Des Moines courier. ([Ottumwa] Iowa) 1848-1854, 1850-07-05
as fruitful in good consequences!
Hogg's Weekiy Instructor
London mt Night.

London mt Night.
Thos who have only seen London in
the day time, with its floods of life pour
ing through its arteries to its restless
heart, do not know it in its grandest as
pect. 1t is no, the noise and roar Of the
cataract Of commerce pouring through
i,aIstreets, nor in its forest of ships, nor
in its vast docks ,and warehouses, that
its true solemnity is to be seen. To be-
hold it in its greatest sublimity, it must
be contemplated at night, afar off, from
an eminence. The noblest prospect in
the world, it has been said, is London,
viewed from the suburbs on clear
winters evening-the stars are shining
in the heavens, but there is another firm
ament spread out below, with its millions
Of bright lights glittering at our feet
Line after line sparkles, like the trails
lett by meteors, cutting and crossing one
another till they are lost in the haze of
the distance. Over the whole there
hangs lurid cloud, bright brigh. as if
the monster city were in flames, ard
looking sfar off like the sea by night,
made phosphorescent by the million
creatures dwelling within it. AT night
it is that the strange anamolies Of Lon
don are best seen. Then, as the hum
of life ceases, and the shops darken, and
the gaudy gin places thrust out their
ragged and squallid crowds 10 pace the
streets, London puts on its most solemn
look of all. On the benches Of the
parks, in the inches of the bridges, and
in the litter of the markets are huddlcd
together the homeless and the destitute.
The only living things that haunt the
streets are the poor wretches who stand
.hivering in their fnery waiting to catch
the crunkard as he goes homeward.
Here on doorstep. crouches some shoe
less child, whose days begging has not
brought il enough to purchase it even the
two-penny bed that its young compan-
ions in beggary have gone to. There,
where the stones are taken up and piled
high in the road, and the gas streames
from tall pipe in the centre of the
streets, in flag of flame--there, round
the red glowing cock fire, are grouped a
ragged crowd, smoking or dozing thro'
the night beside it. Then, as the streets
grow blue with the coming light, and the
church spires and the chimney tops
stand ont against the sky with a sharp
ness Of outline that is seen only in Lon
don, before its million fires cover the
town with their pail of smoke-ihen
come sauntering forth the unwashed
poor. some with greasy wallets on their
backs, to hunt over each dirt heap, and
exc out life by searching refused bones,
or stray rags or pieces of old iron. OH
ers. on their way to their work. are gath
cred at the corner of the street round the
breakfast stall. and blowing saucers of
steaming coffee, drawn from tall TIN cans,
with the fire shining crimson through the
holes beneath; while already the little
slatiern girl, with her basket slang before
her, screames watercresres through the
sleeping streets.
Yet who, to see the squalor and
wretchedness Of London by night. would
believe that twenty-nine only of the
LuuuOu uouAChS uoNC CiCdtCus butOuSu
their banking houses, as much as nine
hundred and 6fty-four million pounds
sterling in one year, the average being
more than three millions Of money daily
--nr that the loans of merely one house
in the city throughout the year, exceed
thirty millions! We could have visited
the rookery Of ST. Giles, as it existed
but few months back. and have seen the
unutterable denominations of this retreat
Of wretchedness, this nest of disease, al
once the nurse and sanctuary OF vice.
where in one house alone, Mr.. Smirk
tells us, were huddled together eleven
men, thirteen women and thirty children
--here as many as sixty of the foulest
of the London Lazzaroni often sleep in
the same abode; who could witness this
want and wretchedness, and ye. believe
that this country .is the bank for the
whole world. as the late M. Roihschild
called il ih 1892; or that sall transactions
in India, in China, in Russia, and indeed
in every other empire. are guided and
settled i'll this city. Morning Chronicle