Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1883-10-31
A DOCTOR ABROAD.
What Chicago Physician Saw DUR
ing His Vacation in Europe.
London is Par Excellence the City OK
Good Sewerage and Cieanli-
ness--HistOricaI Sights
Worth Seeing.

He arrived in London, underground, and
took rooms at the Imperial, on Hoburn via
duct. He looked out from his window and
saw that London throng which, having seen
once no man can ever forget SO long as he is
alive He saw the church of ST. Sepulchre
hard by, ancient as the town. He found the
tomb of Capt. John Smith, which reminded
him of Pocahontas. He saw Newgate prison;
went to the house of parliament, and stood
in the old theatre where he was told Shaks-
peare had once played He loitered about
the old hotels which he had read of in the
Pickwick papers, was shown the troughs
from which the stage horses were watered in
those times long gone by, when stages were
the only means Of locomotion, and actually
stood in the rooms where some of Dickens
characters had been placed.
He strolled along the strand, in Fleet street,
On Cheapside, went to Westminster, and out
upon Black Friars road. He stood upon the
principal London bridge at night, lighted
with electricity, and watched the countless
multitude on the promenade of the stone en-
bankments, which he says are wonderful in
their construction. Here he saw the obelisk.
erected by one Of his own profession, DR..
Erasmus Wilson. Standing upon this bridge
his thoughts winged their way back to Chi
rago He remembered the bridges here and
wondered how long man could stand upon
one of them without holding his nose. On
the London bridge there was no odor from.
the sweep of the Thames or anywhere around.
He began to think about sanitation. He
found that the river beneath him washed it
self out twice day; that the sewers did not
empty their filth into the water which the
London people drank; and he could real
ize then what idiots we are in Chicago, who.
do just the reverse.
He examined the street -pavementS and
sidewalks there. The former were of granite.
put down with such solidity that even the
thunder of the great city failed to jar them.
There was no wood under foot anywhere to
rot and decay and poison the atmosphere, as
here.
d He noticed the people. Their eyes were
bright, their step elastic, their cheeks roSeate,
their lips rcd. Physically, morally, and
mentally they were in advance of any people
he had known They work later than we do,
but they sleep later. They have no vicious
habits. They are orderly Sunday. A man
cannot find restaurant or a saloon open in
London Sunday. He cannot buy a chew of
tobacco, hardly, on any day for that matter.
The people smoke less than Americans, and
as for drinking coffee and tea, that was some
thing the masses never did, as with Ameri-
cans. 'People in America" he said, ''can4
get coffee and tea, no matter how poor the
people may be, and that is why they drink So
much of them. They use them for stimu
lants when nature demands rest, and wheDl
they fail they take to something stronger.
And added to these they have immoral ideas:
suggested by immoral books and immoral
pictures in the shop windows l saw none of
these things in the shop windows and book
stores of London"
He noticed that the people of London had
good meat to eat; that they lived on an
island over which an ocean was ever blowing,
and that their buildings were ventilated.
They kept their windows open and let in the
air Their Easements were dry. There were
no water closets and water pipes in their
houses, and such thing as sewer-gas was I'M
heard of. A man in hotel washed his hands
and face in a basin or a bowl and the water
and slops were carried out Of the building.
There was no such thing as earthenware pipes
for drainage.
81 want SO say" he remarked, chat the
abominable drainage in Chicago is curse to q.
the people. They put in this earthenwares
pipe; it is laid on the sand; the sand settles;,
the pipe cracks; the gases escape and cess
pools form under our floor. We inhale the
odor of this filth, and then we wonder why
we get pale in the face, emaciated in the,
body, and ner vous. Why, 1 never saw a.
nervous man or woman in London. Thes
equality of temperature, of course, in Lon.
don is conducive to good health. That wea
cannot have, but we can have the other
house drainage and
plumbing. I never met a man or
woman in London who couldn't sleep WE'LL
In Chicago I never find one who
can. In London they take rest when the
brain demands it. In Chicago we never
take any. In London they drink stock ales,
and sometimes; of course, something stronger.
In Chicago we drink everything In Lon
don they stop their business and take COM
fort. We never stop. Our growth is too
rapid. In London they have grown gradu--
ally. They are used to metropolitan ways,
and know how to take them We do not
Did you ever notice how healthy the Jew
wass He is used to city life He has grown
up with it, He is metropolitan. So is the
London man"
The last week he was in London he stopped
at the Royal hotel One Sunday morning he's
awolSe, and raising his window he heard
something that was strangely beautiful It
was the ringing of the church bells He lis
tened, and their sounds blended and undu
lated. The harmony was not broken. tt
seemed as il it would never cease, and he
seemed as If he could live in it forever. IT
realized, he said, show innumerable they
were. How they were all in tune at once.
and such strange feelings never experienced
before as realized that there was in their
midst, in the city which was historical, ON
ground which the Romans invaded"
He went to Windsor and through the cas-
tie, and no one seemed to intercept him as he
wandered about the home of royalty. The
doors were open and so were the gates, and
he was never asked for a shilling by any
guide. He stood by the tomb of the poet
Gray, and looking out he was shown the
''ivy mantled tower" from which the s'mop-
ing owl to the moon complained,n the very
same which, it is said, suggested the thought
to the poet IN his ''Elegy."
In the chapel of ST. George he saw the
statue of the prince imperial, the memorial
erected by Queen Victoria He was struck
with one thing about the English people, they
were as eager curiosity seekers as we. They
haunted the cid places, the churches, the
places where abbotts arc asleep, the ancient
walls and towers, the same as Americans.
and it was kept up every day. 'sThen no
longer wondered" said the returned Escus-
lapius, ''why English people loved their
country so ardently. These relics, These
Westminster Abbey with it's
tomhs-all these make impressions on their
minds and create national respect He fa-
vored monuments in America as a means Of
people to a love of country.