Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1875 — The Dull Season in London. [ARTICLE]

The Dull Season in London.

A London correspondent says: “The dull season in London is nearly over and the great city will shortly awaken from its annual siesta. Dwellers in American cities can form no idea of the absolutely forlorn and dismal appearance of some parts of London during the off season. The business regions of the East which center around the Bank of England do not show so visible a difference, but among the fashionable localities of the West End the change effected in a few • weeks is marvelous. The great clubhouses which line one side of Pall Mali are as silent and deserted as the ruins of Pompeii. A glance within reveals bare walls and uncarpeted rooms, while the costly furniture, enshrouded in dingy white drapery, is piled together in confused heaps.' The sentinels in tfce yard of St. James’ Palace yawn involuntarily as they pace up and down upon their posts, and St. James street, beyond, soon again to be tilled with throngs of carriages on “ drawing-room" days and other occasions, now echoes to the voice of a club waiter exchanging civilities with a cabman on the other side of the way. Westward through Piccadilly the human tide has dwindled down to a tiny stream of people whose necessities compel them to remain in town all the year round. The parks are brown and dusty; grim King Coal has won his yearly victory over Dame Natuyg, and his grimy hands have sullied the purity of her face. Rotten Row is empty, its gay cavalcade has vanished and a few grooms exercising the horses of their masters now monopolize the stately avenues of Hyde Park. The mansions which fringe the parks are like tlie few servants who inhabit them—out of livery—while their owners are to be found at every spa and watering-place in Europe seeking a new supply of health and energy for the coming winter. Around the Parliament Houses at Westminster the stillness is only broken by the measured tramp of a- policeman, and the owls might find refuge in the gray towers of the adjacent abbey if quietness was the only requisite. Through all white-fronted Belgravia the streets are as silent as the grave and it is necessary to penetratg far toward the western suburbs before the dwellings show signs of inhabitants.”