The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-12-17
London the Great.


In few cities are there more than half
a dozen railway stations. In London
there are Mt least one hundred and fifty. |
Some of the railways never pass beyond
the limits, and Of one, the Tottenham
and Hampstead, Punch says: NO one
ever travels by, as no one knows where 1t
begins or where it ends" The Metro
politan and other intramural railways
run trains every three or five minutes,
and convey from twenty to fifty millions
of passengers annually. Chapman is the
great southwestern junction, and through
it seven hundred trains pass every day.
Its platforms are so numerous, and its
underground passages and overground
bridges 80 perplexing, that to find the
right train is one of those things "that
no fellow can understand" AS proof
of the expansive nature of London traffic,
it was supposed that, when the Metro
politan Railway was opened, all the city
to Paddington omnibuses would be run
of the ground; but, although it carried
fofty-three millions of passengers last
year, it was found necessary to increase
the number of omnibuses on the southern
route, and they yield one per cent. more
revenue than before the opening of the
railway.
Besides the railways, there are some
fourteen or fifteen thousand tram-cars,
emnibuses and cabs traversing the streets;
there are lines of omnibuses known only
to the inhabitants of their own localities
such as those across the Isle of Dogs,
from Poplar to Milwall from London
bridge, along Tooley street to Dockhead,
etc. The London Omnibus Company
have five hundred and sixty-three Omni-
buses, which carry sc, 600, 900 of passengers
annually.
1t is more dangerous to walk the streets
of London than to travel by railway or
cross the Atlantic. Last year one hun
dred and twenty-five were killed, and
two thousand five hundred and thirteen
injured by vehicles in the streets.
Surprising every individual man, woman
and child made one journey on foot in
London per diem, which is considerably
above the average, the deaths would be
one in eleven millions, while the rail-
ways only kill about one in fifty millions
of passengers, and the Cunard Company
of Atlantic steamers boast of having never
lost passenger.
Other instances of the immensely of the
population of London, are that three
quarters of million of business men
enter the city in the morning and leave
it in the evening for their suburban resi-
dences. There are ten thousand police
men, as many cab drivers, and the same
number of persons connected with the
pOstoffice, each of whom, with their
families, would make a large town. When
London makes holiday, there are sew.
eral places of resort, such as the Crystal
Palace, the Geological gardens, Kew gar
dens, ETC., which absorb from thirty to
fifty thousand visitors each. The cost of
gas for lighting is f2,5OO,O 900 annually;
the water supply is one millions of gal
Ions per diem. In the year 1873, there
were five hundred and seventy-three fires;
and for the purpose of supplying infor-
nation on the passing events of the day,
three hundred and fourteen daily and
weekly newspapers are required.
What London will eventually become
it is idle to predict. 1t already stands in
four counties, and is striding on to fifth
(Herts). The probability is that by the
end of the century, the population will
exceed five millions, and will have
quintupled itselfin the century. Should
, it progress at an equal rate in the next,
it will in the year 1000 amount to the
enormous aggregate of twenty-five mil
lions; and the question that naturally
arises is how could such multitude be
supplied with food. But the fact is the
more its population increases the better
they are fed. In the Plantagenet days
, when the population was not third Of a
million, famines were of frequent occur
renee, but now, with the command of the
, pastures, the harvests, and the fisheries OF
the world, starvation becomes an almost
{ impossible eventuality even with the
, twenty-five millions of mouths to feed
: London City Press.