Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 18th July 2009

Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 18th July 2009

The Pub Tip.

Bill was a Cadet from the country. He found himself not only in his country’s biggest city but on a Friday night, he found himself in narrow streets with small narrow houses crowded shoulder to shoulder as he walked to the pubs with a bundle of War Crys and a collection box under his arm. It was so different to the wide open spaces of Australia’s wheat growing and sheep and cattle area from which he came. Noisy cars were bumper to bumper as they passed by and Government buses over-crowded with office workers on their way home belched diesel fumes that added a certain stink to the noise. It was so different to the streets on a Friday night in the large country town.

Bill noticed the hotels were different too. Back home, pubs were not often overcrowded. Well they were on festival weekend but that was different and it was visitors not locals who took over every inch of space, to consume a cold one or a dozen. More likely it was the dozen. At normal times there would be just a few people in each bar. There would be the pensioners who had been there most of the day. Some had had lunch there and would eat their evening meal there too. They would only move from their favourite stool in their favourite corner of the bar to do what was necessary when one partook of copious amounts of fluid.

The old folk would be joined by the country workers during the afternoon. The country workers would be in their elastic sided mud covered boots. Some would be wearing lace up boots and some would show by their shape they had steel caps to protect the toes from a dropped trailer hitch or the wayward foot of a cow or a horse. Later in the afternoon a few drinkers would arrive and with their long sleeves rolled up to the elbows and collars open at the neck after the ties had been loosened or completely removed. These were the officer workers and shop employees. The suit wearers would be in the private bar or in the lounge bar where they enjoyed the company of women workers and friends.

The city drinkers were a mixed bunch in these hotels by the wharf. There were the old timers but mostly in the public bar, which was Bill’s first experience of a city hotel, it was the wharf labourers and men off the ships who crowded the place. Bill found they were a pretty boisterous mob and they reminded him of some of the country drinkers who had spent too much of their pay cheque on a hot summers afternoon in the bar. Bill had some difficulty with his limited experience in understanding these men and he could not decide whether they were naturally strange or the strangeness had come about because of the drink.

Bill biggest shock was to come yet. As he worked his way through the crowd he came to one particularly noisy mob. He found the centre of attention was a group of women. One grabbed Bill by the arm and said can you help me “They have taken my skirt”. Bill did help. He took off his uniform coat and gave it to her to cover her until her skirt was returned some time later.

Later, as he travelled back to the College on the train Bill was trying to make sense of this occurrence. He and his Cadet mate had met up with some other pairs and they shared the adventures of the night. Bill asked what type of young woman would allow this to happen to her. When some of the Cadets explained that she may have been an enthusiastic amateur or paid prostitute, we soon understood this was outside Bill’s knowledge of life. Bill had not until now understood how deep some people had gone into sin. He had never understood it was a lifestyle for some and a profession for others.

One of the Cadets said every time he walked into a hotel he though of how William Booth took his young son and showed him the drinkers in a London pub and said to him “These are our people”.

Bramwell Booth writing later of this occasion when his father took him to the pub says:

“The place was crowded with men, many of them bearing on their faces the marks of bruitishness and vice, and with women also. Dishevelled and drunken, in some cases with tiny children in their arms. There in that brilliantly lighted place, noxious with the fumes of drink and tobacco, and reeking with filth, my father, holding me by the hand, met my inquiring gaze and said “Willie, these are our people; these are the people I want you to live for and bring to Christ.” (Sandall, Robert. History of the Salvation Army. Volume 1, page 115.).

Bill understood that these people in his hotel round needed Christ but he still puzzled over many things. He had some difficulty in understanding why, when the Salvation Army was against gambling of any type, there was a “Tip for the Race of Life” in a prominent position on the front page of The War Cry. To Bill, it was only a text, yet many of the drinkers looked at it and told him it was a tip for the horse races.

Some drinkers said it was the chapter and verse numbers which gave the race and horse number. That was okay until it was Psalm 119 verse 105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”. It was on occasions like that the drinkers would decide that the name of a horse must be encoded in the words of the verse.

