Did it Happen?
W
in
villa
HEN I was a boy, and that's a long time ago, We lived for a while dingy semi-detached inu south-eastern suburb of London, not far. from the Crystal Paluce. So mine, you seo, is a period story: its atmosphere is all-important; for one can't help feeling. rightly or wrongly, that the extra- ordinary thing that hap- pened could NOT have happened at any other time or place,
THE CHINA - MAIL, TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1955. —
Blackbeard
and the Coal-hole
Murder me some day he will,' unld' Ittis
Gordy Bunce and he seemed to enjoy the Ides. But did this story really happen? Is it FACT or
FICTION? The answer will be published tomorrow,
quiry into their characters and the general respectablilty.
My dominant impression, us I look back, is that the London I knew was pervaded by a semi-darkness feebly illumined by gaslight; there smoke and was always
1 had never seen the chiki before, but the coalman grime battling with
him- sunlight by day, and from
already At school. naturally, I could self
a familiar evening onwards, once the please myself in that matter, acquaintance; a big fellow with
beard encouraged to a huge black
and with sun had gone down, the sky but I was
bring boys home to ten, and, gimlet eyes guttering Bercely seemed to shut us in like a consequently, was debarred from under beetling brows. He had a black pull.
accepting such invitations my- sort of sinister merriment about
Lonely child ·
self.
not
This will perhaps explain why the coalinan's buy inter isted me so much. I was not attracted to him; he was ragged,
in
have nothing, not a thing. common: had anyone suggested to me that we might strike up a friendship, I should have felt
It is, as if summer, as I dirty, untouchable, and we could it now, never penetrated the SRL, incan streets of memory, The traffic was. horse-drawn: little ys with shovels used to of their dart about. lives, collecting the manure.
Insulted. at rak
precious
The visit of the lamplighter with his long pole was a small daily excitement, and the sight
of a motor-car in our street
woull have been nine days'
wonder,
Nevertheless there he was, a queer Bttle animal, with after at a rough resemblance to the human species; and since I had nothing and no one else on hand Bt the moment I eyed him euri- ously, from inside the iron rail ings that divided “our domain from the street pavement, being u more sense thari beyond the pale.
he
one
AVIH
him which at once and alarmned me.
*
He stood ser
stiti, like a cornered ant- mal, leis amall Bats clenching, District and uptelan darted from
his eyes.
+
below and the boy not loaded up, I slipped into road and said "Hullo."
WOR
composed his fea-
Jace
yet touch of patremising geniality cars rolled down his black the about him which now, in the cheeks in greasy runnels,
Might cf
Then suddenly the storm ot He stood very still, like struck
my steret knowledge,
So merriment subsided and mc as sinister. cornered animal, his small fists
plucking up my
I over, He courage clenching. Distrust and sus ventured to ask after Gordy. tures and bent towards me, pul- picton darted from his eyes.
"Where's "Hullo," I said again.
that boy of yours ing his begrimed hairy uncomfortably near mhic, "Wodjer want?"
today, Mr Jones?"" be
Very confidentially, with a manded sullenly.
"The boy?" He stroked his close quarters, looked preternas "That's sccd, that is.
His face, now 1 Saw it broad nose, grinning curiously. sort of soleinn what, and pincing
long foreninger against That's turally aged. There was so much rich. That's ripe. So you want site of his nose, he said:
dire experience written upon the bay, du fascinated
The chute
I
I thought 1 a shame that he minde the boy work so hard, wondered where he had picked him up, and judged that there was to love lost between them,
In this last conjecture, seemed, I was right,
اوا
de
at
you?" s
it that he could have been an face smeared with coal-dust, he undersized middle-age man, looked not unlike an outsize in Almost DET
not quite; for his mouth
and was
pouted child- 1shly,
there young Inquisi- tiveness, well
as
as cun-
ning, in the sharp look he directed at me.
**What's your name?" I asked him.
by GEBALD BULLETT
Our house had a. basement, and consequently
what was called in those days an "area" that is, instead of a front
"Wodjer want to know for?" garden there was a small paved
But after a pause, responding to steps leading my court, with stone
he said. "He's my
down to the basement entrance, Buncpitiatory grin, "Gardy
area
Fare
GIRALD BULLETT is that vary bledo literary all- Founder of distinction. Since 1914 ke has confected fiction, children's parms, biographies, books, literary criticism, and of least one play with the same non- chalanco and success.
Hir books Include studies of Sydney Smith and English mystics, and such attractive tities as Me, Godly, Boulde Himself (1920) and Cricket in Heaven (1949).
Sixty-two this year and London- born, Bullett's finishing school was Jets College, Cambridge. He is married, has a daughter...
imagine;
the
you
So It's Gordy Bunce
is it, boy? Weil, you've
want, got him!"
And with an abrupt jerky movement he jointed down the coul-hole,
If this were a made-up story I could, I hope, tell it in lidier fashion, But real lite is an un- won't manageable affair and submit to the kind of manipula- tion ONC gives to Betitious events,
LOGAN GOURLAY MEETS ONE HALF OF THE HUSBAND-AND-WIFE TEAM WHICH HAS SET PEOPLE TALKING
THE ART
ART OF
OF BEING MARRIED TO
A MAN NAMED REX
M
London, "No, I wouldn't miss the ap-
ISS LILLI PALMER plause and the kudos. I relaxed into a high ment. I'd have too many other wouldn't pine away in, retire- backed chair. and interests
said with something like a
sigh
of relief: "It hasn't child, (She has one son, Carey,
"I might even have another
been as bad as I thought. aged 11,) Glad I decided to brave it."
On occasions actresses can more time for
"And, of course. I'd have my painting." started painting land- as a dental drilling. I felt I scapes and portraits about 10 should perhaps have pre- years ago, before it became faced the proceedings with But the large oil of a Roman fashionable among actresses, the anaesthetising cliche: seene bove the mantelpiece in "It's going to hurt me more the lounge of her Mayfair Bat than it hurts you."
was not her work).
fear an interview as much (She
I had not, in fact, been looking She poured out more after- forward gleefully to the inter- noon tea in the large breakfast it cups and-helped herself to more viewing appointinent. When
made the telephone conver- gation
went
was
this:-:
Miss
like
Palmer
(with odge you want to sec volce):
ine?" G.: "So I can write some- thing about you."
a sharp on her "Why do
Miss P.: "What?" G. "About your career and so ca."
Aliss P.: "As long as it's only about
my career, quite willing to see you."
bread dripping with honey - "I don't have to. worry about my slimming. In fact my trouble in that I have to eat a lot to keep my weight up
So far mainly career, us prom- 100d. But the Palmer carcer is Inked closely, if not inextricably 10 that of her husband Rex Har- rison, who Co- be stars with her in "Bell, Book,
and Condie."
LILLI PALMER
G.: "Strictly career, I pro- mise."
So I must now explain, as I ought to have done carlier, that though on these occasions 1 was TWO SONGS deputed by my mother to count 'IMAGINE IT' the sucks of coal as they were. brought in. I had been too much preoccupied this morning the absence of Gordy Bunce to do my job properly. But for that, this dreadful thing could never have happened.
Nightmare
Inevitably his name cropped up. But nat Mr Harrison in person. He has moved to the Hotel . Connaught
while she remains in the Mayfair flat 300 yards along the road.
the
is
It has been explained that il
for more convenient
Mr
and Harrison to stay in an hotel at the moment because he is so
a
I kept my promise for with first
half-hour or sor curned that the Palmer career, which started at the age of 14 busy. One of the things that when she stood on her head for keep him busy is "Niña," a Berlin film producer, is sill translation of a French comedy prospering as she steps daintily which he is direuling. and confidently into the mature Lorties.
be
Of course Mr Harrison still falls in love once nightly (und twice daily on matinees) with Miss Palmer in "Bell, Books and Candle,"
We were a snobby family, the more so because iny father,
and near the latter was a man stepper-dad."
nigger minstrels; I half-expected through no fault of his own.
hule, or chule, by which the
him to break into a coon song "Your what?" had come down in the worldt,
I watched him leap, nimble coal was emptied Into the cellar
or start a line of comic patter For that reason 1 was a rather
"He
married my mum." as a monkey, from the cart, and below. Man and boy took It In
Laughter rumbled in his belly Janely child. I had no brothers hoist on his back a sack of coal turns to carry the sacks down.
explained Gordy Bunce, He
and exploded in a genial roar. or sisters, and
jerked a thumb in the direction At any other time, or if I was sterly that was actually larger than
I had forbidden to consort with the himsell,
He's never so that he must have I watched them for a while, of the house. "Look out!
