LONDON BY GASLIGHT.

Inangahua Times, Volume IX, Issue 1350, 18 January 1884, Page 2

LONDON BY GASLIGHT.

.. (San Fbancisco Bulletin.) . The London Census 6f 1881 placed the population within the metropolitan police area at 4,788^ 657. Thuß there | ate packed within 15 miles of a common centre more than double the number lof : people in Denmark, including Greenland; nearly three times as many as in Greece ; three-quarters of a million more than in Holland ; more thau in Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland, and as many, at a rough guess, as are embraced within the ten largest cities of the United States. Naturally, therefore, the fivst "hing that strikes one in the main thoroughfares of London, equally after gaslight as in the rush of the busy day, is the great mass of moving humanity that heaves and surges around you. If the happy custom of keeping to the right did not prevail, * you would have considerable difficulty in making progress. The women you meet will contrast with those you have been accustomed to see oh promenade iv America, favourably. Their upright bearing and sturdy, independent step is far more pleasaile to observe than the stoopy attitude and menacing gait affected by so many of their transatlantic sisters ; nor can one fail to admive the ruddy glow of their complexions. But thftr dress will strike you as being very plain and homely, and in the monotony of plump faces and red cheeks you would be very glad to see a few specimens of the spirtuelle style of beauty with which you are familiar at home. As for the men, you will notice atonce what a large proportion of them smoke .pipes and how very many-, on this star-lit evening, carry . \valking sticks. If it be true, as a col lego professor used to tell his boys, that all who use the latter, articles are lame in either body or mind, what a terribly afflicted nation this must be! But the same obliging manners thai impress the visitor so pleasantly in his shopp : ing expeditions are exhibited by all classes on the streets. If my Lord Lavender or the Marquis of Tweedledum should step on your pet corn, he would be sure to turn and beg your pardon, and the counter skipper who aiight accidently jab out qne of your. eyes with his cane would be certain to do likewise; ' i . . LONDON STREETS AT NIGHT. But come back now to the thoroughfares of London; Don't cbncludej as you would if you were at home, that all who cross from one side to another at irregular intervals are greenies from . the country. If you do you'll condemn the whole lot In point of fact there are no regular crossing places in English cities, excepting such as, in wet weather,, are made with a broom. So, in common with the rest, if anything on the other side attracts your attention — the waggon of the mussel man that stands in the gutter, or the, basket of tempting nouquets carried by that old hag whose appearance does violence to every characteristic of the flower girls with whom painters and poets have made us familiar — stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once and take the shortest cut. You'll find the walking as good generally on the clean, even streets as on smooth sidewalks. CABS AND OMNIBUSES. The rush of traffic through the streets is sustained chiefly by cabs and omnibuses. While tome of the former dash along at the rate that makes them a terror to timid pedestrians, others go empty at a snail's pace close to the edge of the footway. These are " crawlers," on the look out fares. . Stand still for a moment, with face turned towards the street, and the driver of the nearest will touch his hat and rein up, thinking you desire to engage him. And if you are anxious Co get to any place quickly, don't hesitate to do so, for cab-driving is both pleasant and cheap — cheap, even notwithstanding the extortions cabby. may practise upon you as a penalty for being art American. Presiding at the annual dinner of the jCab'-drivers' Benevolent Association not long ago, Lord Wolseley stated that there were in London thirteen thousand cabmen, representing with their familes, a population o£ seventy thousand. He also declared that the number, of articles left in cabs last year, and restored, was nineteen thousand, showing that drivers of these vehicles bo be not only a numerous but a tolerably honest class of citizens^ If you are a little " short* .or are specially iesiro.ua of getting a view of the bhroughfares from an elevated point of abservaiiout giv* the cabs the go-by.

and get oh the top of a 'bus. No danger of being crowded, for "so many inside and so many outside" is the law that regulates these London 'busses, and woe betide the conductor who takes an extra passenger; Conductors and drivers are anxious to have yoa patronise. This is really a matter of bread and butter with. them. Failure on> their part to make their. vehicle popular would result in dismissal, and should the earnings of the day tall below the average, dishonesty would bfl suspected. None the less, however, are their efforts to procure passengers both welcome and useful, and no American would object to seeing their manners copied a little by the same fraternity in his own country. The London omuibuses, it is said,' travel m the year upwards of fifteen mil lion mile 3 and carry more than fifty millions of passengers. THE.Vf.RKS IN LONDON. " Assuming it to be early in the evening, most of the vehicles that dash hithcrandthitherovertliesmootl:i-.reets will be earring their human freight to the different places of amusement The lion's share will find their way to the theattes. There are thirty-six places of this kind in the ny trppo'is, representing an iuv<'stm :;it \y> laud of more than £40,000,000 ; in buildings of more than £25,00(;,000, arid in other property enough tj ;uak« up the gross amount of £ 100,000, <! JO. These theatres regularly employ 10,000 persons, and give employ-men c indireectly to as many more. TUeir aggregate seating capacity is 75,000, and the average attendance each night, as shown by the Lord CiiamHar lain's report, is 51,000. These London theatres have no imposing excoviois and board frontings on the pu lie streets, Space is too previous for that. Witii few exceptions, a nai-rbw eutrance-way, brilliantly illuminated, is all that marks their location, and not a few are positively stuck away in back alleys. But so^ne of them are magnificently fitted up within, and are of immense size. Most of tiie London theatres are conducted by those who seem anxious to make fchatn as respectable as possible. This however cannot be said of the metropolitan music halls. LONDON GIN PALACES AND BARM v IDS. In the streets the air is purer than in the gilded dens, though, if it be getting late, you will see even on the thoroughfares the same evidences of human depravity. Those brilliantlylighted fronts that you observe at short intervals, as the eye sweeps up and down the sidewalk, mark the location of drinking saloons. These London. gin palaces di ;er from those found in American cities, in being more .popular and much more numerous; also, in carvying on their business with less attempt at concealment and i-u being patronised bo largely by women. You need not entf r to learn what is going on inside : a full view cap be had in most cajses through the large windows or half-open doors. Representatives. «f all classes crowd about'the bar, and the drink is served mostly by fair hands that look sadly out of place engaged in such an occupation ! These barmaids of England, what mischief they do (unintentionally, I grant) by adding the laudishments of social chat to the pleasures of tippliug ! aye, and into what shame and sorriwmauy of them are plunged by the vita associations of their calling ! But we must not tarry. Flower women, and those engaged in selling matches, papers, pictures, &cV are familiar objects in the London streets at night. The paper-boy will furnish you anything from the . most respectable evening journal to "The Bag," whose name sufficiently indicates its nature. This sheet has appropriate companions in " The Masher," " The Matrimonial News," an/1 "Town Talk," — a sorry lot, scarcely fie to kindle a fire with. London by night ! How many, as the hours wear on, will find themselves \ houseless and homeless in this city of palaces and mansions! What tragedies its top attics and dark cellars and dismal river banks may witness ! Last year 23 children and 154 adults were entirely lost in this city. How many may be lost to-night ! The waters of the Thames yield • annually from fifty to a hundred bodies that are never identified. How many unknown and unfortunate ones may plunge madly into that black flowing river to-night ! TVo hundred and seventy-four suicides here in the last twelve months and 470 burglaries — nearly all committed, of course, after the sun has gone down. But " the lights of London," which witness so much that is evil and sad, see also not a little that is grand and siihlime. If the outcasts are abroad, so likewise are the Samaritans, and you wiß be peculiarly unfortouate if before your travels to-night are over you do not see some of these iiiviting wanderers to places of refuge, and seeking to win the victims from the error of their ways. f - — • ■