Out and Home.
Page 14
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What I Might Have Said.
A Staff Question for Manchester. Cooling the Gearbox.
By " The Extractor.'
The ingredients of an unborn speech are simmering within me, for was I not invited to a feast for Saturday last, and commanded to " acknowledge " the toast to the Fourth Estate, and then at the eleventh hour urgent family considerations required me down in
Yorkshire and I had to forgo
the friendly festive gathering. The last time I heard the toast of "The Press " given was at a dinner during the Olympia Show week,. and whether the Press deserved it or not, they had an unmitigated basting.
" Never was heard such a terrible curse.
But what gave rise to no little surprise—
Nobody seemed one penny the worse."
Anyhow, it was fortunate that the gentleman entrusted with the re sponse possessed a nimble wit, and the animadversions recoiled upon the head of the pro poser so much that he sadly re sembled the man " who went out For wool and came home shorn."
So I deemed it best to prepare some ammunition. I offered to fire this off in my family circle but was talked out of it.
The occasion to which I am re
ferring was the fifth annual dinner of the employes of the Acetylene Illuminating Co., Ltd., with my friend Mr. L. M. Fox, the general manager and secretary, in the chair. I notice Fox's fellow conspirator, Mr. C. S. Wolfe, was down for a violin solo and I had never suspected him of such a. gentle art, and Mr. John Cates, of Shell Spirit, supported by Mr. " Bosch" Bennett, was entrusted with the toast of the evening. It must have been an illuminative celebration.
Some difference of opinion exists amongst probable exhibitors at the forthcoming North of England Show as to the wisdom of two separate buildings being utilized for this exhibition. In some instances it will undoubtedly be awkward because it is not given to ordinary humans to be, like Sir Boyle Roche's famous bird, in two places at the same time. In the case of vehicle makers, if the Shows could be held in one building, two separate stands would be required for pleasure and for commercial motors but that would not apply to tire and accessory makers. On the other hand, with the latter, and with two buildings, two separate stands will, of course, be requisite. The disposition of representatives is naturally a problem. One principal, whom I met in Manchester during last week, had made up his mind he should issue invitations naming the days on which he would attend each section. Another suggested that telephone communication between both would be essential, in conjunction with a motorcar. Some others could find nothing but anathema for the individuals responsible for the arrangement. Motorbuses or chars-ii-bancs running between the two buildings might partly solve the difficulty, and here is a chance for some enterprising concerns. I think personally, with some arrangement. things will right themselves. The majority of firms are nowadays interested mostly in the heavy side or the pleasure side exclusively.
Calling, not long ago, on some good friends of mine engaged in the manufacturing of motors, they hauled out a proof of an advertisement which had reached them from a paper. They had sent in the " copy " in the usual way. T have no evidence as to the handwriting or the arrangement, of it, but I did see the printed proof which was the paper's interpretation of the copy, and one line read as follows " radiator fitted to the gearbox." I was pertinently asked if that had not a genuine Harry Tate ring about it. It is just on Christmas time as I write this and it would be hard to find much maliciousness in rue, I think ; however, the fun is too good to pass, but T name no names. The following lines have been repeated to me and have frozen into my memory. 1 am trying my level best to live up to their spirit :There is so much bad in the best
of us And so much good in the worst of us
That it hardly behoves any of its To talk about the rest of us.