The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-02-08
THE WORLDS BUSIEST STREET.
Cheapside in London, Lively And Histor
ic Thoroughfare.

SutdpSldC is UAO puolCsu SUIC6U Ill Uut
world, writes London correspondent
of the Boston Sunday Herald. Cheapside
is a street, and a busy one. The busiest,
/ dare say, of the whole world of streets.
1t is not long; it is not beautiful; it is
not the resort of the fashionable. 1t is a
bust ness thorougfhare from first to last,
and it has more history crammed into
it's short stretch than -other great
thorougfares have in their combined long
ones. Cheapside being not at the side
of anything in the present era. but at
the heart of all things, being in the
heart of London, has very important
place in civic affairs 1t is what they
call ian artery of traffic. asphalted into
the bargain, and affording ingress and
exit as between the city and the regions
west. If it has quarter OF mile to
it's length, it has as much as it can
legitimately claim and even that includes
little slice at the eastern end called the
Poultry" title which signifies local
purpose in the picturesque past.
Cheapside has at one end the Poultry,
but this need not be counted as sepa-
I rate entity. And at the Poultry end is
the Mansion house, where the lord mayor
lives in gold-laced state. Cheapside
bumps into Thread needle street, up to
the steps of the Royal exchange and
against the walls of the Bank of England
institutions which are both useful and
ornamental At the other end of Cheap
side there is a statue of Sir Robert Peel.
But venture to say that half the people
who pass here every day do not know
whose statue it is, and of the other half
an inconsiderable fraction will have
some accurate notion as to who Sir Rob-
ert Peel really was, the balance being
able to suggest only that he had "some-
thing to do with the police"
Cheapside is to London what lower
Broadway is to New YORK, between the
post Office and Wall street. Shops, shops,
shops, insurance companies, great mer-
camille houses, restaurants, church
Dick Whitington;s, that is to say, Bow
church, where the bells still tlngle-these
are the stationary ingredients OF Cheap
side. Omnibuses, human beings, cabs
and carriers vans are the movable ones.
Cheapside is like the channel of tidal
river; at one time of the day the current
sets in one direction, and at another time
it GIBBS to the opposite course.
The street has many funny little trlbu-
taries, with funny little names Bread
street, Friday street, Ironmonger lane,
and the Old Jewry being some of these;
narrow passages where, in days more
primitive than our own, opposite neigh
bors leaned out of windows and shook
hands across the street, while from the
pavement they could scarcely have seen
the sky, SO closely did the overhanging
10 fho fhnrnnf
But there are no dwellings in Cheapside
now, nor in the adjacent tributaries.
The buildings are all for business pur-
poses only; the old vogue OF Overhang
has long been dipsensed with, and a
sprightly moder nair is worn by the COM
mercial architecture.
One kind of commodity Cheapside has
in more abundance than any other place
on the whirling footstool-jewelry. 1t
may not be the most sumptuous jewelry
that ever was made; it may not COM
pare with the golden flagree work of
Zamara, but it is jewlery, nevertheless,
and Of good sort for the moderate
class. And.there is SO much of it that it
overfiows the contracted .emporiums and
chains, necklaces, fantastic guards, be-
hind the plateglass windows. 1t seems
to be a trick of Cheapside's shops to
display all.their treasures to the preoccu-
pied eyes of all those who here march in
Iegions along the pavement They pour
their wares into their windows with
reckless ..profusion suggestive of the
Orient-that is to say, the Orient you
read about, not the Orient which &C
tually exists. Cheapside should enchant
those western gentlemen who believe
that silver is to be the savior of nations.
For the jewelry of Cneapside is mainly
silver jewelry, and the radiance of the
windows is the white radiance which
furnishes with such hapless result in the
London fog.
They had a pleasant way. five or six
centuries ago, of observing public festi-
vities by opening wine in the streets.
When son was born to King Edward
II. wine ran in Cheapside, and there was
nothing else TO drink. Tuns of it were
distri buted :, and all the passers by were
hailed to come and help themselves.
Those cheerful practices could not be at
temped in these prosaic times Is it
that our human nature has progressed
SO far that it cannot safely indulge it.
self in this style of holiday? If you
opened a tun of wine in Cheapside
no adays, you would have to call the
military within half an hour alter re-
moving the bung.
Cheapside is best seen between 9 and
10 in the morning or between and I
in the afternoon; either when everybody
is coming to or going from his occupa-
ton. But all day long the street is
crowded from end to end, SO crowded
that you cannot anywhere cross in safety,
except at the points where constables are
stationed to regulate the. traffic.
One of the odd features of Cheapside
is the line of pedestrians who stand in
either gutter, stringing along the curbs
and vending catch penny toys. These
merchants are an amusing lot in their
way. Their harangues are endless and
not wholly lacking In wit, although
their language is not altogether parlia-
mentary. They sell the most wonderful
assortment of ingenious toys that you can
imagine, and every week or two they
produce some new thing. Variety is the
Spice of their race. The wonderful toys
that can be bought of them for penny
allure all kinds of people who go city
ward. / know men on the stock ex-
change who make it point to buy
every new penny toy that appears on
Cheapside Their collections have al
ready the appearance of lesser South
Kensington museum, or a glorifed
Lower Arcade. The penny toy vendors
may not pause in their vending. The
watchful "bobby" keeps them on the
move, necessary precaution in this
thick stream of traffic One should see