Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-04-28
A London Fog at Night.

Ap, .rt from its supernatural aspecs
dense london fog at night brings out some
queer phases of human life. The street
bows b old high revel during the mlsts.-
Buyipg for small sums long pieces OF hemp,
stiffened with tar, they li.ht the ends, and
a party of them earn good STOCK OF SIX
psnces by escort ing home wayfarers. Al
the stations of the underground railroads,
and at the centres Of cab traffic. gather
dense crowds unable to get their bearings
and utterly helpless wi shout aid. Inc CAP
men, who in ordinary ii yes know all the
ms and outs of Londo, Streets are 40
helpless A. the rest. If tn ~ take paSSen-
gers at all, it is for short tn ps anu DIX pr
COS, and even then they vent Nre only al
walk, leading their horses by ne ORIOLES
Gu the occasion Of one of these fogs | re-
member almost tumbling over pfostr@es
horse which had fallen across enc 'oot-
pavement on which his careless Master
had led him. Asa rule, passengers cansh'
in the denser mlsts leave cabs and oiaha-
buses, preferring foot travel as equally Iass
and as a safer style of lsco'metion. Inc
absolute helpessness Of almost everybody,
the blind leading the blind, s'he lost seek
ing their bearings from the Lost. and the
universal confusion and chaos fill in She
details OF curious picture out; of deors.-
In doors there are scenes well nigh as GRO
tesque. The smoky mist has a singular
penetrating quality and only needs key
hole to get in. At the theatres the actors
all counterfeit the ghost in Hamlet" at
large indoor places, like the reading-room
of the British Museum, half the interior
ia entirely obscured, and even i'm the small
Ter rooms of dwellings objects appear dim
and ghost-like. The fog is usually accom-
panied by a chill in the air that cuts to the
marrow, and the smoke breathed IN by
sleepers is thrown off from the lungs in
the morning as black secretion of phlsgm,
Another quality of the London smoke-fogs
is disclosed by the singular fact that the
electric light makes less impression on it
than gas-fame 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, a thcroughfare,
from curb to curb, about as wide as Broad
way, and opening on Regents Park From
the middle of the roadway the bright
lights of the shop windows were quite in
perceptible. Standing under gas lamp
one could barely see foot passenger if
teen feet away or passing cab IN the mid
die of the street. at ten feet distant the
jet became completely separated from its
surroundings. The lamp with the sup
porting iron post disappeared, and the
fame 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 circumscrbed. Large vehicles
passed ten feet away unseen and scarcely
heard. Passers by could be discerned at a
distance ct perhaps six feet, and then
only the upper parts of their bodies could
be made out, the legs and feet being hid
den by still denser stratum of mist which
seemed to wrap tho pavement. All dis
tiDction of color was gone, and even op-
posite street lamp, dark buildings, as
well as those of light hue, took on the
universal dull tint of the smoky mist
London Correspondent Of the Ne,u York |
Post.