The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-14
LOND AND THE COUNTRY.
A Record d-Breaking Fog in the City x Fog in tho Country, Too, But Not So
 nad-An English Village-Not Very DaIl Piace--Fensting and Fun-The'
 PArish Church and the Magistrates k Court.

s"f lIuaA EsACO--C ouhtAh2 ahu AAo Parish Church and tho Magistrates
 Court.
 London, Dec. 4. { uo the Editor of the Journal and Courier: < To exchange London for a breath of country life is delightful enough at any M time. but at this period, after weeks of
 record breaking fog, one can only NEllken such transition to what taste .0f heaven might be after thousand sS years or so in the other place the Es preachers used to tell us about. It "A EiMf1uld seem, by the way as though the &syery old Nick himself were in these \ awful London fogs, for no sooner did 2Ktha county council join hands with the k$ 1Il6teOrOlOgical office in seeking to N W0Vercome them than they increased in a thousand fold. And ism t this in harmony with what we have al- gHwAya heard about his Satanic majesty?
 H he be the prince of the power of the
 mir. as the Bible teaches, and if it be & true of him that upon occasions of { special antagonism he puts forth spec 3al efforts, as the churches say he does, tlaH<x AAfettAAI hi5 W HUI could be needed to identity him with < the awful plague which in the last few F3eks, far more than in many years be-
 tQTe, has made life so intolerable to the I5 eix million unfortunates who have been Elkrytng to exist during that time, but | AaYe surely not lived, in the great city x SWhich, though it is already called the
 tnodern Babylon, will hereafter, in the
 3ndgnent of good many people, be Bs&deQuately described only when it is Spoken of as Dante's Inferno.
 It seemed so strange to get good View of the sky again, Very kind was < n6ture that first evening of our release V 4rqdn the bricks and chimney-to and q 00t and internal blackness of London, % &nr after the sun had sunk majestically G2S1NtO his purple bed she had a special conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn to @S6hoW us, and it wasn't long until, from x tde 0ppOSite horizon, she brought out q E& 4fxgE moon for our entertainment. One |E dom sees such sights in London. m fact they are never to be seen there S QAGlearly as in the country or i'll any $ Sdiilg like 50 delightful a setting. The zfiil3 moon beams upon us from behind
 
 x {he Aituation in which a visitor from < f1e great city would wish to see it. sGiid heneath the two luminous evening }4tArs there is a wide-stretching, unob- v 43&6cted landscape. dotted here and
 khere with low-iying, well-kept farm
 Isads-a landscape which for beauty < III charm is scarcely to be seen outside
 a3& England and which in the wide, far
 f&sching prospect it presents can be E : 3d1nd In England only when one jour- Y k4Hyas from London toward the east 2 N Hut one doesn't escape fogs at this < me of the year by even flying to the &&SNntry. They seem to be universal
 YiX1fdtipn, intended, doubtless by @e @eProvidence-like the irrepresslble
 0tr, the kicking Germans and the all- }q6dQNering Yankee-to impress John *t3t3M with q wholesome sense of his 5s5 5s5I8ittations. To tell the country cousin London of late there had been #xfl2fy times when traffic had to stop, &| len pedestrians could only detect X S1ip-po6ts by running into them, and # #5Shen the 'busmen had to lead their Y <0SWes. didn't seem to astonish him a 4xf. Tor he soon triumphantly informed sYQ1 that he also had to carry lantern x {foht of his steed when returning
 yoi11e last market day. Suhe enough, < t6o, as luck would have it, fog set
 tl&d over this country scene that very
 t night, completely hiding the f1irta-
 kt6n Of the two evening stars and all iis64t knocking out the full moon. But
 yls country specimen of mistiness, how 6Refent 1t was in color and ingredients y1,nt o11 fIo
 yhanes know so painfully well as "the @Eufi{ion Particular" White does not sdi{far more from black. That, in fact, s3s just what the difference is, and | whereas the fogs of London leave eve SfykEing smutty and bedraggled and ex
 1iaieted, this village fog, we found the | fnext morning, had ornamented every | S61B5ect with hoar frost painting for us | M scene of wintry beauty such as Lon SS1Dh would not be likely to afford once | $tl a decade.
 %Frnm the street cries of the worlds l641xtropolis. consisting predominantly at 't1iis season of Best Coal'' and Sweep" and wonderfully uttered how Selightful the change to those voices of happy childhood which come to us from 'fheAvillage play ground. But why are nQEmany lingering there in play when 1tSlS half an hour since the school-mas- |{xr; by a hand-b bell Justify swung at the Nchcol door, proclaimed to everybody Goncerned that it was time for the mornings lessons to begin? This is the 3oint result of a certain provision in the 8dAcational laws and of certain prin- &iSle Tremendously adhered to by the
 3Elish state church. The church in 1f8ts that in all schools held in build 1n<e which are church property the first D&ft Of each session shall be devoted to fhesteacI1ing of the catechsm. the pray Srl book and selected parts of the Bible. SSf7very good" says the government, i've yield you this point. but no children must be coerced or inconvenienced. Rarents who do not wish their children brought up under church tuition must bs allowed liberty of conscience. For fhese the doors must open after reli- eious Instruction has ended" This is what IS known as the conscience clause lnF the educational acts, and those chil- 6Sen who, half an hour and more after