On one occasion the verse was Psalm 119 verse 9. The War Cry seller suggested in answer to the fact there was no race 119 that that was the time of the race. A quick look at the race guide showed there was no race at 1.19pm but the nearest was 1.15. It was decided that it was horse 9 in that race. They had a good laugh and the War Cry seller moved on. Much to his dismay these fellows were waiting for him the next week, telling him at the 1.15 race had started late and horse 9 had won.

Bill was to learn, as many have before him and since, that the Tip for the Race of Life was often a way of opening up conversation and friendship with many of these men. Hotels in Australia are closely linked with sport. In the days before television, each public bar would have a radio (and later a televison) for Saturday afternoon race broadcasts. They would also have an SP Bookmaker, or a bookmaker’s runner who was only too willing to take a pound or two or a dollar or three at the Starting Price. This was highly illegal but most drinkers could find someone who would look after their betting money without much trouble.

The War Cry for the whole of Australia, (both southern and Eastern Territory) is printed in Melbourne, and some drinkers and would be punters have accepted this news gratefully as it gave them some inside knowledge that the tip would be meant for races in Melbourne.

The War Cry “Tip” has been a feature for many years. I am grateful to Andrew Middleton, Assistant to the Archivist at The Salvation Army Australia’s Southern Territory Heritage Centre for the following information:

“In answer to your inquiry about the front page addition to the War Cry "Tip for the Race of Life", I have been able to locate the following:

1940 - nothing

1945 - front page, "Comfort Corner" - with Bible verse, but not in all issues

1947 - front page, "Weekly Wisdom" - Bible verse

1949 (23/7) - on the back page "This Week's Tip for the Race of Life", with Bible verse but without chapter and verse reference

1950 - front page, "This Week's Tip for the race of Life", with Bible verse and reference

1960 - front page, "War Cry Guide", with Bible verse and reference

1964 - front page, "This Week's Tip for the Race of Life", with Bible verse and reference

1968 - front page, "Race of Life - a Tip", with Bible verse and reference

1969 (13/9) - "Tip for the race of Life", with Bible verse and reference

It would appear that the 1949 (23/7) issue marks the start of the Tip for the Race of Life, even though it was on the back page of the War Cry.”

I asked if there was any controversy about the “Tip and Andrew provided the following comment:

“There is no record on our index of the War Cry about any controversy amongst Salvationists when it first appeared in the War Cry. It would take a lengthy search of the Letters to the Editor section (if that existed then) to ascertain that information.

As there were fairly regular minor changes to the War Cry, the change made in 1949 may have gone largely unnoticed by Salvationists.”

It is probably a testimony to the Australian sense of humour that in the official publication of the organisation that is one of the Nation’s greatest opponent of drinking of alcohol and to gambling of any type, that a regular feature is “The Tip”.

The Tip for the Race of Life is certainly is an icebreaker and has opened up many conversations. We all need to pray that while it is an opener of conversation that the truth of the words contained in the text will be used by the Holy Spirit to speak to the minds of men. Let us pray, too, that the Salvationists involved in Pub Booming or Hotel Ministry, as it is fashionable to call it these days, will be used to speak to men and women they meet about the Lord of Life as well as the Race of Life.

We are witnesses for Jesus
In the haunts of sin and shame,
In the underworld of sorrow
Where men seldom hear his name;
For to bind the brokenhearted
And their liberty proclaim,
We are witnesses for Jesus
In the haunts of sin and shame.

Chorus
Tell the world, O tell the world!
Make salvation's story heard
In the highways, in the byways,
And in lands beyond the sea,
Do some witnessing for Jesus
Wheresoever you may be.

We are witnesses for Jesus
In the lands beyond the sea,
Where the millions bound by evil
Have no hope of liberty;
As we tell the gospel tidings,
Lo! the captives are set free;
We are witnesses for Jesus
In the lands beyond the sea.

We are witnesses for Jesus
In the home and in the mart,
Where the cares of life and fashion
Crowd the Saviour from the heart;
When we urge his claims with wisdom
Many choose the better part;
We are witnesses for Jesus
In the home and in the mart.
Author: William Drake Pennick (1884-1944)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 832

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