Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1905-08-17

THINGS IN
LONDON
Easy Ways of Spending Time and Money
Political Progress American
Customs Abroad
By Robert J. Burdette
BY Robert J. Burdette

a sex-reservation because we have
yet to go to Paris, where men do NOT
buy clothes. At least, not to wear
themselves. But the English tailors
they will fuss over you, they will
try on clothes for you at ever step in
the course of the construction, they
will go to endless pains with you,
they will put in the best work in
every part Of a suit, they will sew on
buttons for eternity and work button.
holes as indestructible as hawse
holes, they win work for the tourist
as co~nscientiously as for the King,
and the suit win cost just half, or
less than one-half as much as you can
get it for at home. They do better
work, 1 think, for Americans than for
their own people. That is, as they
say themselves, the Americans wear
their clothes "smarter" than English,
men. An Englishman e his
frock coat-that's what he calls il,
we loyal Americans call II a "Prinee
Albert''-unbuttoned, and the ct Of IL
is not 81 precise. The American buys
a ten or fifteen dollar waistcoat,
which he calls a vest, then puts on a
fat scarf, and buttons his "Prince Al
BERT until a detective couldn't swear
that he had Of a shirt, let alone a
"weskit." But here, 1 am not doing
mail shopping for Los Angeles.
Some Things.
You know how slow we all know
that England, and especially London,
is, compared with our American pro-
gressiveness. 1 have thought Of that
so many times riding on the top of the
electric car. All trolley cars-which
we English call "electrie trams'' are
fitted with the roof garden, or upper
deck. IL is the favorite place for all
save in rainy weather. If
the English were not 70 slow they
would catch onto the American idea
Of putting changing straps' inside the
cars, 80 that the passengers could be
driven into the ear with a mAllet, and
the extra s~eventy-hve could be com-
PEELED to hang on the swaying straps
and stand on the feet Of the sitting
members. This is no doubt much bet
ter than giving every passenger a
comfortable seat as they do in slow
old England. And electric buses
they are as common in slow old Lon
don as are the antiques that are
drawn by horses in our own live and
wide-awake and up-tO-date town, TO
say nothing of Chicago and New York.
We ought to send somo missionaries
over to London. Then they could
come back and teach us how to do
some things.
And Others.
And then again, some things are
odd. For instance this morning 1 went
into the postOfice and bought some
1 rendered in payment a
Bank Of England note-R five pound
My month 3 salary.
The obliging clerk handed me a pen
and asked me to indorse the note with
nv name and residence. I never felt
70 "ehesty" in my life. That I should
be asked TO indorso the paper Of the
Bank Of England I did it, very
promptly. Anything to Oblige a friend
n need. So long as my credit is good
n the markets Of the world, the paper
# the Bank Of England shall not be
ihaved on the streets. I suppose, with
III the 0 N expenses Of such a
as this, the government has to
a little help from its friends once
n a while when money is tight. I'm
rot a bit worried about II, you know
think I will send word around to the
,ank that I can 60 on their paper for
fifty, il they don't want.it too long.
when that note Of mine got
back to the bank, the governor looked
It it longingly and said, al wish We
.ould get that mans name on our
paper for S4T5." I want Mr.. Mead,
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