The semi-weekly messenger., 1905-08-25
ENTRANCE INTO 4 GREAT CITY.
First Impressions Formed That Prove
Lasting.
Up tic Clyde to Glasgow. ON the Top
of Bus i'm London. the Entrance In
tc Paris-"HeIfo. Professor Heard
I'm Far Away Land-yisit to a
French Store.
Paris, July 26, 1905.

Paris, July 26, 1905. d.
Editors Messenger:
Ones first entrance into q great city
always makes a vivid and lasting i'm
preston upon him. | shall never for
get how New York looked to me the
first time / saw it from the forward
deck Of the ferry boat that was taking
me from Jersey City across the river to
our greatest American metropolis: I
shall never forget my feelings as
sailed up the Clyde to Glasgow last
May, passing ship yard after ship yard
on the right hand and on the left hand
until | landed at one of the many
docks in the fourishing Scotch city;
but when | rode for the first time, on
the top of a ''bus," from Paddington
station in London, through the many
crowded streets to Ludgate circus, I
felt like | was seeing certainly 1.-The
biggest thing" | had ever seen-I feel
so yet, and | shall never forget the
sight
The travel is so heavy that street
cars are not allowed along the course
| have just mentioned. The streets
were crowded with wagons automo-
biles and carriages, in the midst of
which went laundering along count
less two-story ''busses' whose drivers
drove their horses with, apparently, as
little concern as we drive along a coun-
try road in North Carolina. And then
too, | saw countless men, women and
children, on bicycles treading their way
here and there between all the other
various vehicles and riding as rapidly
as bicyclists generally ride, and nobody
ever getting hurt.
All this marvellous freedom from ac-
cident is due in great measure, | be-
lieve, to the wonderful way in which
the London policemen, standing at the
street crossings, direct the movement
of the surging traffic.
And just here, while we are thinking
about policemen, the size of London
may be, in a measure, grasped when
we are told that it has 1000 Of them
all good ones too.
Well, my stay in London was full of
value and interest but l can not now
attempt a description Of the many
many things [ saw at the Tower, or
Hampton court, Or Westminster abbey,
or the Houses of Parliament =, or st.
PauFs Cathedt |, and all the other
great centers Of interest and history
usually seen by the ordinary hurry
along traveller from America.
And while we are thinking about the
Tower, and Hampton court, WeStmiD-
ster abbey and the rest, am forced to.
say that it seems to me that a mos
uncomfortable pathos hangs arounu
and about some of these buildings
through which one helplessly follows
the guide who mechanically and al
most ''phonographically' tells the in
teresting stories of the far away civic
and military glory attaching to the
different rooms, Or shows where one
historic character was born, where
another was crowned, where another
was ma.ried, where another was tried,
found guilty, condemned to death, and
led away to execution-all of it one
long story Of the working out of the
plans of ambitious men, and the tardy
but inevitable and destructive reaction
Of an outraged and down-trodden
people.
| was especially interested in every
thing [ saw and heard connected with
Charles I because of the fact that our
state was named after him. At CheS-
ter walked along the old walls which,
in two mile circuit, completely sur
rounded the city, and on which is a
tower called Phoenix Tower bearing
this inscriptions:
king Charles stood On this tower
September a, 1915, and saw his army
defeated on RoWton Moor
And just away to the right, some
one pointed out the historic battle
field where the hosts of Cromwell won
the day, but now that battlefield is all
covered over with houses and in the
distance it looks like part of COM
pactly built city. At Westminster
hall saw where he, King Charles, was
tried, found guilty and condemned to
die. at Whitehall, / saw the place of
his execution, and but short distance
away [ saw a large equestrian statue
of this same King Charles which, SO
our guide said, had once been given to
a blacksmith by Cromwell with orders
that he break it to pieces. The black
smith did not break it, but he buried
it and then did a profitable business
manufacturing and selling to the peo-
pie souveniers which he claimed had
ben made from scraps of the broken
statue. After the death of Cromwell
and the accession of Charles Ii to the
thrown, the cunning blacksmith dug
up the statue and turned it over to the
king who ordered it to be again set up,
and now it is a most striking ornament
to Trafalgar SQUARE
While | was visiting the Wallace col
lection, the Japanese Prince and his
wife came in and seemed to take very
great interest in the many valuable
curios in the collection. / must say,
however, that SO far as looks go, he is
about like the average japanese. but
all of us know that he mus be a per-
son of brains or the Mikado woaid
never have sent him to England on an
important mission.