The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-02-05

don was never so full before. and, let Us
hope. will never be again. | kept In the
street mostly, among the wheels OF ca0S
and towering, numbering two-Story omnl-
buses, seeing a policeman on every corner
or curve Of the curbStone and, what struck
me as the first pleasant and pretty thing.
a pretty buXOm, brown lass crying aloud,
"Ten q penny, all cracked Ten penny.
all cracked! Ten a penny, all cracked!
Then suddenly. above and all over this
crowd and cry and war and rumble was
heard the mighty voice Of Big Ben, away
up in the square tower of Parliament,
booming and booming in slow and stately
measure the hour of midday. The pretty
browH-faced country girls IN their short
skirts stopped short, as all country people
will, lifted their fine healthful forms
till the great big twelve hours
were toled, and then, Ten
penny. all cracked Ten penny. all
cracked" And l kept On, and the cry kept
on for miles and miles and miles. Thou
sands aud tens of thousands of pretty Brit
ish girls from the country. their arms bare
to the elbow and their hands stained TO the
wrists, were selling English walnuts.
"Ten penny, all cracked! Ten
penny. all cracked! Ten a penny, all
crackedp' God bless them! | shall never
see such CHEEKY, merry. healthful sight
again.
AT last | wedgpd and corkscrewed through
an old gate, Temple Bar, the old west wall
of London, and found stlIl the same rumble
anu roar, the same dense, dark mass OF
humanity. and nearly two-lhirds women;
and all the time and on every corner and
curve. that high, wild and CHEEKY cry from
the country. Ten penny" etc.
Hideously ugly were the low. black houses
that nearly knocked their bsetling and
smoke begrmed brows together IN the
smoke that hung above US. | know of no
houses in the world so sadly deformed, so
misshapen and ugly as these houses in Lou
don, except the famous "bTownStOu9
fronts" Of New York. Those of Newport
are uglier simply because they are uniform
and unbroken in their uglineSs and painful
effort at respectabiity, while those Of Lon
don are relieved now and then by having
one here aud there still uglier than the other
ugly ones.
got fearfully weary, went in at pub
ic'' aud asked for water, where women were
coming in and going out with beer-pitchers
and babies aud babies and pitchers peep
ing out from under the dirty shawl that
wrapped the brawny shoulders and half
concealed the eering, drunken face. \ lean
see how reasonable 1t was Tor man from
the mountains TO ask for water; and can
now, after years of residence there, where
never man, woman or child thinks of water
to ask for il. The pretty barmaids only
looked at me in the Intervals between
beer jerking" and as | had not learned to
drink any thing but water | went out along
Il
and jugs and crept on. There was sign at a
crosSway: "Y. Nj. c. A, and for threepence
bed, bread, coffee and an egg and gentle
men. Bless them for that sweet first rest
in London. Then Big Ben again began TO
toll off the twelve hours OF midnight. The
strokes were so sudden and loud that
started up in my narrow bed. The ear OF
the mountaineeT used to wild beasts and
wilder men, grows keenly sensitive. And
that is why venture TO recite you the
strange sounds and slences OF the mighty
city when there were so many other things
to be told The omnibuses, the elevated cars
Of Ludgate Hill, the countless cabs, as
rule, the very heart of the tremendous city
was slenced BY the melodious toll and roll
and roar Of the great clock that tolled the
hour of midnight away up IN the Parlia-
ment Tower by the Thames.
Sleep; and then the tide OF tumult slowly
but surely began 10 rise and swell, sweep in
upon us from the four parts of England.
The city must have its breakfast. A SIM
Pile thing? The feeding OF London is prob
ably the most complex and curious thing in
this world. and the story of 1t would take a
book aud year. The first distinct sound
and cry that stood out on the porch Of my
ear and waited for admission TO my senses
was. whackl Then long, wild up-and-
down corkScrew cry, or scream, or screen
that would make coyote ashamed OF him.
self. IL was indeseribable, unspellable. un-
unpronOunceable, but 1t sounded like
''mee- l-o-ikW and it meant milk The man
whacks his heavy cup or quart measure on
the iron rail that locks in the descent to the
kitchen when he comes to tell the cook that
it is empty of water and clean. Then that
fendish howl of his Then he whucks the
cup again as he goes TO show that he has
emptled his measure.
Yes. all this seems silly enough, | know.
but no scribe has walked this milky way
before that l know OF, ana yet every day
just before dawn there is emptied INFO Lon
don, and in exactly this fashion. and with
out the least ghost OF diminution or altera-
ton in the hideOus screech Of that aproned
owl. enough milk 10 make river. These
milkmads are all men now. though there is
And, indeed, within my memory an Ameri-
can went over there and tried to introduce
girls, like barmaids, nutgirls and the like,
but it did not work.
There is another cry in London. more
familiar In the spring and in the suburbs.
and il is heard about the time you begin to
smell your savory Saxon chop broiling in
| the kitchen below and this cry. | am glad
| to record, Is really meledious 1t comes
| from stout and rudy country woman.
| with n broad basket on her head, as
| she keeps the middle of the street and
| turns around and about while she SLOWLY
| makes her way forward Her cry, as loud
! and long and high as her CHEEKY country
| voice can make il, Is, rs nearly as II can be
| set down, like ah-tah-cre-si-es-cesW She
| has watercresseS, fresh from the COW
| always allow the poor to gather without
| charge.
| In the morning found everybody going
| one way, toward London Bank. And why
not cali it Boston Bank or American Bank I?
For an American Of Boston was the founder