The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1867-03-27
What is T,ondon2


about 6, 900, 900 in 1851 to $500, 900 in 861,
and increasing steadily. The Lord Mayor of
London, however, was mortified recently to
last census, only contained little above 1OO,-
600 inhabitants. This was the result of actual
census work made on particular night of all
who slept within the boundaries. It was,
however, considered unfair, and the Mayor
had another estimate made by day, from
which it appears that in every twenty four
hours there are, on An average, 723, 1856 per-
sons within the old city limits. In twelve
hours, $40 ,613-283, $50 being the number
of day residents in the city doing business,
renting houses, shops, or rooms, or regularly
working there themselves. At five o'clock,
the provision men are congregating. Between
eight and twelve, the mercantile classes arrive,
and leave between four and six; some stop
till nine, while at night on about 100, 600
sleep in the city to take care of the property.
To estimate all this is work Of great difficulty.
The number of inhabitants Of the city proper
and in fact of all our cities depends more than
anything else on the hour of the day or night
In laying taxes it does not dot is not fair
to go by the night census, embracing only
those who regularly sleep in the city. Equally
wide of the mark would it be to take the day
census instead of the night, including all the
day casuals who daily enter the city, but live
to the number of hundreds of thousands, and
more than half, beyond the limits even of the
Board of Metropolitan Works. Three hundred
thousand is, perhaps fairly considered the
number of inhabitants of the city proper, or
London Town, as it used to be bounded in the
days of walls and gates. But after all, what
is this to the fact that before many years that
metropolis will probably number four millions
Though Tacitus is among the first writers who
distinctly mention London, yet before Julius
Caesar invaded Britain this was an old town,
and now is growing more rapidly than ever in
numbers, in wealth, and in trade that is ex-
tending to the ends of the earth. 1t is city
full of abuses and corruptions, but as each
becomes threatening and iptolerable nuisance,
the authorities go to work and make clean
sweep of the whole, as they are now doing
With its old sewerage system, which used to
empty into the Thames. Never was the
chance of life longer in that city than it is
now. Nor was the city financially so strong
In its Gazette it can publish weekly the names
of hundred bankrupts, and yet the city
grows. Banks and companies that have stood
for one hundred years explode, and yet the
100000 citizens of London proper form a nu-
cleus around which three millions gather and
do a business which, for strength of capital
and character and real power, not only ex-
eeeds that of ancient Rome in her highest
/ glory, but of any other city the world has yet
seen.
The source of all this strength, however, is
the country that supports it. Its wealth, man
ufactures, mines and agriculture make the
centre strong in proportion. This being the
case, and our country being SO strong in these
elements, it requires no great wisdom to fore
see that this country must, at no very distant
day, have cities as large, strong and wealthy as
London. There will be no one or two great
centres of trade and capital that will by de-
grees draw both away from London. A more
extended country, with rapid accumulation of
inhabitants, more equally diffused wealth
must ever make exchange more frequent and
capital more remunerative while employed,
and few centres large and strangely in pro-
portion.
WRITING ON IcE-A New MoDE-A Paris
correspondent Of London paper writes, apro-
pos of the recent ice fete on the lake in the
Bots de Boulogne: An invention, that of
cutting messages upon the ice, renewed from
the days of Sophie Arnold and the Chevalier
de Lauragnas, was adopted with immense
success at the torehlight scene by the Laurag
nais of the present day, a gay and gallant hero
of the Boulevards light in heart, light in head,
and light in pocket, like his great prototype,
having introduced it with immense effect by
wheeling and whirling around one of our
fashionable deties until he had made her COM
prehend that he had a great wish to be invited
to her box at the Italiens on the next night of
performance. The lady, who is quick in in
telIect, understood the somewhat dimly execu-
ted demand, and flew off in a series Of hero
his own, by which to let him know that he
could not be received, as the familiers of her
box were all in town. OF course the maneuver
got soon known among the bystanders, and
once known grew to be initiated by the skaters.
Thus were most animated and epigrammatic
conversations carried on for some time, many
full Of darkness and mystery, especially when
the relative position of the writers was consd-
cred easier to understand than to explain.
Lauragnais's appeal to Sophie Arnold was
brief and concise. Skating as science was
in its infancy in those days, and although
considered the most skllltul OF all the young
courtiers about Marie Antoinette, his knowl
edge of the art confined him to the simple
Language of the negroes. Where? when,
and how to talk But it answered the pur-
pose admirably, for Sophie, light as a bird and
intelligent as fairy, Immediately skinned
over the ice, cutting as she went. Now here"
and in C bon Francas," which latter express
sion is understood to this day to mean the Ian
guage which is comprehensive in all countries
bank notes and louis d ors. But in our day
we have grown quicker in action and slower in
speech than at that time, and are obliged to
perform all kinds of revolutions before we can
make ourselves understood, and some of the
arabesques on the ice the other night were pro-
nounced utterly meaningless by some and too
ineligible by Others <...
An exchange states that among the new
devices of the day are paper pantalets for la
dies. A company has been organized at Me-
chanics Falls, Maine, to manufacture borders