The Letter of the Law
After witnessing a bus conductor’s battle of wills with the London public, journalist Alfred Gardiner felt obliged to give him a little advice.
1918
King George V 1910-1936
After witnessing a bus conductor’s battle of wills with the London public, journalist Alfred Gardiner felt obliged to give him a little advice.
1918
King George V 1910-1936
The conductor of an open-topped bus once told a lady carrying a little dog to take it upstairs, despite the lashing rain. The passengers backed her up, stopped the bus and summoned a constable. The conductor stuck to his position, however, and eventually got his way; but after everyone else had gone home he tried to win a little sympathy from journalist A. G. Gardiner.
“I’VE got my rules,” said the conductor to me when I was the last passenger left behind. He had won his victory, but felt that he would like to justify himself to somebody.
“Rules,” I said, “are necessary things, but there are rules and rules. Some are hard and fast rules, like the rule of the road, which cannot be broken without danger to life and limb. But some are only rules for your guidance, which you can apply or wink at, as common sense dictates like that rule about the dogs. They are not a whip put in your hand to scourge your passengers with, but an authority for an emergency. They are meant to be observed in the spirit, not in the letter — for the comfort and not the discomfort of the passengers. You have kept the rule and broken its spirit. You want to mix your rules with a little good will and good temper.”
He took it very well, and when I got off the bus he said “Good night” quite amiably.
From ‘All About a Dog’, in ‘Leaves in the Wind’, a selection of essays by Alfred George Gardiner (1865-1946), who wrote under the pseudonym ‘Alpha of the Plough.’
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
A bus conductor made a woman sit in the rain. The passengers criticised him. He told Gardiner ‘I’ve got my rules.’
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IDefend. IISympathy. IIIWrath.