Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-09-14
LoNDoNs DIVERSE PEOPLE.
The Kind of Englishmsn Mr.. Stead Has
stirred Up.

the vast gathering nearly hundred thou
Band strong, in Hyde Park on the 22d, to
hear and cheer speakers who denounced
tho titled wickedness and immortality I'M
folded in the Pau Mai Gd-ette'S dis
closures. Every class and kind Of cranks
and extremists seem to have been repre-
scented, and many incongruous notices
were displayed.
Vendors OF q vast assortment OF shock
ing ballad literature, penny pamphlets
and papers, all referring To the Edtt -hd1
Ga@ete'S sensation, piled their trade;
OF these papers or leaflets there must
have been twenty varieties, not TO men-
ton others of a nercelv political sort
like he Socialist organ Justice, ana the
salvation Army's Var CRY. one curlously
dirty and comical old man had "a little
tainc OF his own" bearing the title OF
"Chattert0n's Commune or the Atheistic
and Communistic ScOrcher." He was an
amiabie and cueery Old man, yet his pam
pallet breathed forth fire and slaughter.
lwill quote some sentences: "DO you ever
think. Mad MurderOus Queen, in drunken
frenzed reels at BalmOral, when your
Fat Legs, your whole frame is Thrilling
in the excitement OF the dance, that your
Sister Woman is yielding Her Soul, not
Tor love but for Bread. Pile on
= ,
20 you the so-called cultured working
men and women: Now is the Time for
emancipation. Revolt, The Bavonet, the
Bullet, the Halter for your blOOdy-mlnded
Foe. No Peace, No Quarter but eXter-
mination." He told me, with evident
pride, that he set the type himself.
Some Of the strange things TO be met
with IN the world OF London are suggested
in this correspondents letter. after re-
ferring to the popularity OF the Prince Of
Wales, among the clubs and the people
Americans meet in London, and the hatred
of the same parsonage among such
crowd as that in Hyde Park:
And this brings me back to the original
teXt--the absolute gulf which separates
those In London whom one meets in the
clubs or in society, the editors, the pro-
iessiOnal men, the authors, artists, busi-
ness men, bankers, etc, from the numeri-
oally greater London OF well dressed, In
tellgent people whom one doesn't meet.
Ii is not at all a question OF class, for there
were nOblemen, members Of Parliament,
and scores OF university men in this
meeting. 1t is scarcely more question
OF sect, for the agitation WAS begun under
the auspices Of the Archbishop OF Cam
terbury, and there were parsons as we'll
as convertible preachers on the platforms.
What it is IL would be bard to say with
clearness. Perhaps it may be best de-
tined as the difference between English
men who have become like Americans,
and Englishmen who haven't-yet even
that is vague. The idea Is that the Ameri-
cans OF to-day, partly by the eXhiarsting
conditions Of new land, partly by con-
tact with or notifications from other
races, have produced a variety of the An
gl0-SaXOn race which differs radically
from the Englishman Of CrOmwelrs or OF
Wesley's, or even Of CObbett's time, and
that the Englishmen who write the books
and make the papers and fight the batCies,
and either conduct or support the amuse-
ments, the fashion and the apparent social
life OF England have come, by different
means, TO be very like their American
cousins. They are the Englishmen we
meet when we come over here; we like
each other, we dine, wine and visit each
Other, and are mutually surprised to find
how little difference there really is be-
tween us. But there is another English
man whom neither of US takes into &C
c0unt-an Englishman VINO has not been
transformed by the evolution of the cen
fury into a cosmopolitan, but remains the
narrow, conscientious, deeply religious,
hercely bigoted islander of CrOmWell's
day. The skepticism, the leyity, the all
around tolerance Of our civilization has
not touched him. He still takes his pleas
ures soTrowfully; he stills suspects the
glitter and color Of RNmanism as of the
Scarlet Woman; he still Graves for strong
soulful excitement in his religion and in
his politics, and he still mixes the two
continually in his social life; above all, he
is still dominated by that essenti al instinct
OF Paritanism tG control other people for
their own good-that instinct which shut
up. all the play-hOuses under the Lord
Protector, which burned the witches at
Salem, which founded the Salvation Army
which makes every English city desc
late horror on Sunday.
IL was to this antique Englishman, who
exists underneath in tens Of thousands
where the new Englishman exists on the
surface by dozens, that Mr.. Stead ap-
pealed, with his astounding. revolving
ridiculously oVerdrawn story of "MOd-
ern Babylon" The world OF Piccadilly
and club land thought be had done mis-
chief, and they were right; but they
thought also that he would find no sup
porters, and they were wrong. At his
unaided call an army came forth which
could destroy Piccadilly as locusts devas-
tate a field. And by the simple PROPOSE
tion to form vast vigilance committee TO
compel morality in England-an appeal
10 this same distinctly British instinct
which Philips satiriZed when he said,
"lhe Puritan's idea OF he'll is a place
Where every one has to mind his own bust
ness"-Mr. Stead has set on foot a great
IUNL
the movement will do immeasurably more
harm than good by degenerating into a
system which, at its best, will be intol-
'erabie meddlesomeness, and at its worst
Infamous blackmailing, involving reac-
ton from its restraints and annOyances
by the same law that brought unprece-
uented license with the restoration two
centuries ago, and has made Boston the
centre OF American intdelity in this CEN
fury. But II is the possibility OF such a
movement here, the peculiar nature OF the
people engaged in it, and the relation OF
their traits 10 the general history OF the
race, which are OF interest. rather than
the local effects Of the agitation. We can
trace these same influences in modified
forms among our own rural populations
Of unmixed English descent. AS IN Maine
and on the w estern Reserve, and in north
ern New York, and their fur western col
onies, where they md expression in pro-
bibition movements, In the camp-meeting
as an institution. and in "A very general
fusion Of religious and political thought
But even in these homogeneous communi-
ties, where Inherent English traits are
Btlll dominant, we have progressed far
beyond the primitive stage 20 which the
Salvation Army would appeal. To lind
that you must come 10 the island home OF
the race.
A concluding word as TO the man him
self, the editor Of the Pau UdW Gdzettc: