Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1895 — GLIMPSE OF LONDON. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GLIMPSE OF LONDON.

CHAPTER ON THE SCENES AND DOINGS IN A VAST CITY. 11 The Underground Bailway, the Omni' bus, the Bridges, and the Park Bys*«m—“ Helugees” in Busy Streets— Police Are Known as “ Bobbies,” Etc. Sights in a Big Town. London is,Celebrated for the fog that enrelops it in an impenetrable veil during the oold months. In summer occasionally there is sunshine, and even if Old Sol persists in hiding there is a clear atmosphere that makes traversing its streets an agreeable pastime. But with December arrives the season of fogs, of gas lamps burning every hour of the twentyfour and other discomforts arising from a

hazy atmosphere that borders between darkness and light. And there are degrees in this atmospheric condition as there are In pretty much everything'else. There is the black fog. the bottle-green, the yel-low-green and the white mist. The black Is the most dreaded and fortunately tho most rare. The vapor takes on a dark hue and transforms the glare of midday into the blackness of night It brings the activities of a mighty city to a standstill, makes outdoor movement perilous and renders invisible the hand held an inch from the eye. While it continues horses have to be led by torch-bearers and pedestrians have recourse to lanterns to proceed on their way. The last time London groped

it* way through black fog was in 1880, and before It lifted over 200 persons were killed or maimed by collisions in the streets. The bottle-green fog is a familiar visitor. It shuts from view objects 200 feet distant anil effectually obscures the sun. It also necessitates the burning of artificial light during tho day and the slowing down of horses in crowded thoroughfares. The third is the yellow-green fog that makes the pedestrian step cautiously if he would avoid contact with the

fellow going in the opposite direction. This haze makes the street gas lights look like pin heads with a corresponding reduction in illnminating power. White mist completes the variety and is more in evidence than any of the others, and the least annoying. Singularly enough, these fogs do not rise more than 200 feet above the ground and from the top of the dome of St. Paul the city is hidden from sight by the vapor that enshrouds it. The duration of fogs vary. A few hours of sunlight are sufficient to dissipate some of them; again they last a fortnight. The most depressing are those caused by the west wind, which conveys the smoke from the burning of soft coal from a million chimneys to the eastward in a long train sometimes extending thirty miles. Suddenly the wind changes and this vast volume of smoke is driven back over the city, where, reinforced by that emitted from tho chimneys, settles over and constitutes the greatest drawback to living in the city.

The Underground. The metropolitan or underground railroad answers for rapid transit and bears the relation to London that the elevated occupies to New York. The speed is about the same, but here the resemblance ceases. In London you enter a dingy and filthy station from the street, buy your ticket and make your descent to the platform below over dirty, stairs to the waiting rooms, which are chilly, ill-smell-ing and so dark that gas has to be burned all day. The odor of smoke is very much in evidence and you feel a sense of relief as the lighted bull's eye in the locomotive rounds the curve and the train comes to a halt. Then the smoke from the engine fills the station and as you enter the compartment you quickly close the door to save being suffocated. It is so thick you can scarcely discern a person through the glass partition on the doorway. While one fare gives you. the best on the elevated, you must choose from three classes on the underground. The best is much inferior to the elevated, and the atmosphere between smoke and the foul-smelling lamps that furnish a sickly light is anything but agreeable. You have a minute service in rapid transit in New York; on the underground you have a train every five miuutes. On the elevated yon have clean' cars, open the entire length, and daylight as long as it lasts —not cooped up in narrow and uncleanly compartments as in Loadon. The smoke nuisance, however, is the most objectionable, as it is ever present on. the journey. The stations are in long tunnels and you are hardly out in the open before the train plunges into another subterranean cavern so that the cars make breathing uncomfortable at all times. This preveptg. the asthmatic from using the railway. Until electricity or sojne other propelling force is substituted for coal the smoke objection will prevent the road realizing all that its projectors intended. The underground has no connection with the roads built beneath the Thames and which have never returned its owners anything owing to the smoke that filled the cars in transit. There are two tunnels below the river, the last one built a few years ago. The Bridges. The bridges that span the Thames are massive and the builders meant that a dozen.centuries should elapse before they would crumble. The river is three-eighths *J * Spile wide in London and the cost of feridgtctg it’has been enormous. The vehicles am closely packed on these viaducts

pretty much allday and the tramp of 200,■606 pedeetrijaiy fit hours across some orthem make a 'very spirited picture, the like of which is not to be encountered elsewhere. London bridge is the best known and most used; Blackfriars comes next. At 7 o’clock in the morning and at 6 in the erenihg they are jammed with vehicles and the passage-

ways crowded with hurryiDg toilers to and from work. TSfc tq*ms are three abreast going and comiagl' dnd the refugee—the rounded stone six-inch elevation in the roadway with uprights to keep off the horses—is of inestimable value in crossing, the wide approaches to the bridges. Until these refugees were instituted it was not uncommon to kill a person a day at these spaces, and the mortality was increased by those run down attempting to cross the congested streets. Thus it was that London sacrificed more lives annually than those who perished crossing the Atlantic. Tho refugee and the ordinance enforced by the police, stopping conveyances at intersecting streets every two minutes, until the crowds on the sidewalks had passed safely over the roadway, make life and limb tolerably secure in these busy highways.

