The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-21
THE SABBATH IN ENGLAND.
How the First Day Of the Week Is OBJ
served in the Worlds Capital.
All Drinking Houses and Theaters Closed
PrOmenading and Discussing Events
in the Public Pleasure Grounds.


spent in London would give the intruders such
fit of the blues that they would at once pre-
pare to take their departure, but thai, on the
other hand the Londoners, enamored of the
French methods of cooking, would implore them
to remain. A London Sunday is indeed very
different from Partisan one. 1t differs, too,
from the day as it is observed in some of the
American cities To begin with, all the theaters
and music halls are closed-an arrangement
which evidently accords with the national taste,
for not only is there no demand for the opening
of such places, but the idea of such thing is
utterly repugnant to the Englishman's sense of
propriety. The museums and picture galleries
are also closed, though there is a strong effort
being made to throw these open, which will no
doubt be done before long. With the laws regu-
lating the opening and closing of drinking places
on Sunday your readers are already familiar.
Everything in this line is Theoretically sealed
during the first half of the day. From midnight
on Saturday to l o'clock on Sunday the drink
traffic is entirely suspended. This gives the
topers time to sober off after the heavy siege of
the night before and keeps the Sabbath tolerably
quiet until morning service is over. Then come
two hours of dram selling and tipping The
man who was drunk the previous night can now
freshen up the old" as it is called here, to his
hearts content while the not overscrupulous
church goer may take his sly glass on the way
home to dinner. In the crowds which throng
the saloons during these midday hours of Ii
cense, both these classes, 1 regret to say are
| represented all too numerously, and, excepting
in the quiet aspect it gives to the streets during
inc. 10 To ar
rangement which closes these places a part Of
Sunday and leaves them wide open the other
| part, has any virtue in it. The tendency, how
ever, is to shut them up altogether on that day,
and it would not surprise your correspondent
should q law accomplishing this be enacted by
the present Parliament. -.7's 60. 'e
One thing that adds greatly to the decorum of
a London Sunday is the fact that the retail
shops tstorest besides suspending business, sus-
pend also the exhibition of their goods, hiding
their window displays behind impenetrable shut
tiers. The American tradesman. whether inten-
tionally or not, uses Sunday for advertising pur-
poses In New York the promenader of the
principal streets can inspect goods and prices
almost well on the Sabbath as on week days.
The window displays here are much more
show closes on Sunday Make the
round of all the big places on Regent and Oxford
streets, and you will find, instead of gorgeous
exhibitions of masculine and feminine fnery,
nothing but a beggarly array of darkened fronts.
This is felt by the thoughtful people 20 be mis-
take. Many it is contended, who cannot see
these displays during the week, would find limo
cent pleasure in looking at them on Sunday, and
might be kept by such attractions from spending
the afternoon and evening of that day in the
public house, may add that party of philan-
thropists giving attention to this matter, and
the suggestion has been made that shop keepers
should not only lift curtains and shutters on the
Sabbath day, so as to make their ordinary dis
plays visible, but should increase the attractive
ness of their Sunday exhibit by adding to it
pictures, works of art and other pleasing
things.
PRoMENADING IN THE PARKS.
1t is not true, as some one has facetiously
observed, that the. only places of amusement
open to Londoners on Sunday are the churches,
for recreation and entertainment of a certain
kind can be had in the parks In Hyde Park
you will find the most fashionable Sunday
promenade, and just now. as the season opens,
you will see there, every Sunday afternoon,
| thousands of gay profnenaders, keeping time, in
their merry march, to the music of irst-cass
band. To get view of the aristocracy you
must go to the same place week
d.! afternoons, when you will find
| Rotten Row as thickly lined with ee
CANT equipages, as Sunday the footwalks
skirting it are lined with elegantly dressed peo-
pie. This Sunday crowd is composed of mer-
chants professional men, foreigners, high-c
clerks, etc, with their wives sweethearts, cous-
ms and aunts Unless when you Join this throng
you have on stove-plpe and sport walking
cane you feel like fish out of water, for among
the male portion of it you will not find one in five
hundred lacking these luxuries, and the few
captions will almost certainly be Americans.
Silk hats and sticks the distinctive badges of
a London crowd on Sunday, and for that mat
ter. on any other day. The promenaders though
on pleasure bent, all walk briskly-another pc
culiarity of the English people. Under similar
circumstances an American crowd would saunter
along at little better than a snals gait We are
faster people than the English on general prin-
ciples, yet, in either driving or walking, the
average Englishman, in the ordinary pursuits of
business or pleasure will "gve his dust
every time. Of the feminine portion of these
Sunday pleasure-se ekers l will only say that the
American visitor will find them prettier than he
had been led to suppose, and, in point of dress,
attired with taste fully equal to that prevailing
| in stylish American circles, though less expen-
sively and without lavish display of jewelry.
But Hyde Park has other promenades-ave.
nues on which the lower orders, the servant and
working classes air their Sunday fnery. The
visitor will also see groups of
people gathered together at respectful
distances on the grass, who seem to be listening
to addresses. In one place as many as two
thousand will be assembled. Investigation will
probably show that these are being addressed
by some city missionary, who is preaching re-
ligion and temperance to them. Other groups
will be listening to the same kind of gospel l
am told that there are four hundred outdoor
honor to these meni But in Hyde Park, Re
gents Park, and all the other green spots in this
great city much is said by public speakers who
address the masses on a Sunday afternoon which
is neither orthodox nor edifyng. For every
preacher of righteousness there are always sew
eral blatant proclaimers of Bradlaugh's doc
trines; and am sorry to say that there are seri-