Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-03-08
OUR LONDON LETTER.
ENGLISH WINTERS AS VIEWED BY An
AMERICAN.
John Ruskin on P,ague Clouds-kdmira-
ton for Baker Pasha and Colonel
Go,don-crime and its Causes.
Ioypoy. February Q. lSS4

The first winter spent IN England IN nj
| teen wears has Brought me an experience in
regard to weather, which, under the cir.
cumstanees, will be no less tantalizing to
many of your readers than it has been graf
living to my humble self. 1t has been an
exceptional season to even the natives.
How exceedingly exceptional it has proven
to one whose winters are usually passed in
| one of the American States in which the
mercury has this year surprised and dis
gusted everybody by several times reach
lag 90 below zero, can be readily i'm.
scined. Within an area of 100 miles
around London, we have really, barring
the bright sunlight, which has been con-
spicuous for its absence, had spring weather
all winter long. Flowing has gone forward
in the country without intermission. As l
write the grass is beautifully green, the
trees and hedges just bursting into bud,
and overhead only little way from town,
the lark and the thrush are singing as mer-
rily as if it were April or May. All the
spring flowers are to be seen-daisies, pan.
sies, primroses, crocuses, violets, snow
DROPS, marigoids and many others, both
wi and cultured.
TERRIBLE WINDS AND NO SUNSHINE.
The temperature has been just low
enough several nights to make thin ice in
exposed places, but during the day it has
rarely gone below 40', has often been as
high as So, and has averaged for two
months about AS. Thus, of cold weather
we have had absolutely none. Neverthe-
less the season can hardly be called pleas
ant one, for the wind has blown almost
gale with exasperating frequency, and if
we have had no cold, neither, on the other
hand, have we had any sun to speak of.
| Old Sol hiss peepsd at us an average of
about once week, and then only for an
hour or so, while there have been times
when not even his outline has been visible
for whole fortnight. The settled gloom
pervading this metropolis has been enough
to send sensitive people to the mad.house.
! That it has sent not few respondent
creatures to seek relief from their cherries
life in the bottom of the Thames, is beyond
question. And London has Jared little
worse than the rest OF the country. Clouds
and gloom have been the order everywhere
in these isles. This, however, is not pc
culiar to the present season, as the ''leaden
skies" of Great Britain are proverbial.
JOHN RUsKIN SPEAKS OF PLAGUE CLOUDS.
The eminent art critic, John Ruskin,
speaking at the London Institution on
Monday, drew attention to the cloud phe.
nomena, and spoke of them as plague
clouds" In olden times, when the
weather was fine, he said, it was beauti-
| fully fine, and when it was bad it was
| abominably bad, and then there was an
end OF it. Now, however, they had these
plague. clouds for months without inter.
mission. His first experience of the
plague. cloud was in 1871, when walking
from Oxford to Abingdon, and ne then de-
scribad it as appearing to be composed of
dead mems souls, blown hither and thither
as if doubling " hich was the fttest place
for them. If his hearers wanted to know
what the sun looked like in one of these
plague-clouds they had only he said, to
throw bad half.crown into basin of
soapy water. If asked
THE MEANING OF THESE vENoMoUs CLOUDS.
He could tell them more that would &C.
cord with their modern belief, but he could
tell them what meaning such phenomena
would have borne to the ancients. For
the last twenty years, he went on to say,
England, and all foreign nations, either
tempting or following her, had blasphemed
the name of the Deity deliberately and
openly, and every man, by the advice of
his superior, had done as much injustice to
bis brother as it was in his power to do.
The seers of old predicted physical gloom
as one of the consequences of national sin,
and they had had so much physical gloom
! the last few years that it had been said
| that England was no longer the Empire on
which the sun never set, but had become
, one on which the sun never rose. The en-
iuent lecturer then went on to suggest
remedy, saying that, whether they could
bring back the sun or not, they could as
suredly bring back their own cheerfulness,
| their own honesty and their own tranquil
lity of mind and, the paths OF rectitude
once resumed, who should say, he added,
that the promise of old time would not
hold good, and the windows of heaven be
again opened to them?
ADMIRATION FOR BAKER PAsHA.
Speaking of clouds reminds me of the
condition under which Parliament opened.
lust as the address to the Throne was
about to be moved, the terrible tidings
:
! the defeated General, is great favorite
with the English people. Your readers
/ will not have forgotten the disgraceful
circumstances under which he lost his
| commission in the English army. II was
/ for an indecent assault upon an unpro.
/ tected female in a railway carriage. But
! that was some years ago, and his brilliant
| services since under the Turkish and
] Il 20 xr,t he
| distinguished position he occupied prior to
/ his fall as the best cavalry officer in the
British forces, have sufficed to almost en-
tirely eradicate this stain, so that he is now
where he was in popular esteem, if indeed
| the rebound of feeling in his favor has not
placed him in higher niche. No one
! doubts his courage or his great skill in
command. HIS crushing defeat was OBJ.
viously due to the cowardice of the
wret;hed herd, disgracing the name of
| has greater significance than that of
Hicks Pasha, for it is felt that If Baker
can do nothing with the Egyptian army
! the blow keenly. No wonder Gladstone
was pale and subdued when he stood at the
table of the House and read the dispatch
I
complication b,ded no good to the Gov
eminent even as matters stood previously,
and this last development, many think,
! has sounded its death knell.
SOMETHING OF COLONEL GORDON.
All eyes turn now toward Colonel Cor.
don. Should he. too, be overtaken by dis.
aster, the country would be wild. Gordon,
by the way, is an intensely religious man.
Before departing on this mission, he wrote
to friend az go alone, with an Infinite,
Almighty God to direct and guide me, and
am glad to so trust Him as to fear nothing,
and indeed to feel sure of success" To
undertake single handed the subjugstion of
a lot of bloodthirsty fanatics, who have
but recently cut two large armies to pieces.
is hazardous enterprise, and looks very
much like tempting Providence but
nothing venture, nothing win, is very
true proverb, and certainly if Colonel Cor
don wins he will not only be exalted to the
position of worlds hero, but will stand
good chance of being cauonizsd as the ia
vorite son of the churches.
| rr-S-r-rf,p IN