The Pasi ists Defeated: Fifty Years of Work Without Wages: A Comedian's Publicity Trick Cavie Improvements to Wrangle Over From our Manchester Gorresyonitent.
Manchester, Mar. 2
Wo have hoard of aigry Manchester fathers, whey instead putting their erring sons off with the traditional shilling " fobbed them, off with dusty btindles of] shardy in the local Ship, Cane found it easier, and thought it cheaper, to part with' their] dreams than their shillings. ime, however, been on the side of the prodigals. In 1924 their obdurate sires soo the sooty Lancashire dust settling on their idle spinning frames while the: prodigals may be buying Rolls Royeos! with the long oferred Ship Canal: dividends. sp.c. is to be paid on all the share capital held by the publio for 1923. the Ship Canal 18 a paying proposttion at last
end would have been scoffed at The possibility of such 10 years ago, Although the Cenal bboen opened at that time for 9 years it had never paid dividend. There were thousands, expecially in Liverpool, who said that it never would. "They wore
po. was paid. When 5 p.c. was fire proven wrong in ioi6, when Paid on all shares. held by the: Public for 1920. these croakers said that it was nly because it} 5 was a boom year—it would never happen again. The reduced divi ends in the sucsseding year lent ome colour: to this prophecy but 1923 has Misproved it, It is said that 6 p.c, could have easily been paid but the diveotors thought it Wise to pursue a cautious policy. Great. things are prophesied for the future, As the Canal was' held wp for 36 days during 1993 a result of the Unofficial docken's strike there seems some likely hood of even better, times, During 1923 more than five million tons, of reaborno merchandise traffic was handled by the Crnal, and since 1913 the gross receipts have been more than doubled the Company. is now petitioning Parliament for permission to deepen by 2 ft. the lower ranches of the Canal and 40 attract, Inrger shipping. We in Manchester have waited 92 years for our shote in the harvest of the, sea Th) in coming at last, and it is going to be no inconsiderable proper tion.
RECREATION 18 Aico4TS, Fow men have a wider circle of Mr. Charles Rowley, the. founder friends among famous men than of the "Recreation in "Ancoats" movement. The nows that in Seth, eae he hae been, compelled health to. rolinguish this ood work in that insalubrious slum will cause general regret. For 47 years ho Mas lured famous writers, losturers, artists, posts, musicians, anarchists, socialist, bishops, travellers, Jesuits, and Philosophers to a, bars hall in the cart of the worst part of Ancouts to address his audiences. Bernard! Shaw has said that the deaths of half the famous mon in Great Britain for the Inst 40 years can be directly traced to visits they had made to Manchester at ° the siren call of Mr. Rowley. The programme invariably consisted of an hour's music, and an hour's tall by & man of note. Ancoats twas the setting for it but. the! audience came from everywhere but Ancoats. Tt sorry denizens eyed inimically the weekly ineurlon of well drossed people from the outer subttrbs who indulged in "Recreation in Anconts." For themselves, they remained faithful to the, proletarian custom of spending Sunday afternoons bod after the best dinner: in tho} ttractive impartiality, Tt, made no difference if the lecturer of yj|ono week was flatly contradicted The audience agreed with them by the one on the wesk following. both.
SUNDAY CONCERTS GONE, 'The. stopping of these Sunday' afternoon lectures and concerts Will boa great loss to the winter Amenities of Manchester. It. will oval the more seriously felt through the recent closing of the Sunday League Concerts. The promoters of these concerts thought they would be warmly patronized the thousands of people in manchester who have-nothing to was granted at Jast on condition that they were held after Church hours. But the habits of a lifetime are mot broken in a. week. 'Sunday is still taken very serious. ly in® Manchester and although famous singers were engaged who cannot be heard for twice the money on a week-day, the concerts were ill patronized' and had to be closed Only one during the of the season paid for The promoters ascribe their failaro to the inconvenient hour imposed for starting the concerts and to the exorbitant rent, cha ed. by. the municipal_auithorities for the Free Trade Hall where they were held. It is not improb blo that the concerts broadest by wireless every Sunday put the conprde-grace to the enterprise, One morning last week the whole of Murkot Stroot was held up huge crowd of people who did considerable damage to shop fronts} and other property. The cause of the turmoil was a publicity' "stunt?" engineered by Fred Barnes, a popular comedian appearing ab one of the local theat tres.. He said that it was a belief of his that the average man did not notice things outside his own personal range, In, support of this idea ho made @ bot with Another man that he could hide £100 note in Market Street and eave it, for 24 hours and no one would find it. Local newspapers gave publicity to the bet and for 4 hours this. busy thoroughfare ws the scene of - extraordinary' sights. The searchers removed the! street, grids and climbed up office and shop fronts, Mech glass was broken people, poking around glass signs and shop fronts with walking" sticks and umbrellas, 'The @ hours were up at 11 am. and at that time Mr. Barnes arrived in Market St. to soo if anyone had found the note, Ex: cavations were being made in short street leading down to the entrance to the ''Manchester Guar. dian' offices. Mr. Barnes stoop-down at tis point and pulled!
some stones and searched in th soil below. But the note was gone. It hail' been found by an unemployed workman named Browning. The police have warned Mr. Barnes that ho must not indulge in theca little games. in Roto Mash, of Ga arches the manner snd position of the have @ grudge against him for
hiding place. They argue that was not strictly in Market Street and that to hide it in the ground and then cover the spot with heavy paving stones was not very sporting.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.