The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-03-13
LONDON MODS.
Graphic Description by One Who Speaks
from Personal Observation.

from Personal Observation.
"London, whose smile is fortune,
and whose froth is DEATH l do not
reeollect at the moment who was the
writer Of that terse and truthful sell
tence. won't be sure, even that the
quotation is literal. Perhaps it was
said Of C%hatterton. Perhaps it was
written by Chatterton himself. But of
the London mob it may be said that
death turks in either its smiles or
frowns. A London mob is like a man.
eating tiger. 1t is dangerous whether
in play or in earnest.
A London mob, when it is known
that it will gather for peaceful and
Legitimate purposes on a certain day,
is always a source Of anxiety and prep
aration with the police. On Lord
Mayors Day, or on any occasion where
the Queen appears in the metropolis,
or when a big meeting is called for in
Hyde park, a large number of special
policemen are sworn in. Sometimes
as many as thirty thousand are added
to the already large force. l remem-
Der being impressed with the com.
pleteness of the arrangements during
the last Lord Mayors Day I was in
London. Down Norfolk street and
Savoy street and others of the small
streets that lead from the busting
Strand to the comparative qnietness of
the Thames embankment. stood double
rows OF stalwart, silent policemen
in readiness for any call. Mounted
policemen were stationed along Fleet
street and the Strand; every few feet
on the crowded pavements were Off
GERS on foot, and the roadway was
kept clear by the line of uniformed
men on each side of the way standing
almost shoulder to shoulder: A mob
OF this kind is always a good-natured
ne. 1t is full of horse-play and likes
to bullyrag the patient policemen,
whose lot at these times, as the pep
perry Gilbert remarks, sis not a happy
onc." When a portion of the mob be-
comes too obstreperous the policemen
make a charge at it and endeavor to
scatter its component parts among the
more peaceable sections of the multi
tude. The tactics of the police are
always to scatter or divide the mob
into sections. They do not endeavor to
make an arrest unless all other meth
DDS of pacifying the boisterous individ-
ual idiot who is the nucleus of that
particularly rowdy part of the crowd
fail. But once the talons of the police
man tasten on an unruly man he is
gone. The officer generally makes a
sudden spring at him, grasps him firm
~ by the arms or by the coat collar,
gives him one tremendous jerk toward
him that lifts him off his feet, then he
turns him around, shoves him on 10
the next policeman, and thus the
captive is whirled around and around,
and passed from policeman to police
with a celebrity that utterly
bewilders him and the first thing he
knows he is down on the silent streets
with handouts on him, and is marched
off to the station to await the inevitable
interview with the magistrate in the
morning. All this is done so quickly
that the man is gone before his com.
panions have time to collect their scat
tered senses. When they do rally they
generally make a wild, ungoverned
surge at the police, who open ranks
them, close in behind them.
in turn upon them. scatter them
the crowd, catch two or three
the ringleaders and pass them into
he irresistible eddy that whirls them ,
Of to the prison cells and then the DO =,
ice reform in line again. All this is ,
lone with a persistent patience that is
admirable to behold. | v saw a
nan dubbed in London, but then per- ,
laps the policeman's bone-crackjng :
are even worse for the victim y
han would be y good sound whack :
nth a club. When a man is utterly :
ntamanle, two policemen each crab :.
n arm, and bend them suddenly back -
IL the elbows touch. Every bone in 9
wretch's body seems to crack. It -
like an interview with the rack of :.
lden times. The instant this is ~
one he is as limp and neryelcss :"
! u clam. 1t is a curious thing -
lat the LUndUii mob employs the =,
tactics with the police as the -,
olicemen use with the people. They y,
y in every way to divide the solid q,
1alanx of the officers who endeavor ~
resist by linking arms with each ~,
her, and in that condition stand an ~,
'ormous strain. However, when the
OBJ succeeds the individual member
the force is roughly handled. They 81
1irl him round and round, crack his I'll
mes, and if he once loses his feet and u
es down it means several months in VI
J hospital or all eternity in his coffin. ag
front of the Free Press office. in the "a
and, L once saw a mounted police VI
n swallowed up, horse and all, by gu
mob. He didn't lose his feet, but IRA
lost his head. He got angry, which al
! thing the mob can never abide. He ssr
to charge them back with his
rse. The mob literally rose at him say
1 swept his horse and himself for II
mt twanty wards ibo h... voI