Ind
with that talk neighbourhood, except by looked from above, and did as
He'll have my This Saturday morning, In lordly coming.
guts Gordy, such
merriment gigantle speelal permission. which was I presently perceived, like an silence. But at last, seizing my for garters."
She recently completed a film granted only after diligent In- enormous black caterpillar.
Blackbeard chance when
Ife from that My
moment in was We heard Blackbeard's heavy would have proved infectious, I
Germany, and nur street would
which will hobnailed boots ascending the have been edified with the sight took on the aspect of nighinare, dubbed in English and shown
Gordy Bunce, steps
The coul-gellar, had become for shortly. of a large man and a small boy
It is a musical with a shouldering his sack, moved, to bellowing
and duncing with me a place of terror: to be sent cireus background and we shell MARRIAGE meet him.
laughter; but knowing what I there to replenish the scuttles hear Miss Palmer singing for IT NEEDS TACT I stood my ground, waiting knew, or
an agony. My days and the first time. thought I knew, the was for the next opportunity; and performance struck me as nights, but especially my nights,
Miss Palmer looked at me as our conversation was exaggerated, unnatural, even a
by hideous "Didn't think I could do it. warily presently
her Pyewacket. resumed.
little frightening, and I eyed imaginings of what must even. But I manage to put over two Siamese cat, in the play looks him in sheer wonder, grinning tually be found there, I dared songs. One of them is 'O Mein at Mr Harrison.
She said: tell anyone my dreadful Papa. Dimeult to imagine, isn't
*We've nervously.
been Presently, his mirth subsiding, secret, for I was mortally afraid 17
married now for 16 years, Rex he bent a strange look upon me, of Blackbeard, and none the I agreed that it
prad 1. Quite *
How time. a sharp scrutinising look, and in less so because he was ob. was. Gordy
Bunce was now all a honey-swest tone of voice, a viously mad as a hatter, eagerness to tell his tale, having change of manner that chocked scented, I suppose, my readiness me after all that noire, softly to sympathise... I don't pretend inquired what I wanted with
repart what we said
young Gordy Bunce if I pleased. verbatim, but although it all "I don't want him." I said, in happened So long ago its great embarrassment. "I only
and substance
certain key- wondered, that's all." phrases art fixed in
. incmory.
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12
13.
to
A clever boy
were haunted
pa!
A
my
"He beats
me summick horrible," said Gordy Bunce, "Murder me some day he will. You see if he don't."
I taught him'
He
one
And
wns
When her cur-
rent West End
ВИССОБА, stage "Bell, Books And Candle," ends she
may:-
Make more flims
In Germany:
OR
Go to Holly- wood to appear in
ever, And
roared
of me,
with
For
a film with Gary Cooper;
ray Hill
REX HARBISON
19
of patience."
havo
long you been
married?"
I said I cele- brated my 10th anniversary last week.
worn
I
week went by, two weeks, three weeks, and still the body had not been discovered. every day the time was coming nearer when Blackbeard and his
"Then you know coal-cart would turn up again.
what I mean. came, as genial as
Every marriage Saturday morning.
has its ups and 10 once again
downs, particular- laughter at sight
ly in our profes .OR
sion. It's not easy "Ah, I see what it is," said sitting beside him on the cart,
Return to the Blackbeard
after the first with
sarcastic a He made big eyes at me, smile. "He's
there he was, Gordy Bunce, a Broadway stage
bloom ins got round you, nicagro little Agure, enjoying the sensation he was
elderly in a new play by Robert Sher- off. Needs tact, understanding, that's what it. is. Telling the looking and unsmiling, but un-wood, "The Litle War on Mur- strength of character. And lols ercating. The idea of being murdered appeared to afford tale, ch? My lights and liver, mistakably alive,
what a llar that boy is! Or was, Him a sort of ghoulish satisfac- till I taught him better." tion. I couldn't of course take his remarks quite seriously, for after all I was twelve years old. and my parents would have it that I was a clever boy. Never- "I have that," said Blackbeard. theless I was uneasy. Dirt and Trust me," He began laughing
account
ount for again: I couldn't Imagine what godness right
but not for the pour at, "The dance that dratted boy nell
of fear that emanated has led us, me and his poor from this small, harassed, mum) You'd split your sides, elderly child.
young mister, if I could tell you time Next
there was
the half!" delivery of coal. Blackbeard was unattended. He had never The laughter swelled and been unfriendly to me. Quite exploded and swelled again till, the reverse. There had always I really thought he'd do himself. been, in his dealings with me, a an injury. He laughed t! the
“And have you taught him better?" I made bold to ask.
WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED
DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
YES
NO
• Put your tick in the space above and keep this panal by you unlit tomorrow ... when the answer will be giren-with another story in this series by...
W. F. COUSINS
● Did yesterday's story—The Tough Creasey — actually Cuy. by John happen? The answer is ; YES.
There is another alternative, But she will probably never do anything but day-dream about it.
"I often wish I could give R all up completely.
She switched het wery look to an appealing smile:
and
"What can I do except throw myself on your mercy. Perhaps I'm making a great mistake."
Miss Palmer 19 strikingly beautiful, Graceful as Pyc- wacket. With fine, dark eyes "Of course, I'm grateful for and
shining, brown haly, simply any success I've had. But I coiffured. ("I'm long past tho
So when don't feel duty-bound to carry blond to be attractive.")
day
thought I had to bo She charming,
merciless resist
on.
I would if I were as greet an actress 0.5 Dame
Edith is also intelligent,
Evans. She has a responsibility stimulating.
to the publle and the drama Even the most and all that. I don't kid my columnist' could self that I have,
Palmer appeal.
not
No cowboy, but he's at home on the range
H
Palma, Majorca. (mostly women) who applaud innovation: and ITANDSOME, middle-aged Sonor Serra's
those (almost all men) who de- Antonio Serra, & plore it. prosperous Palma business- man, has caused the biggest sensation in Majorca since the landing of the Moors 500 years ago.
By IAN MERCER
"It's put idens into women's heads" one Majorcan informed "Why, only last me dismally. night my wife asked me to help with the washing up. Mark my which were still warm. These decor, this is the thin end formalities over, I came straight of the wedge."
to the point.
"What
made you take up cooking, senor?" I asked him."
"Harsh necessity,"
But I'm not worried. For one browned, add half A Anoly thing, I've no time to go to the chopped onion. As soon as the club nowadays; and for another onion becomes a golden colour. I think it's high time we throw in a pound of peeled Spaniards woke up to the fact tomatoes, Leave to almøner another that we are living in the 20th while you prepare, in contury. There are stilt plenty frying pan, half a pound of of servants to be had here, but shrimps and the same quantity that state of affaire' will not last
When lobster. forever, and when malds become dome, mix all the ingredients scarce or non-existent well, I together, ack salt and pepper, shall be the one to laugh."
and a pound of rice with water or very thin stock,
When you've poured in the For an hour, wo talked about liquid, which must be boiling,
in "We his food
general and Senor place pan over a very hot frá
In one of the local dailies recently there appeared an article on the women's page describing a dinner party at Senor Serra's home. The concluding paragraph In view of his being the most reply. "I got tired of eating Serra's favourite rockpes in and sfr for five minutes. After stated: "Every item on the Balearios at present (and also the supreme achievements of a them, but the most suitable for chopped paraloy and (optional) the the slows and hashes that were particular. He has hundreds of "that, siir into the mixture menu was personally pre- because the meals he gives his series of bad cooks." pared and cooked by the guests are by all accounts ex-
(remely good). I went to sdc. Bonor Serra,
host.
H
Geneva, Switzerland.
talked about man In
men to mako (1) *when, they a... little saffron added to return from the office is pdeilu, minuta quantity of water;
I said: "You know, I suppose, a typically Spanish dish that Is Finally, put, some cooked green that you, aro rather unpopular filling and delicious. A webrian peas and strips of red pepper on This on an' faland where they
with the majority of your com- can make paella equally well; top and place pan in ovan for idea of a man höping his wife He - grodied me with the patriots-male-who read about of course,
last 18 marartes, Serve in pan about the house has tritherto elaborate courtesy you expect your hobby?"
** piping hot, been unknown and unheard of! from a Spaniard, and at once
༢
Pour a cup of olive oil into a
Psave me a glass of shorry and?
he answered!- "Oh, flat panz +Allow 11-316% Brown - The above portion la modgti Now
Majorca ia wharply some excellent cheese biscuits yes. One fellow threatened to ghtly, then add any kind of for four Malereins mor divided into two compɛt - Those which he had just, made and hive me kicked out of my club, meat cut into plecos). When people with normial appet