Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1895-03-08
FROM LONDON.
I'm Interesting Letter From Dr.
Il. M Roberts Now In that
City.
LONDON, England, Feb. II.

Il tII|ANO " AAA'
Your request for a letter to the
Transcript was duly received and az
vet answered-nOt because re-
pudiated your claim and thai OF the
Transcript upon me, for feel my
obliea ton for your many kindnesses
and courtesies of the past too deeply
to deny you anything-but because
find the choice of words to depict
the wonders of this great metropolis
necessarily much abbreviated-else
YOU would think me a modern
Munchausen.
1t Is very much as ifyou had just
returned from the Columbian Expo
siti0n and someone should ask you
to describe it, however. l Will at
tempt in a rough way to- give you a
pen picture OF Il very few of the no.
table places, costumes, etc, OF this
city.
In the first place you must kno"
that London covers an area zen
miles square and the population OF
the last census gives over six million
inhabitants. Truly very I'LL
ficult thing for anyone to- grasp
even though here. Allowing IT.;
mind to drift hack to Little Fails.
will say it covers an area equal t"
the territory lying between the Mis-
sissippi river on the west and tht
Platte river on the east and our nos
pital or dam on the north and Roy
alton on the south. Take our
county maps and draw those lines
and you have the area; as Tor the
population you would have to nave
over four times as many people as
at present live in the whole state OF
Minnesota to people it; or taking
Minneapolis, with its 100000 inhabl-
tants as an example, know that II
would take exactly twenty-eight
such cities to people it. or take the
combined population of New YORK.
Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Chicago
Minneapolis and st. Paul living in
this area and you again have it.
To do simple justice to such an
enormous place find no easy task
especially in view of the fact that
there are no 'squares' as we know
them, to compare with-very rarely
do we find any two streets running
parallel and it is indeed the most
difficult place to find ones way in
getting completely lost, daily &C.
currence. Owing to the enormous
traffic there are no, or very few,
street car lines, no electric or cable
roads but thousands of Omnibuses
traverse the streets in regular routes
with seats on top as well az inside.
capital way Of viewing the city.
Hanson cabs-great two wheeled
vehicles with rubber tires, In great
est abundance as well as four wheel
ers, all numbered (have ridden In one
numbered over 10000 each with a
printed plate ON giving the weight
allowed carried; to these add count
less thousands of drays, delivery
wagons, milk and butter carts, etc,
and myriads Of push carts. or tricyle
and quauricycle frames worked by
men and hundreds of men and boys
and oftimes women. on swift going
bicycles threading their way in ap-
parently momentary danger OF life
and limb and the the millions OF
human beings ON the constant rush
and you see the streets OF London.
The crush of humanity is so great
that the sidewalks do not suffice and
people rush into and across the
streets in great numbers. Such
streets-no where in the known
world are their equal to he found,
Just as level az the floor and all mae
cadamized and each one swept every
night with machinery and then
washed with hose from hehydrants.
During the day each sec ton OF street
has men and boys with broOms and
dust pans constantly picking up dirt
and debris as it falls-a quick run to
a chute that connects with the
sewer-dump it in and back to the
street for more. The traffic is so
enormous that ut all the prominent
street intersections two or more po-
licemen are on duty day and night.
in some districts where five or often
more streets cross, they are sta
toned by the score-in the neighbour
hood of the Bank of England dare
say 100 are constantly employed.
simply in regulating traffic, now ar
resting traffic on one street q few
seconds to permit the cross street to
empty its string OF vehicles, now
the other. tell you one has tolook
sharp and often run to get safely
over. Such a fine body of men, the
policemen, are rarely seen, great big
fello VS., few under six feet and many
much taller, very handsomely and
uniformed and all so very