Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-09-13
LONDON LETTER.



nine or ten hours--distance Is estimated by
time in Europe-but that gives no idea OF
the great changes in scenery, fife and man
ners involved in the transition from one
city to the other. Paris is clean, white
walled. ever wearing an air Of holiday and
refinement. In Paris the humber classes
are cheerful, happy, healthy looking aud
chaanlv hut neatly attireSl; her dandies are
exouisite and diabolieally gay, and her la
lies THAT more need be said Of them than
that they dictate fashion to the female
world. and are at the bottom of hard times.
London is immense, labyrinthian, un-
clean, 1ephitie. Her lower classes are
numerous, blear-eyed, filthy and meanly
eIad-they wear worried, wearied appear
anee, giving the impression of a hard,
struggling past and doubtful future.
Her middle classes have SLOPPY air,
homely features, with ungainly physique
and elaborate but ungraceful manners.
The want Of taste in dress of the English
people is probervial, but am disposed to
think that the defect is less in the eye and
aesthetic sense of the subject than in the
want of proper figure for the display of
good clothes. The sartorial genius has not
yet been born that can make an English
man look like gentleman. The average
Eaglishmsn is neither an AdOnis nor An
tinons. Either his arms are too long, his
shoulders too narrow, his stomach too
large, his shins too short, or his toes dis
posed to turn in. / know that many who
imagine that they have seen Englishmen
viii be disposed to eriticise my criticism;
but let no one suppose that he has seen q
people until he has seen them in their own
habitat. The only way to compare the
English with the French or Americans is
10 see them in the mass, as they may be
seen in their respective -cOuntries, and l
think that those who have remained for
few weeks in England viii bear me out in
what have said. Next TO the French,
there are perhaps fewer native English peO-
pie in the United States than of any other
great nation, and the specimens with US do
not furnish sufficiently broad premise for
a general estimation.
Politically the Englishman is loyal. In
spite of disseminated element that finds
fitful expression here and there, nineteen
of every twenty Englishmen you meet will
speak with pride and praise when the
Queen, the Prince Of Wales or any of the
Royal family are referred to-. The tenth
one, however, will call her Britanic Males
ty an old hag, and has awful stories to tell
about the stupidity of the Prince of Wales,
his diseased body, and dissolute life. All
Englishmen praise the superiority Of our
railway cars, but there their concessions
cease, they think they have best govern
ment in the world, and are ready to prove
by figures that our frequent elections, by
breaking up industrial routine and habits,
are indirectly greater strain upon the eK-
chequer than the enormous amount ex-
pended for the maintainanee OF the Royal
family. No Englishnan can quarrel with
out informing his adversary, at some stage
of the alteration, that he is an English
man and he cannot talk long with an Amer
ican without denouncing the protective
tariff of the United States. That is where
the shoe pinches. If we would but give
free ingress to the nnmberless eheApand
excellent things they make, they would loYe
us more. The marvellous cheapness and
superior quality of the thousand and one
articles that are indispensable to civilized
life, here in London, cannot but astonish
Americans, who cannot see how they can
be made for twice the sum asked for them.
A toothbrush that viii cost 40 cents in the
States may be bought in London for five
or ten cents and thousands of other things
in proportion. l cannot Of course make
list, but will say in a general way, that our
tailors and dealers in useful and fancy
manufactured articles are perhaps the most
extortionate sinners in the world, and that
one hundred and even two hundred per
cent. is not an unusual profit for them.
In England the cooperative system is
having a very appreciable effect on local
trade. The object of this system may be.
described as the furnishing of members of
a trading association, formed for the pur-
pose, with genuine and moderately priced
goods on the principal of ready money
payments, the cheapness being secured by
economy of management and by content
ment with small profits. Notwithstanding
the opposition of retail and even of whole
sale dealers, it has Of late years made as
tonishingly rapid progress in London,
where there are about thirty cooperative
stores carrying on an immense trade. The
chief company is the Civil Service Supply
Association which consists of share holders
of members belonging to the civil service
who pay about 60 cents year, and of out
siders-who must be friends Of members
or shareholders-who pay s1.25 annually.
All have the same advantages in the pur-
chase of goods; but while the civil service
members may have goods sent home car
riage free. the others must take their pur-
chases away with them or pay for their
carriage. The association now employs
about six hundred persons, who receive
salaries amounting in all to S25o. 200 an
nually. The cost of the string, paper and
straw used in packing goods amounts to
$50, 900 per annum. The sales in 1877
amounted to the enormous sum of IS. 5OO.-
600, the net profits being little over, two
per cent. The articles sold comprise gro
ceries, wines, spirits, provisions, tobacco,
clothing, books, stationery, fancy goods,
drugs and watches. Indeed so complete
and varied are their stores that it is not
necessary to go elsewhere for the purchase
Of anything. 3a Gas.
Local Encouragement of NTanu-
facturers. e faJ
W. - ;,,l IL i, -