Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-09-08
London Fo&S by Night.

To study by night q London
fog in its deepest pitch one must
during its prevalence visit the
neighborhood of the parks of tho city
where large bodies of water add their
exhalation to the ordinary mist. Half
mile from Regents, or Hyde Park, it
Iuay be that the fog il comparatively
thin. The eye can perhaps penetrate it
for fifty feet, and one can descry NOV
ing objects and avoid them. But the
moment one steps into the dcn>er fog
area the ghaStly change begins. The
foot-pasSengcr first notices that, as he
moves on, objects seem to fade without
new ones coming into view. Then the
city lamps, though only perhaps a
hundred feet apart, die out one by one.
There is no real black darkness, but, if
one may use the paradox, a darkness OF
impenetrable light, Il darkness made
visible. One seems to lie immersed in
a luminous cloud SO solid that it can be
handled, cut, and shared. The fog
seems also to deaden all sound A
human figure-man, woman or boy
suddenly materializeS on the pavement
few feet away. 1t @lidcs by noiSelcSs-
ly like a phantom, and il gone. One feels
like human appartion and among fe!-
low-ghosts. Everything puts on the same
unearthlv aspect. The gas jets become
little spurts of blue fam" hanging in the
air and barely perceptihle thirty feet
away. The solid pavement is felt be-
meath the feet, but is unseen. The hand
held close to the face is deserted, but,
moved to arms length, the digits be-
come spectral, then dissolve. The still
ness of the streets, the general hush of
sounds of traffic, and peculiar sense of
isolation and helplcsSness keep up the
passed from the world of mortals into Il
region of disembodied spirits.
Apart from its supernatural aspect q
dense London fog brings out some queer
phases of human life. The street boys
hold high revel during the mists. Buy
ing for small sums long pieces of hemp,
stiffened with tar, they light the ends.
and a party of them earn n good stock
of sixpencos by escorting home lost
wayfarers. At the stations of the I'M
derground railroads, and at centcrs of
cab traffic, gather dense crowds unable
to get their bearings and utterly help
less without aid. The cabmen, who in
ordinary times know all the ins and outs
of London streets, are as helpless as the
rest. If they take passengers at all, it
is for short trips and big prices, and
even then they venture only at walk,
leading horses by the brides. On the
occasions of one of these fogs l rcmcm-
Der almost tumbling over a PROSTATE
horse which had fallen across the foot
pavement on which his careless master
had led him. As rule, passengers
caught in the denser mists leave cabs
and omnibuses, preferring foot travel
as equally fast and rs safer style of
locomotion. The absolute helplessness
of almost everybody, the blind leading
the blind, the lost seeking their bearings
from the lost, and the universal confu-
sion and chaos fill in the details of
curious picture out of doors. In doors
there are scenes well-nigh as grotesque.
The smoky mist has q singular pene-
trating quality, and only needs a key
hole to get in. At the theaters the ac-
tors all counterfeit the ghost in clam
let" at large indoor places, like the
reading-room of the British Museum,
half the interior is entirely Obscured, and
even in the smaller rooms of dwellings
objects appear dim aud ghost-like. The
fog is usually accompanied by chill in
the air that cuts to the marrow, and the
smoke breathe in by sleepers is thrown
off from the lungs in the morning as
black secretion of phlegm. Another
quality of the London smoke-fo9s is dis
closed by the singular fact that the cleo
trio light makes less impression on it
than a gas-liame of the same candle
power.
During a London fog some five weeks
ago, which several residents said was
the densest they had ever known, the
writer was at some pains to test the
thickness of the mist on Baker Street,
thoroughfare, from curb to curb, about
as wide as Broadway, and opening on
Regents Park. From the middle of the
roadway the bright lights of the shop
windows were quite imperceptib!e.
Standing under q gas lamp one could
barely see foot passenger fifteen feet
away or passing cab in the middle OF
the street. At ten feet distant the gas
jet became completely separated from
its surroundings. The lamp, with the
supporting iron post, disappeared, and
the flame, changed to sulphurous blue
tongue of vapor, was projected in the
air and hung on nothing. Once outside
the light of the street lamps the range
of vision became much more circum-
scribed. Large vehicles passed ten feet
away unseen and scarcely heard. Pass
ers-by could be discerned at distance
of perhaps six feet, and then only the
upper parts of their bodies could be
made out, the legs and feet being hidden
by still denser stratum of mist, which
seemed to wrap the pavement. All dis
tinction of color was gone, AMI even op-
posite street lamp dark buildings, as
we'll as those of light hue, took on the
universal dull tint of the smoky mist
London Cor. N. Y. Post.