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DIAMONDS TO SIT ON

An effigy of Austen Chamberlain in a top-hat was carried down the street, and a worker with a hammer in his right hand was beating the hat on which was written ; ‘ The League of Nations Three members of the League of Communist Youth, dressed in evening dress and wearing white gloves, drove past in a motor-car. They looked uncomfortable. ‘ Bourgeois I ’ came a voice from the pavement. ' Throw us your braces ! ’ The procession was moving towards the new tram depot. Promptly at one o’clock the first Stargorod electric tram was to come out of its shed. Scarcely any one could remember when the idea of having electric trams in Stargorod had first started. Some time in 1922 a few workmen came and dug holes in the principal street. They made a number of large, deep holes, and a man wearing an engineer’s cap walked to and fro, followed by a few men who measured out the ground. A week later they were still working in the same place. Holes had been made where they were not required and they had to be filled in again. The engineer shouted at the workmen and demanded an explanation. Then fresh holes were dug, deeper still and wider. Bricks were brought and the brick­ layers came to lay the foundation. Gradually every­ thing quietened down and the work stopped. The engineer came occasionally to look at the foundations and to examine the holes, which had been lined with bricks. He would tap the foundations with his walking stick and then walk away again. The engineer’s name was Treukhov. The construction of the tramway stopped with the foundations. Treukhov had thought out the project as far back as 1912, but the Town Council had turned it down. Two years later Treukhov again tried to per­ suade the council to take up his scheme, but the War interfered. Then after the War there was the Revo­ lution, and after the Revolution there was the New