The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-28
SUNDAY IN LONDON.
HOWiYS QUIET AND REPoSE DIFFER
FROM WEEKDAY eUSTLE.

low Churches Guarded Against Noise.
A Mild but Efficient Police-Ths Love
OF Outdoor Life.
A London Sunday is q very solemn II
not pre-sminently religious day. Per-
haps there is no city in tho world that, to
the stranger, shows as austoro and repel-
liant on the "Saw bath" as this modern
Babylon. To issue from your hotel or
Eomicile at 10 o'clock In the morning is
TO enter tho streets of deserted city. A
few cabs with sleepy horses and invisible
cabmen may be in the ranks of u street
hero and there; now and then q bus may
rumble past; occasionally too, a private
equipage Of ono or two horsepower will
hurry by; and, Of course, mon and women
and children will straggle nlong; but what
movement there is only heightens and In
tensihes the emptiness and loneliness of
the monster oity's desolation, and one asks
ones self wonderingly, where are tho
crowds and the confusion Of yesterday, the
surging thousands tho incessant stream
of traffic, the dull, reverberating rumble
of wheels, tho mufiled olip-clap of myriads
of ironshod hoofs beating the pavement,
and that inarticulate, indefinable hum of
q great oity's babblef Whittier has it all
vanished? They only can tell who are the
PARTICLES Of the daily oommotion. Every
thing Is closed, as II men were done with
buying and selling even the "pubs'' being
forbidden to sell to any ono not a ''trav
eler," though l bolievo any person who
lives three miles remove from the pub"
may qualify as n traveller.
But you are glad of the quiet and repose
as you walk abroad and appreciate tho
bcnefloenoo of day of rest SO universally
respected. There is no temptation to loiter
in the streets, for the shop windows have
heavy shutters before them or are curtain
ed within. The tradesman does not soem
to think 1t worth while to cheat his God
or jugglo with his conscience by using his
windows as Sunday advertising medium.
He closes up shop In earnest. So, with
nothing to SEQ in the thoroughfares, you
stroll into the parks, and there you see the
lower middle class world, oil ages, decked
out, n la MoGinty, In it's best suit of
Clothes quite ut ease and happy, idle,
chatty, laughing, but to the full degree or
derby and in no way noisy. You may hear
presently tho far resounding boom of "Big
Bon" proclaiming from his lofty tower the
aging of tho day, and you will know that
cathedral, abbey and church are receiving
thoir congregations and that soon from
thousands OF ohoirs and pulpits will ascend
that spiritual essence of physical submis-
sion which has made the nineteenth con-
tury little better than any Other Cycle
that ever was. Now, II you chance to
stand in one of the busier thoroughfares
near q church you will note another Lon
don popularity. On the lampposts of the
refugees In the middle of the street arc
NIL dc thnr nv1r toH
bear the command "Drive slowly" The
driver Of bus or cab or cart or "growler"
or carriage pulls sharply up at that notice
and keeps his team at q walk until tho
church Is we'll passed; then he may whip
into q trot again and go his lively way to
tho next warning. Services In a London
church are not disturbed by the roar of the
careless street. This street placard, which
aims to subordinate worldly necessities to
spiritual desires, and which, in manner,
typifles q London Sunday, would not, /
fear, have much influence upon tho indie
pendent ardor of Yankee jehus. But hero
a constable stands before tho door of the
church, and, though he never lifts q finger
nor opens his lips in admonition, his pres
ence is IN oil sufficient reminder of laws
that are uncompromisingly and surely en-
forced. What marvellous creatures these
London policemen are, to be suroi Quiet,
undemonstrative, polite, ready - their
voices always modulated to conversational
tones; no bluster no clubs, no knocking
down end dragging off.
Yet they give tho biggest city in the
world the best police service and prove
better than argument may what u really
civilized community London is. Even
Paris arms her police with hugo dagger,
by courtesy called sword, an instrument
of defense and assault that the dapper gon-
darmes arc only too ready to draw and put
to use. Sunday does not end with day
light, rs it does IN some communities that
temporizc with religion, but rounds out
the "a hours. Therefore thero arc no Sun
day evening amusemonts. Theaters mu-
sic halls, vaudevilles, concert rooms
everything of the sort is scrupulously
closed. So very strict arc tho authorities
in these respects that it is only with the
greatest difficulty and by the smallest ma
jority Of votes that permission is given for
the Sunday opening of such raro and tenn
porary public benefits as the loan oollec-
ton Of old paintings at Guildhall. Re-
comfy concession has been made to mu-
sic, and 1t is possible now to attend
classical and semisacred concert Sunday
afternoon and evening, but these are In
frequent, there being only two advertised
IN iast SunuayS papers. whether this
Sabbath day rest be dictated by senti-
mental OF by sensible consideration there
isn't the slightest doubt that its value to
London is SO great that, If oil religious
scruples were removed, the present metro
politan regulations would continue in
force, for tho public is we'll aware of the
benefit to the individual and to the COM
munity Of this ordered suspension OF
"wrangling worldliness.' 1t need not be
inferred from this that London is COM
munity of ohurchgoers. Indeed nv OBJ