The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-07-21
The Two Capitals Conrasted
BY Robert Donald.

BY Robert Donald.
New York has great initial advantage
over London. It puts its best fact for
ward to the visitor. Approached from the
sea It IS unrivaled. A few yards from
the landing stage and you are among its
stupendous buildings. IN the rush of its
busy life. II New York Is entered by
the New York Central. the first impress
sion is equally favorable. as the visitor
is put down IN the very heart of the city,
close alike to the business center and
the residential quarter.
But London. unlike the other great
capitals of the world, puts Its worst face
forward. whether you come to It from
Liverpool to EustorE or from southamp-
ton to Waterloo, London has a forbid
ding aspect. The few who arrive by the
Thames, may be impressed by the i'm
mersity Of the shipping and the activity
in the docks. but the subsequent railway
| Journey is over the tops of little, gloomy
houses, inhabited by the poorest. In
East London there are miles and miles
of these mean streets of little brick
houses. with tiny eonrtyards. sometimes
relieved by blocks of model tenement
dwellings,. and standing high up above
the dead level are board schools and the
churches, as beacons of light and lead
Ing in a region of depressing gloom.
London. unlike New York or Paris or
Berlin. or almost any other great city,
does not connne It's poor to one quarter
or try to hide Its misery. There are
quick transitions between the por quar-
tiers and the wealthy and business dis
tricts. The cheerless. dark brick houses
the slatternly women standing by the
doors, all contribute to the first bad i'm
preston. But tho great city province
improves on acquaintance. Soon the WIS.,
itor finds much that is picturesque and
beautiful among the streets; but he has
to find 1t. And he will learn that there
is much refinement and luxury behind
the dismal looking exteriors of the mid
century grim brick houses in the west
central squares and streets.
New York rebuilds itself at a rapid
rate. The system of land tenure in Lon
don deters rebuilding until the end OF
long periods of forty or more years, when
large areas are reconstructed. This is
happening at present in the streets be-
tween the Strand and the Thames, a
property belonging to Mr.. Astor and In
Bloomsbury, which Is becoming covered
with higk-class apartment houses. The
only similarity between houses in London
and In New York is In apartment houses
and In suburban residences, and in these
cases styles differ.
The New York real estate owner does
not appear to be cramped by building
regulations. He can run up his sky-scra-
pers TO any height. encroach on his neigh
boris light, and, in the case of workmen's
dwellings, build almost In a solid block
making no adequate allowance for light
and air In London, although the city
grew in promiseuous sort of way and
was the happy hunting ground of jerry
builders, we have now building laws
which regulate rigidly the width of streets
and the height of houses.
It is not only In appearance that Lon
don and New York differ widely They
also speak with different accents, for cit
les have distinctive accents as well as peo-
pie Tennyson wrote about streaming
Londons central roar the roar is a gem
tie hum compared with the din which tin
giles the ears of visitors to New York The
ACCENT of New York is harsh, grating,
Earring. The rattle of the elevated rail-
road, the whir of the cable cars, the ring
Ing of electric car bells. the rumble OF
vehicles over the hard stones, the roar of
the traffic as 1t re-echoes through the
narrow canyons of downtown streets, pro-
duce an appalling combination of discords.
The streets of New York are not more
crowded than those of London, but the
noise in London is subdued 1t is more
regular, less jarring and piercing. The
muffied sounds in London are due part
ly to the wooden and asphalt pavements,
which deaden the sounds. London must
be soothing to the New Yorker, as the
noise of New York is at first discon-
certing to the Londoner.
The New Yorker soon discovers why
there are no cars In the center of Lon
don. There Is no room for them in the
narrow. tortuous crowded streets. The
numbering omnibus is the only possible
vehicle for rapid transit beyond the pop
ular hanson. That is why Londoners are
constructing underground electric rail-
roads, from 60 to 100 feet down. Loco
motion in downtown New York, how
ever, is just as difficult as in central
London. Unless one can use the elevated
railroad, the means of transit are not
rapid. Not only are the street cars fire.
quently blocked. but even when they are
not blocked they do not go swiftly, and
are not comfortable. They move with
q series of jerks. They start with a jerk
and pull up sharply. and try to run high
speed in between. They stop much more
frequently than the cars In London, for