The copper country evening news., 1898-01-11
SUNDAY in LONDON.
HOW ITS QUIET AND REPOSE DIFFER
FROM WEEKDAY BUSTLE.
Everything Is "Ciosed" In Real Earnest.
How Churches Guarded Against Noise.
A Mild but Ercient Police-The Love
of Outdoor Life.


A London Sunday is very solemn II
not prominently religious day. Per
haps there is no city in the world that, to
the stranger, shows as austere and repel-
liant on the "Saw BATH as this modern
Babylon. To issue from your hotel or
domicie at 10 o'clock In the 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 street
here and there; now and then bus may
rumble past; occasionally, too, private
equipage Of one or.two horsepower will
hurry by; and, of course, men and women
end children will straggle along; but what
movement there is only heightens and IN
tensifes tho emptiness and loneliness Of
the monster city's desolatien, and one asks
ones self wonderingly, Where are the
crowds and the confusion of yesterday, the
surging thousands, the incessant stream
Of traffic, the dull, reverberating rumble
of wheels the mufiled clip-clap of myriads
of ironshod hoofs beating the pavement,
and that inarticulate, indefnable hum Of
great city's babble? Whittier has 1t all
vanished? They only can tell who are the
particles of the daily commotion. Every
buying and selling even the pubs being
forbidden to sell to any one not tray
eler," though / believe 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 the
beneflcenco of day Of rest SO universally
respected There Is no temptation to loter
| in the streets, for tho shop windows have
heavy shutters before them or are curtain
| ed within. The tradesman does not seem
| to think it worth while to cheat his God
| or juggle with his conscience by using his
windows as IA Sunday advertising medium.
| He closes up shop I'm earnest. So, with
| nothing to SEQ in the thoroughfares, you
| stroll into the parks, and there you see the
| lower middle class world, all ages, decked
| out, In MoGinty, in its best suit OF
| clothes, quite at ease and happy, idle,
| chatty, laughing, but To the full degree or
derly and in po way noisy. You may hear
| presently the far resounding boom of Big
| Ben'' proclaiming from his lofty tower the
| aging of tho day, and you will know that
| cathedral, abbey and church are receiving
their congregations and that soon from
thousands of choirs and pulpits will ascend
that spiritual essence of physical submis-
| sion which has made the nineteenth CEN
tury little better than any other cycle
that ever WAS Now, il you chance to
| stand in one of the buster thoroughfares
near O church you will note another Lon
don popularity. On the lampposts of the
"refuges' in the middle of the street are
placards, hung there only Sundays which
bear the command Drive slowly. The
driver of bus or cab or cart or growler'
or carriage pulls sharply up mt that notice
and keeps his team at walk until the
church is we'll passed; then he may whip
into trot again and go his lively way TO
the next warning. Services in 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,
typifes London Sunday, would not,
fear, have much influence upon the inde
pendent ardor of Yankee jehus. But here
| n constable stands before the door OF the
| church, and, though he never lifts finger
| nor opens his lips In admonition, his pres
| ence Is an all sufficient reminder OF laws
that are uncompromisingly and surely en-
| forced What marvellous creatures these
| London policemen are, to be sure Quiet
| undemonstrative, polite, ready = t,eil
| voices always modulated to- Conversations
tones; no biuster, no clubs, no KNOCKING
dcwn ard dragging CT.
Yet thcy give tho biggest city in tn,
world the best police service ana prove
! bettor than argument may what really
civilized community London Is. Evei
Paris arms her police with huge dagger
by courtesy called u sword, an instrumen
of defense and assault that the dapper gen
darmes arc only too ready to draw and pS
to use Sunday does not end with day
light as it does in some communities tina
temporize with religion, but rounds ou
| the "a hours. Therefore there are no sun
day evening amusements. Theaters, mu
sic halls, vaudevilles, concert rooms
everything of the sort is scrupulousl.
closed So very strict are the authoritie
in these respects that it Is only with TIL
greatest difficulty and by the smallest ma
jority of votes that permission Is given 10
: | the Sunday opening OF such rare ana tenn
porary public benefits as the loan collec
tion of old paintings at Guildhali. ho
| Gently u concession has been made to mu
| sic. and it is possible now to attend
classical ana semisacred concert Sunda
| afternoon and evening, but these are In
| frequent there being only two ADVERTISE
in last Sundays papers. Whether thi
| Sabbath day rest be dictated by senti
,, | mental or by sensible consideration, ther
isn't the slightest doubt that its value
| London is so great that, IL all religion
: : scruples were removed, the present metro
q politan regulations would continue
force, for the public Is well aware OF th
! benefit TO the individual and to the CON
:, munity of this ordered suspension {
"wrangling worldliness." 1t noed not b
inferred from this that London Is con
] munity of churchgoers. Indeed my oil
seryation leads mo to the conclusion tha
an extraordinarily small proportion of TIL
vast population is-to borrow the phras
: | of an impious wretch-addicted to churci
But they make up for the deficiency by
: love of nature, for the outdoor life OF tn
English Is itself n religion. You woul
. think SO, indeed, to SOC their swimmin
= races In tho Serpentino in Hyde park o
? Christmas day. What other people tak'
!, an open air plunge into water every da
= In the year, often breaking through Ice
: do it. 1t Is not puritanism alone that biz
y such q people keep one day in the week Il
. better things than work.-Elwyn A. Ba
ron In Chicago Times-Herald.