Evening star., 1898-10-29
SLEEPLESS LONDON
Scenes in the Great City Between
Midnight and Dawn.
STREETS SEEM VERY QUIET TEEN
Supplying the People With Food
and Morning Papers.
SOME QUEER SIDE LIGHT

G. W Stevens in the London Mail.
The hardest worked of Londou's thor
oughfares is Fleet street, its bedtime is
from l to 8 These are the hours they
seize upon to wash it, BY the time the last
suburban homegOers have got to Iudgate
Hill the vestrymen are out with their hose
to sluice the poor, tired thing down. 1t is
almost empty. A hanson or two lay in
wait for the infrequent editor. The police
man stands in a reverie to read the bill of
fare OF the 1org cold restaurant and Won
ders what "choux fieurs au gratin'' might
be.
Go back at 3-when the rest of London
has got soundIy to its nest-and Fleet
street hardly dry from its morning tub, IS
il the flush of its mornings work A dull
grinding roar runs surf-iike along its two
shores-the sound of many printing ma
chimes. Carts are me wing through winding
alleys out of gaslit stables. Piles of news
papers grow up on its pavements, and
presently one by enc the carts clatter
away The muffied shrek of whistles and
tine clang Of distant buffers remind you
that the railway stations, they also never
sleep
CIatter and whistle and clank-yet with
il ali Fleet street is unearthly still. You
miss the backgrOuEd-the roar, that or
CAes--ation Of the London streets which in
the daNtlne accompanies ana ndrmOllZcS
all the leading notes. AT night the roar is
gone, q cart comes round corner with IL
crash that almost startles 1t is the same
with sight as with sound. 1t seems a para
doX. but the night is the only time when
You can see London. In the daytime if
y1u tried TO look up you would be knocked
down Moreover. it never occurs to you;
the ever-driving torrent of traffic keeps the
eyes down. and you forget that the build
Ings are anything more than the frontiers
Of the roadway.
Ever-wakefu Thames.
Go down to the Embankment, for exam
pie. and You can see the Thames. Black
fTiars and Waterloo bridges are coronets of
lamps. between them the venerable river
Is half seen, half OWNED through his man
lie of mist He is darkly turbid in the yel-
low gaslight. and you can smell his naked
ness Yet he is very great and deep ana
strong. bearing Up the heavy barges light
Il. running up and down. powerfully yet
not violently. thrt ugh the heart OF the city
reminding US that We are of the A
barge drifts past like a phantom, the Clink
Of the windlaSS on another insists on max
ing Itself known more intimately than by
day. Here. again, London never sleeps;
but ever carrying, scavenging, seething, in
spring, the most wdkeful of all Londoners
Is the Thames
Whispering terrible things and dear
to all of us-whispeTing of trade and en-
pIre 10 some. but whispering perhaps some
thing else. not less terrible and dear, to
these shadow shapes on the EUbaHkment
benches. They. too. are part of sleepess
LpuJCu-beCause they must. The rule is
that YOU may sit on the Embankment seats,
bur You mustn't doze there. and that rule
tu- police enforce. So You see dim forms
rise uP at the reVciIle of the pOliCeman's
boot and walk themselves awake again.
passing on TO the next seat. But that is
fu.l-threc old men and an old-young
woman, their clothes swaddled around
them as far they will go. A boy-thank
heaven for boys-has had the idea of hid
ing himself behind one of the parapets
near the river police station and sleeps pro-
fpundlE- SO does gentleman with d white
tie showing over his coat, sitting with his
head swinging cupboard as if II would
break of and tumble into the tall hat which
rolls at MS side. Snoring richly. he is-for
the moment-the happiest man on the En-
bankment- For the rest of them-they are
LOndon's bad dreams.
What London Must Have.
There are three things, you soon perceive.
for which London will not wait-food let
ters and newspapers. The paper carts are
still Gathering toward the stations, and
there is nothing to compete with them but
the foUr-horsed parcel post vans and the
market wains. They both breathe of tha
country. and altogether at night London
Is very much nearer to the fields outside
ttHn she IS by day. The post vans have
come up by road from anywhere within
ifty miles for all the world like stage
Co"'HtS Ihey are suggestive commSnt
On our loose control over our railways.
me DIG draught horses and big wagons
have not come far but they have come
lar enough 10 give you a smell of apples
@54H tiFiipS almost as sweet as hay At
1o'eht Garden you find them slowly chok-
4LE up the maze of little streets POrtars
pass slowly up and down, work Is in fuII
swing but again it is curiousIy silent. Tbe
men ar 700 busy 10 give you the full bene-
NJ OF tHe.r mixture of country and cock
ny. ih"re Is no sound but the scrI1rch of
Ar't'F wheels, backing to their f.uloadfnp
pas. and The slitheriug of heavy IRON
SALt iesi on the sticky cobbIes as the
N-sI uGtses ME OFF 10 their Stables The
balt stable might come straight from a
Itfm-IGSt a big whitewashed blauL Wit h
thaiIer along one end. The smell of
ms 100 mas stolen some sweetues; from
the fields.
Among the Markets
'oVent Garden is half lit and half asleep
SInithhelt. on the other hand. flares with
Eight and enhoes with strong voices
through the broad streets Won are p1,,ded
by meat wagons of a form seldom seen nv
CaELEh'-a sort Of railway horse box on
"ns---S' only with open sides, which show
you max oxen hanging each In its o,Un
compartment, from the roof -rt,1,1t, ~ ~ u
t4-tts about Little Britain Won rn1I, fai0
-" steady stream OF statesmen. brlsker
nc .''' vegetable people of Coyeut Or
go 4id the big market is a blaze of Iisb+
az, c'-pr- II might be a scene from an
eti'1E- ballet Corridors Of shining rnaat
VIII crimson lean and dazzling yr7IoJ,. Fst.
s>--g'.E mem porters with Who'll siJas ~
l-'-, "Ho-e sheep, whole pigs vvrrb obIIt
'E'-Silts and fOre-trottcrs crossed i, ~,
q tudt OF prayer. In long white n -
L'Ni c"lt each salesman stands bafoTe he
I--AS-IoF on row Of it, street an ttraa,
IaA on van outside. d little cftv of 80
--t- and raw meat VI gas
hnl london is not all belly: the p,areroI
'-- "'.i also is an island Of pasIis6t IA
80 's' HA'HI carts are numbering off aftar
S,-g H""Siapcrs toward thu early traire
- Z" IN TO cheapsIde and AT last -
IIg'He Z" What You sOught-I.ondon asISa,'
r., indeed, the city is paved win siIanr, p
~ very policeman hardly breaks IL for
IS 'l MS lims he is bending dnun 80
n 90 see II anybody IS out a-hure,Ii,,+
oN can look down elades OF hoIIses al
y. and see not single living tIfn@I All
- -. -,'ie' 4lIn as the light is YOU find S,II,r
80 7'.'FeElng beauties and Interests -,
q" A"hdTed tiTnss unsuspectad i, -,
p!'ad .t@At- The city churches h,+ ~ -.
ot'S- sIrvivals Of a dead past ~ LAY LAY
cone RE focuses Of hitherto ,,,,-',i,
e'L~'.SHapes- The bank is mean anS tSu tt
o,-H interesting thing about the Royai IL
tst1E-Er = lis Inr.rar -