Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-11-16
THE SHANE OF LONDON.

The telegraph has recounted some
thing of the general scenes enacted in
London upon the occasion of the popu-
lar reception to the volunteers who ar
rived from South Africa, and the ac-
counts contained the details of the dis
orderly mob OF people, and gave the
long list of Tiled and wounded
But it was reserved for the mail to
bring the fine points of descriptive in
terest, and to fully show what an orgie
it really was. An English correspond
ent of the Springfield Republican, ac-
quainted with great gatherings and
with scenes of popular excitement IN
continental cities, has set down his OBJ
servations and comparisons, greatly to
the discredit of London. He says he
has seen the streets of Paris filled with
two million people upon the occasion
of Bastile fete, and has witnessed an
assemblage of 100000 people in the
Prater at Vienna, without a case OF
drunkenness or disorder in the Police
Courts the next day; has witnessed
popular gatherings in Florence and
Brussels, in Constantinople, and Naples
and Berlin, but never in all his life
did he witness such scenes as were en-
acted in his home city of London. He
says:
/ therefore claim, he says. to know
what actual life is in various cities, and L
assert that all the rowdyism, drunken
ness. sheer idiotic, vulgar debauchery of
visible trifie compared with that of Lon
don as displayed on Monday and on Satur-
day night, when patriotism was suppos-
ed to be asserting itself. Ladysmith nignt
worse, but r. G. |. V. nights (there were
two of them) beat everything ever seen
in any city of so-called Christendom.
The correspondent gives some ac-
count of what he himself witnessed,
and reports what friend and ex-
member of Parliament says he saw, OF
which this is part:
The worst sight of all was the women.
In addition to those gin-sodden hags, OF
whom one sees more in London than IN
were hundreds of well-dressed women and
girls, who literally flung themselves into
the arms of men; each sex tlckled the
others face and ears with feathers, threw
squtrts of dirty water at each other, and
then wound up with general osculatlon.
And this was not in the slums, but
in the streets bordering one Of the most
central thoroughfares, the great thor
oughfares themselves being filled with
throngs of men and women, almost
every one intoxicated. His reflection
is that "our imperialism imperialism
is word of pride and baasting in
England) is a fine Latin name for the
recrudescence of ali the brutality and
lust for gold which have unhappily
characterized the English people and
their piratical ancestors.
Christian ethics are cast aside as unfit
for the descendants of the Morse pirates
and Saxon marauders. The gospel ac-
cording to the late Herr Nietzsche is the
gospel of London to-day, in place of that
of Jesus Christ, retired. And it Is worth
remembering that not a few CHRISTIAN
preachers have famed this flame of pop
ular imperialism On the other hand goes
that same old lust of gold which set Haw--
kins out to capture negroes and Wnich leo
Drake to pursue Spanish treasure ships
looked at the sleek, well groomed money
lords of Throgmorton street on Ladysmith
day, many throwing coppers to the dirty
mob. What smile, lit up with the. fires
of the neither region, was in those keen,
yet sensual. faces! They took all this
patriotism for what 1t was worth. but.
meantime. it was a very useful game for
them to play The crowd wants blood
Remember Maiuba!' The stock ex-
change wants gold-the empire a com
mercial asset'-and so you get the com
binat:on, Dives using Lazarus as his con-
venient tool.