Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-15
LONDON AT YULET|DE
Abundance of Good Cheer and
Reasonable Prices.
THE ROYAL BENEFACTI0NS
Lord Ardilaun's Protest Against
Gladstone Tablet.
UNIQUE OFFICERS OF KING
Mess Dinner Of Spectacular Relics
of the Past-Appointed for Dis
tinguished Service.
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Star.
LONDON. December %. 1908.
Yesterday was the first really fine day
for over a week and 1t brought tens of
thousands of Christmas shoppers into the
leading thoroughfares of London. Regent
street and the Strand, Oxford street and
Holborn, Cheapside and Fleet street have
been thronged with window-gazers and
purchasers. The penny hawkers, who
have been scattered by the police, are to
be encountered singly in by streets or the
quieter thoroughfares and in groups on
the Thames embankment; but the trade
they are doing is small compared with
the roaring times they used to have on
Ludgate Hill and later in High Holborn.
Despite all complaints of commercial de-
PRESTON there is obviously considerable
amount of money ready to be spent upon
Christmas luxuries, and the box offices of
the popular theaters and the advance
bookings on various railways tell the
same tale. And. as there is markedly less
unemployment of the employable in Lon
don today than was the case even as late
ly as month ago, the Christmas pros
poets. especially if the weather continues
fine, are decidedly brighter than could at
one time have been hoped for.
A walk round the markets proves that
lOl OHIS Is there Jill dDuuUdHCc VI the
good cheer that attends Christmas, but
that prices are reasonable, which in these
hard times is good news for every body.
The post Office and the railways have been
all the week working overtime, and the
81 .000-strong staff at ST. Martins lie Grand
are prepared to cope with what is expect
ed to be a record postage. They reckon
that the extra number of letters and
postal packets which they will handle this
week will total 20,0OO,00O.
lpol- ,f Z bril- ion CHI
with costly goods it is a great contrast
to turn to the shops of the poor. In one
instance, as though to make the contrast
greater group of these shops Is within
a stones throw of opulent Regent street.
This particular group is in a struggling
thoroushfare close to Oxford Circus, sur
rounded by g. tangle of mean streets and
alleys. For eleven months in the year
1t is not to be distinguished from it's
neighbours except perhaps that 1t is
trif1e dirtier and more untidy. But about
Christmas time it becomes transformed
into fair Stalls containing wonder
full mixture of second hand books, clothes
and furniture and eatables of every de-
scription are ranged down the pavements
till trait is stopped and the air Is thick
with the cries of haWkers and statesmen.
The features, are common TO plenty OF
other street markets. 1t is In the cos.
mopolitan nature of the shoppers that
this one differs from all others. Ger
mans, French. Poles, Greeks and even
Cinnamon jostle one another at the stalls
All the inhabitants of the densely popu-
lated and shady region to the westward
of Tottenham Court road seem to emerge
once year to do their Christmas SHOP
ping here. AS they haggle over the price
of a cracked chair or dilapidated table
they look harmless enough, but the type
is one that has supplied material to the
countless writer's of sensational stories
from Poe and Gaboriau downward A
few years ago certain houses In the
neighborhood were well known by the
police to be inhabited by some of the
most dangerous Of the anarchist brother
hood. Recent improvements and rebuild
ing have driven many further eastward.
And within a few minutes walk people
are spending their money at the most ex-
pensive shops in London.