The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1875-02-24
MISCELLANY.
rHE GREATNESS oFLoNDoN.

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In few cities are there more than half
dozen railway stations. In London there are
at least 100. Some Of the railways never pass
beyond its 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 endss' The Metropolitan and other
intramural railways run trains every three or
five minutes and convey from twenty to nifty
millions of passengers annually. Chaplain is
the great Southwestern junction, and TOO
trains pass through it every day. Its plat
forms are so numerous and its underground
passages and overground bridges SO perplex-
ing, that to find the right train on changing,
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 Metropolitan Railway was opened,
all the City of Paddington omnibuses would
be run off the ground, but although it carried
forty millions of passengers last year, it
has been 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 railways.
Besides the railways, there are some four
teen or fifteen thousand tram cars, omnibuses
and cabs traversing the streets there are
lines of omnibuses known only to the inhabi-
tants of their own localities--such as those
cross the Isle of Dogs from Poplar to Milwall;
from London Bridge, along Tooley street to
Dockhead, &c. The London Omnibus Com
pany have 563 omnbuses, which carry fifty
millions of passengers annually.
1t is more dangerous to walk the streets of
London than to travel by railway or cross the
Atlantic. Last year 1875 persons were killed,
and 2,513 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 railways only kill about one in fifty
millions Of passengers, and the Cunard Com
pa1y Of Atlantic steamers beast Of never hay
ing lost passenger.
Other instances of immensely of the popu-
lation of London are that three-quarters of a
million of business men enter the city in the
morning and leave it in the evening for their
suburban residences There are 10000 police
men, as many cab-drivers, and the same num-
Der of persons connected with tie post office,
each of whom, with their families, would
make a large town. When London makes a
holiday, there are several places of resort,
such as the Crystal Palace, the Geological
Gardens, Kew Gardens, &C., which absorb
from thirty to fifty thousand visitors each.
The cost of gas for lighting is $4,000, 900
annually; the water supply is 100000, 900
gallons a day. In the year 1878 there were
513 fires and for the purpose of supplying
information on the passing events of the day
314 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 onward to fifth
fHerts.) The probability is that by the end
Of the century the population will exceed five
iHilhioHs; and viii thus have auintapled itself
in the century. Should it progress at an
equal rate in the next, it will in the year O. 600
amount to the enormous aggregate of twenty
five millions, and the question that naturally
arises is how could such multitude be sup
piled with food. But the fact is that the
more its population increases the better they
are fed. In the Plantagenet days, when the
population was not more than third of a
million, famines We're of frequent occurrence,
but now, with the command of the pastures,
the harvests, and tho fisheries of the world
starvation becomes almost impossible even
tually even with twenty-five millions Of
mouths to feed Frederick Ross in London
City Press.