Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1873-06-30


COurie-- Journal, IL writing letters from London,
and more dissatisfied man You don't often see.
he rakes down the Britishers In q way calcu-
lated 30 pay of our Indebtedness to Bash Hall,
Msrryat, Trollope, Dickens, and the rest of
our defamers, with compound interest and a
tonus over. The London Sunday he declares
to be too dismal for anything. All the wicked
people go out OF town to enjoy themselves on
Sunday, and there are not enough good people
EFT to give any show Of life to the city. Louis
vile Is livelier than London on Sunday.
There is not well-ordered and fairly equipped
barber shop in all London. A clean shave is
simple butchery. The BARRIERS excuse thcm-
selves on the score that they have 50 little prac-
tce. The nobility, they say, are shaved at
home; the gentry and plain people shave them
selves None but Americans need a barber.
The English fistter themselves that they are
the best travellers. and that they have the best
conducted lines Of travel In the world; vet there
Is no such thing as a baggage check used on any
OF the railways in England? You get no guar
antee whatever for your baggage. IL is your
business TO see IL on the cab, TO see it to the
depot; to see IT aboard the train. Then it is
your business to get it again at the end of the
journey.
The English women, Mr.. watterson rather
ungallantly declares, are the poorest dressers
In Europe; and Yet English society is singularly
exacting. A lady goes to . common ballad con-
cert at st. James Hall, happens to wear a light
Paris bennett, and Is required to take it off in
dressing room, paying the waiting-woman six
pence TO keep 1t, before she Is allowed to take
the seats she has paid for. She goes in and finds
the hall filed with scrubby, addressed women,
each having a bit of ribbon stuck to her hair
and each considering herself IN full dress. OF
course no gentleman Is admitted at Covent
Garden or Drury Lane without a swallow tailed
coat and white erayat; nor then until he has
paid sixpence to a bag who turns down his seat
for him or opens the door of a box. Go where
you will this petty tax is encountered. Why?
Because the country is too full of people and
living has to be got at for the overplus in some
way.
elf a London cabby cheats you out of six
If he does you for half a crown, he feels proud
OF himself, Of his vocation, and OF his country.
A pretty bar-maid swindIed me out of a hap
penny on glass OF sherry the other day, and L
saw JOY unspeakable beam out OF her lovely
thieving eyes, as / turned away, and she felt
sure OF having bsgged her plumber They do
their robbery on a small scale. In London a
penny Is a Big thing. 1 asked an oysterman 10
open me dozen Of his oysters. "a dozen sir?''
says he. EYES, said, "a dozen" "Do you
know, cir, says he, "what they cost?" mo
said i, 81 don't; what do they. cost?'' Then,
rather Mechanically, he said: Two ami
eightpenee When 1 had eaten the oysters
counter. and could hardly realize that the
transaction was genuine"
Amusements in London are much more ex-
pensive than they are with US, aud not very
much better. first-class seat to hear Patti or
Nilsson costs guinea, five dollars in gold. You
can get frst-elass seat at none Of the rst-class
theaters for less than ten shillings, two dollars
and half.
Mr.. Watterson also finds fault with the politi-
cal season 10 Is dull. A tanner affair than the
great Hyde Park reunion Of workingmen can
scarcely be conceived. "The speech of Mr.
Odger, the orator and chiefof the Trades Union.
was simply laughable. The Times speaks Of him
as man Of ability and power He is, in fact
wretehed little scare crow, with a weak voice
and stammer. II Bob Gilchriest would come
over here he would raise himself to credit and
renown at once with the English workingmen.
He would become both their leader and their
peaker."
And this is the way Mr. watterson goes stalk
ing about with irreverent tread in the land that
ave Us Shakespeare, Milton, magma charta,
the INCOME tax, HInglish hale, and the Ala
hama claims