Ernest Bramah

“ The Provincial notices that nuts knocked off the first peg of each row are seldom replaced, and as women and children nearly always bowl up instead of throwing, these empty pegs form a fairly efficient barrier. These examples of Metropolitan duplicity the Provincial mentally notes for the edification of Pogstall.
The dust and heat are fearful, and the people seem really to enjoy shovelling their feet along the powdered clay and throwing up clouds of it. The shows are innumerable, and each enterprise' relies on some individual and particularly noisy way of attracting public attention. ”

“ In the country, he says, you get as many nuts as you knock off, but here, whether you displace one or a dozen, it is all the same, you only get one. His other observation refers to more subtle craft on the part of the cocoanut man. The rows of sticks on which the nuts are placed are about a yard apart, and each row is four or five sticks deep. The first peg stands about six inches above the ground, the next a foot, the next eighteen inches, and so on. ”

“ Things to hit with hammers, to hit with fists, to pull, to turn, to wrench, to push, and to blow. Innumerable places where to get refreshments, and it is even possible to order a pancake, and see it cooked from beginning to end. ”

“ What is more, there are people who do it! Up by the flagstaff a man is working out conic sections on a blackboard, and is prepared to prove that the Milennium is bound to commence at an early date in the next century. ”