The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-05-17
Life In the British Metropolis Delu-
sion and q Snare. +

u =
The longer you live in London the
more you find out, and the less you like
it That, at all events, is the case until
you have been here so long that you are
hardened and ready for any kind of
crime. Some few of the annoyances to
which the trusting stranger is put he
himself is to blame for. He has placed
his trust in friends who told him it was
cheaper to live in London than in Chi
cago, or New York. He has been told
that he can hire rooms more cheaply IN
England than in America. What is
worse, he believes the tale. He has,
likewise, been taken in with what has
been told him about cheap restaurants,
respectful policemen and clean streets.
1t is all swindle perpetrated with NAL
ice aforethought. If you go for rooms
anywhere within hailing distance of any
place you want to find, it costs quite as
much as in any part of the world that L
know of. If you want a couple of rooms
you can get them for three guineas q
week-which Is $15.75. They are up
two flights of stairs and have an in
grain carpet on the floor. The furni-
ture is about a century old, and some of
it Is. very shaky on its legs. If it were
two centuries old and had no legs at all,
the price of the room would be $50 a
week. They veuerate old furniture over
here. Somehow they seem to think
chairs and sofas were made to venerate
the middle of the room, the top of
which is about six feet wide. 1t has a
red cover, with hole in one corner,
where some hungry boarder has had
breakfast. The ceiling is smoky, and
in one place slab of it is peeling off.
You put your hand on the wall and you
find that the paper is not attached to
the plastering at all. 1t has been that
way for $50 years, and the owner of the
property would think you were insane
If you were to alter it in any way. The
carpet is red. 1t is not new. The
stitching Is ont of it -seuaral plaees.
Through one of these you can see what
you think is another carpet. You are
right. 1t is another carpet. When the
red one was put down it did not occur
to the landlady to take up the other. In
fifteen or twenty years she will get an
other carpet, even more hideous than
the one at present in use.
don't know why it is exactly, but
the older q landlady grows the worse
her taste becomes. Over the table there
hang two gas-burners. They are a shall
low mockery. Long ago the thumb
screws rusted into their places. Before
that the pipes had been plugged with
soap That is what they do with their
their windows, and not often on their
hands. They put it all into their gas
pipes. In the back room there is a
brass bedstead, upon which are divers
and sundry mattresses, surmounted by
a feather bed and soiled spread. The
| general slope of the arrangement is to-
ward the foot. 1t gives you an easy
consciousness that you will sleep stand
ing up. Over in the corner there is a
washstand, with pitchers and bowls on
| top, aud an unblushing and afhuent
| display of other crockery underneath.
There is a straw mating on the floor,
so as to make it pleasant for you to get
out of bed bsrefooted on a cold morn
ing. There are curtains in the front
/ room and none in the bed room. This
| is a wise dispensation of the landlady.
You will find it healthier to sleep in a
light room than a dark one. 1t Is more
difficult, but it is healthier. :. That is
what the landlady tells you. 1 know a
| man who came To London to economic
and write for newspapers, and other
wise prepare himself for the lunatic
asylum, who was simple enough to hire
a suite of rooms just like these. This
man had hunted all over the vicinity and
could do no better. He was foolish. He
should have gone to the alms-house at
first. He lived there a week. Then he
got.his bill. 1t read: Apartments, GO
shillings; fires, IA shillings; attend
ance, shillings; candles, 2 shillings
breakfasts, IA shillings; total, f4.17s.
Which, being translated, is S24 25 for
what in America would have cost him
not more than S14 at the outside. He
haa been taking his breakfast in his
rooms, not as a matter of luxury, but
for the sake of economy. He had tried
breakfasting in restaurants. That was
why he ended by taking them to his
room, on the table with the corner
chewed out of its red cover.-London
Cor. Chicago Nescs.
| Soma of the ruozk tiYnid or;rlc ora =, M