Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-05-17

search OF strange sights it has its. COM
pensati0ns. 1ae strain of feeling your
self among strangers is soon relieved, and
after years stay one is hardly conscious
of having lived in a foreign country. The
different use of the same words is anus
ing. Our trunks are Boxes" our bag
gage luggage" You grill quail, and
post" a letter. One is oftener queer
than he's sick, and so on ad infinitum.
Everything Is the article. the" THE
parcel, 1.-THE draught." "the pill" Our
get used to hanging old clothes where my
grandmother had taught me to put cups
and saueers. Counting, IL there be rec
ipracity of feeling, Is "sweethearting.
An elevator is a lift" of which there are
precious few. Children never say yes
ma am or mo sir" It's always yes
mama or mo papa" quite a musical
and sweet difference American women
q say this regretfully) can learn much in
regard to the graces of speech from her
cousin on the other side. Take the SIM
pie word FIX" We fix our hair, fix any
thing, everything Unfortunately. The
English woman never! She dresses her
hair. or dons her gown, and Is careful to
have a particular meaning for each word.
One of the most surprising and amusing
things is the English than you," spoken
with a jerk and the rising infection.
Giving or receiving, it's all one. The post
man hands you a letter and says "thank
your You say thank YOU and the
postman returns thank your With the
servant and the shop girl 1t is the same.
One could but feel doubtful of this awful
polteness. I believe If you knocked
man down he'd rise up and hurf it after
you.
A years time is short for some observa-
tions, but it was long enough for me to
realize the truth that of the 100000 who
make up the life of London hundreds of
thousands of them do not live" at all;
they merely hive" You and 1 would
call their existence an endless burden. A
ride along the famous White Chapel on
top of bus or tram car was great dis
appointment to me. had come to see
the center of shundom, and found my
self on quite the broadcast and in some
respects brightest and liveliest thorough
fare In London. The houses were nice
enough, the show windows gay and the
sidewalks full ofpeople, livelier and jollier
than anything saw in the sedate West
End. But off to either side stretched
narrow streets, lined with rows of sloven-
ly. brick houses, with here and there
factory. That Is where the people "hive"
and where the women look on the bar
room as the bright spot of their lives.
That is where the mission work of count
less self sacrificing men and women is
done. l wish 1 could tell you all Eng
land is doing for her poor. 1t Is the
brightest jewel in her crown today. But
can tell you of one little place know
and love in this end of London, founded
by young American, where 500 helpless
cripples are tenderly cared for.
Ionce attended two receptions In SIM
gle afternoon. The first was In high life.
To my eyes now come visions of palms
and roses, great men and beautiful wom-
en-, red-liveried footmen with powdered
hair, flashing jewels and filmy iaces; to
my ears come again the murmur OF
voices and laughter and the enchant-
ment of soft sweet music. From such q
bewildering scene turned my hurrying
steps, and, taking an underground rail-
road, went down to the East End. The
visioli now, though not of palace splen-
dor, is more touchingly beautiful Those
500 attle deformed bodies those 500 hap
BY faces, those 500 grateful hearts, en-
1oying m the good ta,iags- to eat! And
hear yet and shall never cease to hear
the glorious tones of Antoinette Sterling
as she sings to these little ones of the
Ghrist-child. / see now-I shall ever see
through all the coming years-those 500
tear stained, worshipful faces as
those beautiful words and those
tSa,r ton ts1e s hearts dee When
left London on December 81 one of the
leading daily papers was raising fund
to give 5000 crippled children a Christmas
dinner and to furnish needed surgical
appliances. These 5000 only begin the
count of the sum total, and l was told
by those who study the question that
many of these deformities come from
measures taken to prevent child
birth, while thousands of others
result from the neglect Of per-
fectly well born infants by pa
rents too besotted with drink to care
what happens to the little ones.
All. me! The sights and sounds of Lon
don. The ever steady roar. 1t never
ceases. All day, all night, IL O'Clock,
O'Clock, o'clock. The bell strikes ..
There is. lull which by comparison
seems almost a hush. The ciatter OF
running horse. the yell Of the million
cats. hoarse curse of the inebriate, the
hollow laugh of fallen women come
nearer. The clock strikes 4. Surer and
faster comes the tramp of horses hoofs,
louder and louder the roll OF heavy wag-
ons and the shouts of countless drivers.
The clock strikes 6. All the familiar
sounds are back now; the crescendo has
reached that bewildering, steady, never
to-be-forgotfen roar
{. But must away to9the fogs. AS the
school boy says, there are several
Kinds of fogs, few of which will mem
tion. the gray fog and the black fog and
the yellow fog. But you never saw fog
and no man ever will see fog SO black
but what the Englishman has seen 1t
worse. He loves 1t more than his lordly
self; it's above and beyond parliament,
roast beef, English laws even Talk to
him about the abbey or the British mu-
scum and he'll yawn In your face, burt
tell him he has the ''nastiest" fog on
earth and count on him for your friend
forever Even Mr.. C. caught the infec-
tion. One day he came In almost excit-
ed. s1t's comingv' he cried. 'What?"I
gasped. why, the fog 1t was little
darker. / had not noticed, though, that
even when the sun shone It was like
'.looking through glass darkly."
i run to the window; itsgrows darker;
the long view / have of oxford street
grows DINNER. Now the bright beauty
of3the shop windows Is lost, of waving
fiaks and golden. signs The people van
isH: the gay colors of the buses are mel
lowing; softer yet they grow-fading,
fading, gone'l All gone save the dull red
glow Of the lamps below. On comes the
for, faster faster. All. it strikes your
face; 1t spr.nkles your hair with Its cool,
clear Jewels Quick, shut down the win
dow! The fascination is ON me; I throw
on cloak and hat and rush down to the
wet pavement. slowly, carefully wend
my way How interesting 1t is! How the
fog eludes you, deludes you. beckons you'll