student the same coin unlocks the doors of the vast world of drama, from Massinger to Boucieault, from the sublime tragedy of “Hamlet” to the inflated fustian of “The Lady of Lyons.” There are about 4,000 plays to puzzle his selection as he turns his penny over in his pocket. The hungry man with a penny to spare is confronted with an embarrassment of gastronomic riches. To choose wisely and well must be as worrying as hunger itself. He may enjoy a tasty Welsh rarebit spread on the crispest of toast, or a crusty French roll, divided in the centre with mathematical precision, and each half separated with a thin slice of ham, beef, or tongue, or by sections of cucumber or tomato, or a layer of salmon —of the tinned variety, of course —or by an appetising bunch of cress. He may even refresh the inner man

with a meat pie or a sardine reposing in solitary grandeur on a bier of toast, or with an.endless variety of confectionery. If he is not particular as to his restaurant, he may even indulge in the comforting luxury of a pot of tea. MADDENING CHOICE. For the family man there is a maddening choice. In the toy-making world the penny is paramount. A penny, in these days of orgies of cheapness, may be guaranteed to make a child superlatively nappy. The studious-minded youngster is not neglected. One may buy. bulky drawingbooks, note books, bundles containing half-a-dozen lead pencils, school-boxes fitted with pen, pencil, and six-inch rule, writing-books with “wise saws and modern instances” displayed in a “big round hand” for diligent coyping, slates and pencils, and the whole range of kindergarten amusements. The careful housewife is extremely, well looked after. For her the penny seems able to purchase everything except a drawing-room suite and a mangling machine. There are the brightest of tin saucepans, baking-dishes, cake-tins, and jelly-moulds. She may buy egg-whisks, soap-shavers, potato-peelers, applecorers, fish-slicers, and even the wooden apparatus for roller towels which usually finds a place behind the kitchen door. Of brushes she has a large selection. There are scrubbing, nail, blacklead, boot, cloths, saucepan, and hearth-brushes, and there are feather dusters, of the kind wielded by the pert housemaid who used to open the old-fashioned farcial comedies. Then she may buy neat cardboard packets of flaked rice, rolled oats, and other cereals, or she may obtain the ingredients to produce quivering blancmanges and jellies. She may make her table picturesque with frilled paper lace d’oyleys or decorative Japanese serviettes, of which a penny will buy no fewer than twenty-five. She may buy bundles of wax tapersf, bread boats, cruets, can openers, lemon squeezers, graters, sieves, eups and sauces, china and glass ornaments in legion; and she may stock her workbasket with tape, buttons, cotton, silk, worsted, needles, darning cups, and a whole host of oddments which are mysteries to mere men. SONGS FOR THE MUSICAL. There are songs and selections for ths musician and tools for the craftsman, including hammers, pliers, pincers, screwdrivers, axes, packets of screws and nails, hasps, door and drawer knobs, coat hooks, and hat pegs. The pleasure-seeker is well catered for. A penny will provide him with a combined phonographic and cinematographic? rendering of some popular song, will give him his correct weight, even if he boast the girth of a Daniel Lambert, will ensure him excitement by automatically controlled yacht, bicycle, and horse races, which return him his penny if he win. He can be gratified by the spectacle of a dying pig or rooster, or he can walk on the confines of modern science by purchasing a parachute. He can secure a cheap attack of indigestion by investing in a plate of whelks, or he can lapse into Sybaritic Orientalism with a pennyworth of ribbon of Bruges. The emergencies of life are provided for by considerate slot machines which will supply a substitute for the forgotten pocket-handkerchief, or the missing collar-stud of pious memory. Then a jury button can be procured in place of the one that has flown to oblivion, while from similar machines one can be supplied -with cigarettes, matches, confectionery, and cigars. Nor is the nature-lover forgotten. A’ penny will bring rural France or England under his nostrils and garnish his button-hole with sweet-scented roses, violets, or carnations. But signs are not wanting to indicate that the day of the penny is on the wane. To-morrow will see tha triumph of the halfpenny.