The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-03-18

morning Is to enter the streets of a
deserted city. A few cabs with sleepy
horses and invisible cabmen may be
in the ranks of a street here and there;
now and then bus may rumble past;
occasionally, too, a private equipage
of one or two horse power will hurry
by; and, of course, men and women
and children will straggle along; but
what movement there is only heightens
and intensifies the emptiness and lone
illness of the monster city's desolation.
and one asks ones self wonderingly,
Where are the crowds and the confu-
sion of yesterday the surging thous-
ands, the incessant stream of traffic.
the dull, reverberating rumble of
wheels, the muffied clip-clap of my
riads of iron-shod hoofs beating the
pavement, and that inarticulate, inde-
Unable hum of a great city's babble? :?
Whittier has it all vanished?
They only can tell who are the par
ticles of the daily commotion. Every
thing is closed, as If men. were done
with buying and selling, even the
pubs" being strictly forbidden to sell
to anyone not traveller" though
believe any person who lives a three
miles remove from the pub" may quail
ify as a. traveller" A resident Of any
of the principal American cities who
has not been in London on a Sunday
has but an imperfect idea of what Sum
day observance really means. Com
pared with London, New York, which
makes a flourish of Sunday closing, has
a fete, and Chicago q carnival on the
seventh day. London is more puritan
ical than Boston and more sweetly SOL
emn than Philadelphia, and 1t is pur-
itanism rather than an evidence of
l. I..,,, ,,.,Gs .,t,f
because the benevOlence and philan-
thropy and evangelism of Sunday-open
art galleries cannot be made evident to
the minds in authority.
NO SUNDAY DIN.
!" dBut you are glad of the quiet and re-
pose as you walk abroad, and appreci-
atc,the beneficence of IL day of rest 50
universally respected. There Is no
temptation to loiter in the streets. for
the shop windows have heavy shutters
before them or are curtained within.
The tradesplan does not seem to think
it worth while to cheat his God or
|juggle with his conscience by using his
windows as Sunday advertising medi-
um. He closes up shop In earnest. So,
with nothing to see i'm the thorough
fares. you stroll into the parks. and
there you see the lower middle-class
world, all ages, decked out, Il la Nc
Ginty, in its best suit of clothes, quite
at ease and happy, idle. chatty. laugh
ing, but to the full degree orderly and In
no way noisy. You may hear present
~ the far-resounding boom of Big
Ben" proclaiming from his lofty tower
the aging of the day, and you will know
that cathedral. abbey and church are
receiving their congregations and that
soon from thousands of chors and pull
pits will ascend that spiritual essence
of physical submission which has made
the nineteenth century a little better
than any other cycle that ever was.
Now, if you chacne to stand In one
of the buster thoroughfarcs near
church you will note another London
popularity. ON the lamp-posts of the
refugees" I'm the middle of the streets
are placards. hung there only Sundays.
which bear the command Drive Slow
ly." The driver of bus or cab or cart of
"growler' or carriage pulls sharply up
at that notice and keeps his team at a
walk until the church is well passed;
then he may whip into q trOt again and
go his lively way to the next warning.
Services in a London church are not
disturbed by the roar of the careless
street: hardly as much may he said for
some American cities. in which the
prayer of the pastor Is often punctured
by the shrill voice of the newsboy cry
ing his wares, or the organ takes its
grewsome minor from the smothered
bang and rattle Of the passing wagons.
that seem to concentrate their dynamic
energies before a church door. This
street placard. which aims to s,ibordin-
ate worldly necessities to spiritual de-
sires, and which, in n manner. typifies
a London Sunday, would not. | fear.
have much influence upon the independ-
ent ardor of Yankee jehus. But here
constable stands before the door of the
church, and. though he never hits a
finger nor opens his lips in admoniton.
his presence is an all-sufficlent reminder
OF laws that are uncomprOmisingly and
surely enforced. What marvellous crea.
lures these London policemen are. to he
sure! Quiet. undemonstrative, polite.
ready-their voices always modulated
to conversational tones; no buster. no
clubs; NO knocking down and dragging
on.