The Angry Exile: Watch for the crashes

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Saturday, 8 October 2011

Watch for the crashes

What? No crash? No accidents at all with all those rules being broken left, right and centre? With all those pedestrians, drivers, cyclists and trams using that same space? Nothing at all, almost like people are managing to just get along by themselves? Not entirely unlike those places in Holland - also being tried in London, I believe - where they've done away with some or all of the rules governing priority for who's riding what coming from where and leaving it for people to sort out on their own. On the other hand you probably couldn't make that work with all junctions and I'm not sure Flinders and Swanston would be one anyway. Still, it doesn't change the fact that all that rule breaking didn't actually hurt anyone. Food for thought.

PS - maybe it's the camera angle and the music but I have an urge to spend the rest of the weekend playing SimCity.

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Bawb · 703 weeks ago

I've only been to Italy once myself, but my wife is Swiss and confirms it, that Italians apparently have no such thing as traffic laws. Seems to work quite well for them, as long as us foreigners keep out of the way.

PS: What do you call a one-armed Italian driver?
Speech-impaired.

1 reply · active 703 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 703 weeks ago

Lack of Italian road laws: the evidence against is that the police there have a couple of Lamborghini Gallardos to help enforcement on the autostrada. The evidence for is that one of them was wrecked by some tool in a little Seat hatchback pulling out without looking. Actually I'd call that a fucking crime anyway.

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Reinhard · 703 weeks ago

I think at the moment cyclists are occupying a sort of shadow area of traffic laws. They can't really go fast enough to kill other people under normal conditions so plodd don't worry about them. If NY is any example though, soon they will be firmly back under the jackboot.

1 reply · active 703 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 703 weeks ago

In some ways perhaps, but not in others. Vic police are happy enough to hit the poor buggers with ≈$150 fines for not wearing a skid lid when the only person they risk is themselves. But yes, they probably have it better than in NY what with that nutcase there calling for registration plates.

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microdave · 702 weeks ago

From time to time a set of traffic lights will fail, and people have to fend for themselves. Invariably traffic flows more smoothly than before....

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