River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-12-20
WICKED LONDON.
The British Metropolis More De
PRAYED Than Paris.
Philadelphia Press.

| 1ulIdISlpHlh GTeSs.
London, by the way, is wickeder than
ever and has already distanced Paris.
That old French harlot is simply living
on her past reputation for wickedness.
She strives hard to keep it up for the
enticement of the foreiga tourist, but
the result is only cheap and tawdy
imitation of the gayeties of the days OF
the empire. The city is beautiful still,
and the people are as light hearted and
needless as their ways are picturesque,
but the Parisians themselves are not
fools enough to spend their money on
the affectations of vice which are cum
ningly devised and laboriously carried
on for the benefit of the stranger within
| their gates, The Jardin Mabille business
| is played out; at the students balls,
| over in the Latin quarter, there are
neither pleasure-seeking students nor
pleasure giving grisettes, and the salons
of sin, whose magnificence and whose
treasures have been so often portrayed
| in glowing colors, and still are by French
| uoyeIists writing for American readers,
are shambles of prostitution. into which
| tourists are decoyed by subsidized cour-
| iers and leave their selt-respect with
| out deriving even the compensation
which beauty bestows upon the treach-
erous eye.
This is delicate subject to handle,
| but it is time newspapers were begin
| ming to tell the truth about it. If q
Young man wants to pay for seeing the
| sights of Paris, whatever they are, let
| him do it, but don't let him do it with
the idea chat he is going to find vice
more attractive than anywhere else. 1t
is the fashion Of people who have been
| taken in by these shams to come home
| and tell big stories TO keep up the illu-
sion; but don't you believe a word of
| them.
No, if you seek the wickedest city in
| to the world always barring Chicago), go
to the city of Westminster Abbey, Exeter
| Hall, St PauPs church, the salvation
army, and Charles. II. Spurgeon-go to
| London. With much outward show of
goodness, and much real goodness, with
sweetsr chimes of church calling bells
| than can be heard anywhere else In all
| Christendom; with Sabbath laws recall
| ing the days of the Puritans; with great
charities carrying healing to the sick
and freedom to the oppressed OF all ma
tions: with printing presses 1ooding.tbe
world with tracts and Bibles; with tn ou-
sands of pulpits dispensing the gospeii
with an honest policy, and
| & universal obedience to law; with stores
OF refining Influences sufficient TO stock
Il universe, and with everything within
| reach That can tend to make people vlr-
tuous and happy, London abandons her
| self to vice with a brazen reck!essness
| Whichpaces her on level with SOdom
1 (rnTnnrFQh n
vices of the slnms, so carefully hidden
| from the eyes of decency, but of the
| tide which nightly Pushes the thorough
| fares with the filth Of the sewers, and
| whose stencil has become such q matt r
| of course that nobody seems to mind it..
! The scene on the Strand and Fleet street,
! on the Havmarket, On Regent Circus,
and on Waterloo Place, in the two hours
| next to midnight would not be tolerated
| in such capitals as Paris and Berlin, and
| the obscene revels Of some other quar-
| tiers would have turned the stomach oil
| old Babylon. Fashion ha3 its Rotton
Row in the day time; the name were
| better bestowed upon the two or three
| hundred yards of well paved street
| where prostitution makes its nightly
| parade under police protection. West
minister Abbey accommodates n few
| hundred worshipers day. The Royal
| Aquarium, within q stones throw of it,
| is the rendezvous of thousands at night,
a dozen people are attending young
mems prayer meeting, which Lord Some
body is conducting in Exetar hall. Out
side, in fulfllment Of Scripture proph-
ecy, seven women lay hold Of one man,
and public house doors are besieged bv
women and children clamoring for drink.
For two or three hours the London that
is.visibie to the stranger seems like a
| slice of the inferno.