Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-11-14
HYDE PARK ON SUNDAY.
Singular Revelations of n Recent
Visit-Very Free Speech-ReIigious
and IrrelIgious.

HYDE PARK ON SUNDAY.
| Singular Revelations of n Recent
| Visit-very Free Speech-ReIigious
and IrrelIgious.
LONDON, Nov. 2.
| To the Editor OF the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
The visitor to England who would in
form himself by practical object lesson
of the extent to which free speech is al
lowed in this country should make the
rounds of Hyde Park some Sunday sf-
ternoon. Many of the things observed
will not at all comport with the idea OF
| sanctity which usually attaches to the
Sabbath; but your conscience, we must
suppose, will have been fortified against
the shock awaiting it by your attendance
at church in the morning, and if any
additional palliative is needed you can
persuade yourself that it is the preach
ing you are going to hear primarily, and
that the other sights and sounds OF this
popular Sunday resort are only to be
taken en- route. Besides you will see lots
of human nature here, and on the as
sumption that the highest study of man
kind is man, you will be quite in the
path of duty; especially If, like the wri-
ter, you observe and listen for the pur-
pose of moralizing and profting thereby.
You will enter probably from Hyde
Park corner, and if you are an Ameri-
can, with fair detective instincts, you
will not feel in the least lonely. You
will miss in Rotten Row the stream of
elegantly appointed carriages which
sweeps through that famous drive on
other days, but in the walks adjacent
you will find a mighty tide of we'll
| dressed promeraders. Mostly English
| they will be, and mostly, therefore, held
up by walking sticks and topped off with
silk hats. So it will be, at least, with
the trousered species about you, and you
will be helped in picking out your free
| going compatriots by remembering that
| for the most part these will not disdain
| the humble felt as a Sunday head gear, and
| in their dread of old probabilities will be
helping themselves along with the sort of
walking stick that can be utilized in a
shower. But this crowd you will soon
leave, with that also which surrounds the
band stand, in your eagerness to find the
well, as we remarked at first, the preach
| ing.
The first group of auditors is small, and
The man to whom their attention is turned
| is just placing his hat where it is likely to
| do most good; thst is, in full view of those
| listening, with the hollow end turned ap-
| pealingly upwards. This looks like col
| lection, and for that reason, no less than
| from the intellectual phizog of the speaker,
| you might imagine yourself at an ortho-
| dox meeting. But you are soon disillu-
stoned, for the fellow announces himself
/ as a music hall artist out of a job. and,
| of course, he says he is from America.
| This American business is a regular catch
| penny in London. So many good things,
and so many that are not good, with 30
| many others which are in every way extra
ordinary, are always coming over here
from America, and walking off with the
blue ribbon of popular favor, that Eng
lishmen themselves find it to their advan-
tsge to 'scome over" and this was the sort
of customer who was now appealing to the
coppers in our pockets, and fairly making
them rattle in sympathy, by his tragic rem
dering of George R. Sims MAN Hunt"
What made the fraud in this case all the
more hateful to American sensioilities was
that the man perpetrating it sought to
palm himself off as an American in lam
gusge which played hide and seek with the
letter and was seasoned SO palpably with
/ the brogue of a downright cockney.
Our next stand is more promising. Here
we really find preaching-such as ii Is. a
man is telling an interested group of hear
| ers that he has quit the churches snd gone
| to-here he mentioned the name of the
| worlds redeemer. The churches could do
L 1t nt,r r.-
churches, especially of the Catholic church,
which, he said, prohibited its members
from reading the Bible. This was the sub
stance of what he was saying; but the
chief interest lay in the Interruptions he
met. The congregations in Hyde Park are
great for "talking back" "Yo don't
know what Christianity is" "He never
seed Christian, that bloke never did,"
"Who owns the land but the protestants-
a set of land thieves, they bin;" ''Ef yez
wants to whow phi wat the Catholic churruch
is come and hear Father Bennett tonight"
Such were some of the gentle hints thrown
out by various hearers on this occasion
some of them, as the reader will see, COM
ing from those who ought to know good
deal about the Catholic church-and it was
not long until one of these interruption
lists divided honors with the preacher by
haranguinR, in any.hing but religious lam
| d
Near by, a young fellow whose shaven
under lip and trim side whiskers would
suggest that he might be an English cler-
gyman-thst being the facial style of cler-
les over here-is addressing crowd in the
interests of the Domestic Servants union.
He is one of them himself. Gentlemen of
the cloth can have no just ground for Of
fence in the fact that we mistook him at
FIRST for one of their order, for the style of
4 E.. t, ranr 1kal H.
the English footmsn as by the English di-
vine; nor have we seen yet any decision as
to which can lay prior claim to this fash
ion. What this gentleman said in the few
moments we tarried within hearing was
that domestic service was not what it was
cracked up to be; that those following it
got to know lot of bad things about their
| masters and mistresses, and that If he
were to tell the sort of lives being lived by
Judges on the bench, and others high in
power, the hair on the heads of those be-
fore him would take such a sudden up
, ward bound that every hat would be q
dozen feet high in no time. The last re.
mark is given, think, verbatim, but his
, reply to some one who told him to shut up
and come down we cannot give 80 accu-
, rately. As is usual, however, with such
! retorts In Hyde Park, 1t had something in
, 1t about the man not knowing enough to
brush his hat the right way, and also about
his inordinate desire to talk having its
basis in the fact that he wanted to exhibit
his false teeth as much as possible.
But we are seeking a religious service,
and sure enough, as we turn from the
platform of the Domestic Servants union,
we find one that glsddens our eyes and
does our hearts good; for we fall upon one
of the old fashionedest of old fashioned
darkies; o veritsble old Virginia uncle, the
Y vh{oh oou1d hpva fmapfnad had
dropped down on the spot out of Uncle
. Toms Cabin, or from one of Tom Psge''