The most pretentious thing on wheels in London is the omnibus. It answers the purpose of a street car and it has advantages over the car. It takes you aboard and discharges you at the curbstone, thus doing away with the danger of being run over by having to enter or leave a public conveyance in the middle of the street, as is the case in Faris and New York. A circular stairway leads to the roof, and here a dozen travelers can be comfortably accommodated and enjoy a very interesting ride. This is not to be had" in American cities. The people one meets on this portable observatory are agreeable and anxious to impart ipformation to the inquiring. You are above the perils, of the roadway and from the vantage point can study the life of this the greatest of cities satisfactorily. During pleasant weather the seats are eagerly sought by tourists, and, if Americans, ply with questions the Londoner found sharing the elevation.

The busses overtop everything on wheels, are gaudily painted in yellow, blue and red, and are bespattered with advertisements. They give a color jiih} impressiveness to street life that him tio counterpart in American cities. They are found in great number on Fleet afreet and the Strand, along which they form an unbroken lino from Ludgate Circus to Trafalgar square. Stations aro located at every four blocks and the bus is standing in front of them the conductor lustily shouts the points where his chariot runs in the endeavor to secure passengers. The fare is cheap—a penny for less than a mile—and when the coin is passed to the Conductor he hands back a punched ticket, which is cast away, as it is no good to the recipient or giver. The Londoners are so attached to the bus that they will never part with it. The roadways are so narrow and so crowded that street cars would add to the rather than lessen it. Only a few lines are in operation, and these are twb-story affairs on wide thoroughfares aWay from the rush and roar of the mighty city. The Park System. The stretches devoted to parks are a surprise to the American looking over the city for the first time. Hyde Park, set vdown in the heart of tho town, covers 400

acres. If it were cut up into building lots it would yield more than a thousand million dollars. No special pains are taken to add to its natural beauties, and the grass and the benches have a neglected look. The serpentine, lake in its center contributes to its picturesque beauty. Regent’s has 50 more acres than Hyde. Richmond Park, the largest, has 2,470 acres—three times that of Central Park, New York. Victoria Park has 244 acres, the Battersea 198 and the Kew Gardens 170. None of them compares with Central Park in beauty, whether it be natural or artificial, but they provide breathing areas for the millions, and any encroachment upon them would arouse a growl from the people that would deterj tho staunchest from undertaking their abridgement. London is unique in insisting that'drivers shall keep to the left while traveling its streets. And for fear that the heedless might forget it standards are erected in the middle of thayihadway Worn a projecting arm of which are displayed the words: “Keep to the left.” To '.go contrary to this would block the highway and land the offender in prison. London is alone in the enforcement of the rule; even the crowds on the sidewalk keep to the left in forging ahead. The Refugee. The refugee is fe sort of an island ia the middle of a street or square to enable

pedestrians J?y degree*, to OHyMH*ty. There Is so much driving that one has to keep his eyes peeled to take advantage of a lull to gain the refugee. There he await* a second chance to make the sidewalk bq is aiming for. Sometimes minutes go by before the opportunity comes and oh gals occasions ten minutes are consumed before venture No. 2is undertaken. But a minute or two ordinarily brings the required chance. On Trafalgar square there ate two refugees intervening between sidewalks, as several streets unite here and the crossing is most dangerous. One of the sights of thd town is the diminutive chap employed to clean the streets. lie is usually 8 years old and is armed with a bag and brush to gather up the refuse that defaces the roadway. This chap will take his place in the middle of the street and will pursue his work unmindful of the dangers that surround him. The wheels are passing within an inch of his body, but so careful are tho drivers and so alert the brave little fellow that he escapes injury. Sometimes you would imagine he would be crushed as he disappears in the jam, but a moment later he reappears doing bis work the same as if death did not hover about him. In X’ew York the open circles are called squares; when you reach Italy they are denominated piazzas; in London they arej known as circuses. Strangers, for the, most part, are misled by this designation when they first arrive in London. Ask, directions to a firm doing business in thei vicinity of these areas and you are told iti adjoins Ludgate circus, or Oxford circus,, or Picadilly circus. At once you head' for one of these, expecting to find the party desired adjoining a tented exhibition. But you look in vain for the circular canvas roof with supporting projecting poles rising one above the other. After inquiries that make yon vexatious you find that the circus that does business every minute in the year in London is nothing more than the diametrical space where half a dozen streets intersect and has neither clown nor ringmaster unless the policetpan can be counted as such.

Bobbies. The uniformed guardians of the law in England are known ns bobbies and in Ireland as peelers. The nicknames come from Sir Robert Peel, who acted respectively as secretary of Ireland and home secretary of England. Under his administrations he reorganized the police contingent of these countries and made them a formidable body of civilian soldiery. From 1812 to 1818 ho held power in Ire-, land, and displayed a vindictiveness to Catholics that made him detested. O’Connell called him an Orange Peel and taunted him so that he challenged the Irish statesman to a duel, which the police prevented. So the latter were dubbed peelers, which they retain to this day. As home secretary he overhauled the police in 1826 and made it a much more efficient body. Up to this time they were known as Charlies—from King Charles 1., who, improved the system he found in 1640—• and they were afterwards known as bobbies, which grew from Robert. A monument is erected to Peel’s memory near a spot where he was thrown from his horse in Hyde Park and received fatal injuries June 28, 1850.

THE REFUGEE IN A BUSY HIGHWAY.

A LONDON OMNIBUS.

THE FAR-FAMED LONDON BRIDGE.

THE JUVENILE STREET SWEEPER.