The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1882-07-01
Impressions of London.

ssreefe crossing eaeh ether a all angles
cxcept right angles ssFccts haflf upoi
bath sides with plain, yellow brick houses
for miles IN length. Streets running under
massive viAduess built 0f granite and iron-
Streets commencing broad and wcll baiis
with magnificent eiiEeeS. diminishing into
dirty lnnes, the abode q poverty AID vice.
Strsess commencing straight and essiing 10
curve. Streets curved al both ends and
crooked in the middle. Strcets Eayed with
blocks ol granite, others with asphaltnm
Exceptional sfrerts laid IN Nieholzon
Streets al the west magnificent beyond ds.
scription, through which the rieh Fell IA
elegant carriages, attended by servants in
osten1Afioas livcriss.
Strcets in the east where honest poverty
and hideous vice josale against each other
in the daily struggle for existenee. Lanes
alleys. dark courts, obscure passage, by
ways, delnsiTe roads. intricate paths and
uncertain shorts, all strangely confused
Shops in the east where the necessaEies u
life are sold in subdivisions at penny 9
piece. ShegS at she west tlled to repie-
ton with silks at n guinea yard A
river spauned BY score Of stone bridges,
each as arm and solid as the earth itself
Thousands Of public buildings, rare speci-
mems of beauty, built By worid-renowned
architects, long since passed away, nonu.
ments, Ike index fingers, pointing 10 the
sky, countless factories with slender china
neys, each one pouring out \ column d
black smoke to cast gloomy pail over pal
ace and shrine
Docks built far inland, with narrow gates
opening TO the river docks crowded with
ships from every quarter Of the glObei in
Vulnerable passenger steamers shooting the
arches Of bridges, steamships, ships, harques,
sch0oners, barges, sc0ws, mud-boats, pro
pellers, tugs, dredges, war vessels, canal
boats, the floating hospitals and prisons ly-
ing at anchor On the dirty water below the
bridges. Thirty miles OF river bank, lined
with great warehouses and crowded with
merchandise from the ends of the earth,
Millions Of people to meet; omnibuses, cabs
carts, street ears, drays, carriages, wagons,
rushing through the crowded thoroughfare,
or crossing the bridges from side TO side
Railroads everywhere; trains crossing the
tops of houses; engines dragging cars for
miles underground; trains laundering over
head, while the steam Of unseen engines
comes up through the iron gratings a, your
feet.
Flaming advertisements plastered against
blank walls. Plate glass shop windows
brilliantly lighted at night from within; and
more brilliantly lighted from the outside
Gin palaces so radiant that YOU must wink
when you look at them; gin palaces IN
which the poor, silly working people spend
for beer what their children need for food
and clothes; gin palaces where countless
women 90 with infants in their arms to
drink gin with ragged, bloated men
Churches without equal in the world
churches with gin palace on each side
churches filed on Sunday with well-dressed
intelligent, contented Christian people;
churches which are placed on exhibition
during the week for hire.
Galleries for painting, haunts of vice
gambling saloons, hotels, theatres, museums
gardens, courts, clubs, banking institutions
breweries, colleges, schools, universities
prisons, markets, stalls. palaces hustled into
obscuyity behind dirty brick walls. I'm
mense wholesale business done in dark
narrow lanes. Buildings of every eonceiv-
able size, quality and value, spread thiekly
over thirty-fve square miles Of area, and
thinly over far more-that's London.