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THE UNKNOWN FACTOR.

GRANDSON OF SIR JNO.I LLEWELYN.

I MEMORIAL AT PORT ! EYNON.…

THE WATCH D'OG. I

COST OF PRINTING. I

I ! GERMAN COM-I MANDER IN…

IWRECK OFF 'COMBE.I

I ACCIDENT IN 1913. I

£8 WORTH OF MATCHES

I STOPPED -THE -TRAIN.I

IHORSE FEED FROM GLYN-NEATH.…

PEEPS INTO PAST AND FUTURE.

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PEEPS INTO PAST AND FUTURE. A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE. We hear a lot of talk about old Swan- sea," said my mate from the trawler. but what about the new Swansea, that's what we all want to look forward to? You don't expect a new town in your tiiiie? I asked, tapping my pipe upon my heel and looking up at the silent Exchange clock dial. For if you do yon won't see t. Towns are not like mushrooms, however much they are supposed to be. And with a new Swansea. of the future the people will be ju.st the same." Yes, I suppose if we came back after 100 years we should be mixing with just the same types. Some with and more without, money being the dividing line between the goats and the sheep." People," I replied, do not alter in type in centuries, and if is most probable t h. the people in Swansea, 500 years ago, would pretty exactly correspond with those to-day, though habits and customs olli(i be different, and they would be differently clothed. The clothing would be rougher and coarser; beards then would be more general (shaving is a gpmparatively modern iuxurv for the masses of the people); round caps and plaits would be seen more on the heads the women folk would certainly then wear shawl? more, a.nd tb<> children would 00 distinguished more by the smock type of clothes, with probably more bare feet." Swansea, has <baasred since thoh-P times? I Echoes of the Past. I ) 3s and no. The town sprung from a, little fishing village though the early Nor- mans Boon yaw its strategic importance as the key to (wer wherein unruly briber were frequently at war. Have you ever seen that miniature cemetery at Parkmill. where the bones of hundreds lie, having probably beaten one another to death with clubs and stone hammers? The division line in Gower i ne I.- i i (-,o.wer to-da<y is clearly defined by Cefn Bryn. Gates were erected, one at the end of Castle- street and High-street, another in Wassail- square, with the postern by the Castle. The town grew by degrees, but up to 80 years ago it had altered little from the 13t,h cen- tiiry. Why, Councillor Protheroe's mother, who died only a few years ago, remembers a woman sitting beside a little round table in the middle of TempJe-street (by Ben Evans' corner) and selling her wares." "But what about the Swansea of the future?" asked my mate, apprehn-'ive of 9 o'clock approaching. "I don't expect you will see great. changes for fifty years," I replied. People who leave the town and come back in ten Vears can always see more changes than those who have never stirred from the place, but you must remember that things that haven't really altered look as though they had by, reason, perhaps, of a new building near by, or a small street widening by. Towns grow like individuals, slowly; you can't say when a lad reaches manhood and you can't say when a town alters. But it does. High- street to-day has only a few buildings it had 100 years age. You can't imagine the old low thatched cluster of shops round about the bottom of the present High-street, with the eaves so low that a tall man cculd touch them COIlId .? The Town Wall and Town Ditch. I And wasn't there the town wall then?" "There was; it ran round Watertoo- street to the churoh, and probably across back into Wind-street, with the town ditch where Salubrious-passage now stands—henoe its title. But this is old Swansea. As to the new, I should expect many things in a, hundred years from now." "The streets would be the same?" Certainly, the present streets are the old winding paths—grown, of course—of a thou- sand years agp. The Nea-th-road and the Carmarthen-road, High-street and Wind- street, are pitted with the marks of mules when ooal used to be brought on pack-horse to the sailing craft at the docks. This is comparatively modern. Picture your I)ow-V men, and before them your axe-men, in search of fruitful fields by an ah un oa.nl water supply always readv to figtht and wrest from the earth's lair po; ess ions. They came along the formation of the pre- sent main streets. Note the G. W.R. line to the west of Swansea; it practically fol- lows the old Norman load, and the latter was super-imposed on tho native winding paths. "Swansea's streets axe proverbially nar- row?" are, with very small pavement accommodation, and this at once strikes strang ers. It seems to suggest a not over large population previously, and an absence of considerable traffic. You wdl find much larger pavements in the future, wherever possible. I think you will see, say this time next century, a great boulevard stretching through College-street, Gowor-street, North- ampton-piace a.nd St. Helen's-road to the Sands. Tiiii wiiVi be widely paved, with all the gardens and forecourts in the way thrown m, and prooably the congested parte of those thoroughfares set back con- siderably. What about Oxford-street?" "I should not be surprised to see the boulevard I have mentioned taking premier place. I don't think oxford-street will see great changes, though the Market dead walls will all be shops, with, perhaps, a great meeting hall, which Swansea so badly needs, on its site. The seashore will have largely been improved." i The -Mumbles Road, How can you get over the L. and N. W. Railway?" By bringing it in a tunnel, which it would dip into just out of Victoria Station, emerging agctin just beyond Mumbles-road station. The municipal centre will be gathered round the civic buildings in Vic- toria Park, where you will see a fine pavilion. And a pier at the lip?" "I don't think so what is the good of a pier with such a dead level at low water? No, you will find all the Mumbles-road (on the land side) built upon, through Blackpill and West Cross, and the Singleton Estate will be given over to villadom. There will be fine roads leading to the Sands, and the; Swansea Pier will have had some part of its old-time popularity restored. Town Hill will, of course, have developed into a. model city, with tramways capable of carrying horses and carts on platforms. We shall have even more cinemas, but these will be largely for instruction purposes for young and old; people will wonder then why we didn't in the great war seek to understand the situation better by studying giant maps at public places with dissertations upon the prominent movements. And then along by the present Swansea Bay Station you .will see a great open swimming bath, and at the Mumbles you will see the tra.ms running over the centre of a luxuriant boulevard, while at Langland there will he permanent chalets j run by the District Council for use of visitors in both sunshine and winter." The Heart of the Town. • As to the centre of the good old town? You will find Wind-street ranking next to Castle-street for architecture, and you wiill find the rookeries around the Parish Chiireh still further swept away, with a good alioce that people ran have free access to arid plenty of sfats. You will find, too. m the centre o; the town, llumhel's of flats, arranged conveniently in buildings wtUeh will be ornamental and have a great deal in common—heating, a 'antral kitchen, etc. There will be an imposing now G.W.R. station, mowd slightly further away from High-street, allowing a great street improve- ment between the Paiaoe, stretching to the lower part of High-street, by Lewis's cor- ner. Carmarthen-road and Neath-road will by then have been rebuilt very iarjrely, thero wiD be ? bridge in pla?e of the ferry across from the Hafod to Cpper Bank, and the great banks at L:mdore and Pentrechwyth I have been swept away h?Ving b?cn rendered commercially profitable for use. Pkamarl's broad highway wiiil have extended into Swansea."

THE COFFEY COOLER.1

I COMPULSION BilL. ! — ___.…

HER CREW WAS THIRTEEN!

THE ccDAILY POST" . TOURNAMENT.

-Band of the " Pioneers,"

"VERY CREDITABLE THING."

SWANSEA SOLDIER- - j HUSBAND'S…

BROWN-WILLIAMS.,

MUMBLES LIFEBOAT I -MUMSLIFEBOATSLI;I'I

I COMPULSION BilL. ! — ___.…