Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-02-25

siders, real wicked ones, damned
souls, clever at spreading the infec-
tion. The point about these unhappy
people is their rottenness, no fibre, no
force, no character. Bitterly poor
they know nothing, and we may al
the spark in them Is more easily
struck by the evil than good influ-
ence. He who works for them and
tries to help them feels more and
more that he has nothing in them to
lean upon, nothing to help him to
help them.
They may excite disgust at times
in some moods they are frankly hor-
rible as an ordinarily dull face looks
horrible distorted by passion-but in
finitely more they excite pity. They
have no chance. and they will not
give themselves a chance. They will
not take chance; 1t really seems that
they do not know how to take II.
ment; otherwise happily II would not
be. But in London the droppings
through from all grades in all coun-
tries into these quarters are so fire.
quent that the sediment Is rising
uglily. "Colluvies gentium" is an
unkind phrase, but there can be no
doubt Sulla meant by 1t exactly what
this peculiar London population Is.
One feels they are mixture, no
stock, no race; accidents nationally,
accidents industrially. AS under free
trade the industrial surplus Of every
market finds its way here, so does the
social surplus of all countries find its
way to London. Anything less English
either in the literal or in the tradi-
tional sense than these quarters can
hardly be imagined. Most Of the
people talk English and there their
Englishness begins and there II ends.
None feels this so much as the sound
man who somehow finds himself in
these uncongenial surroundings.
There are many of these Of course,
fine, clean, healthy fellows, but they
are not many among so many. And
they do not stay longer than they
need. None gives a severer account
Of the people about him than these.
OF this kind Of population. We fear
In London the evidence Is not that
matters are improving with them.
Many things are tending to get the
better stock out Of London and all
the time their place Is more than
filled by worse. Socially and morally
the problem Is almost overwhelming.
1t Is serious nationally and on that
side at any rate something can be
done. British statesmen will have to
look the matter in the face and check
this accumulation OF the unfortunates
of the world in London.
However, this is small and who'll
ly exceptional fragment Of the Lon
don crowd. The crowd that has been
assembling nightly to see the elec-
tion results in Trafalgar Square has
nothing sinister about 1t. Quite the
other way. Its easy good nature and
comfortable contentment are so OBJ
vious that 1t Is almost humorous.
Most Of the London elections have
gone Off quietly enough, even tamely,
to the declaration Of the poll. Vast
crowds heard, or rather saw, the
figures, roared and went home, not
quietly, because the average English
man on the young side Of forty Is not
quiet when he is happy. But bad
feeling there was none. In Trafalgar
Square Liberals, Conservatives, Lar
Dor men, Free Traders, Tariff Re-
formers, Socialists, stood side by side
and nobody minded when his neigh
boris man got in or was irritated by
his jubilation. And they did not ar
que, certainly not with any heat, on
the merits of parties. One might
have thought that most Of them had
no politics. They came out for an
evenings entertainment and to make
a noise. Any result served the pur-
pose. After the show was over bands
Of young men paraded the streets
orderly enough-every other minute
cheering Justify for no earthly reason.
Nothing had happened. Plainly poll
tics had nothing to do with the
crowds assembling or its manner.
They seemed to have been good tenn
pered because they did not care. Is
this political Indifference a good or
a bad thing? 1t certainly makes for
peace and good order: If everybody
is happy either way there is no ma
terial for ructions. But it does not
seem particularly intelligent.
Here at the heart Of the capital Of
the empire is a great crowd waiting,
breathless Of course, to see how the
political tide Is running. Are we not
a democracy? Is not this the people
gravely exercised about the effect the
results they are expecting will have
upon the fortunes of the empire? {?
But what are they talking about?
Tariff reform and free trade? The
question seems to be, not political at
all, but which does the blue light rep
resent and which the red? This ap-
parently Is a vastly and abidingly In
teresting question. Another man can
not understand why tariff reformers
want to tax the goods we send out
of the country. But he knows they
do because he heard them say that
behind us another group were hotly
discussing whether the government
side was the side that had the ma
jority in the house or the side that
were in a minority. 1t was a knotty
point, only settled by third party
happily remembering the number OF
supporters the government had In the
last hundred, so the government side
must be the side which was In ma
jority.
These were not inventions, but con-
yersations heard in the Trafalgar
Square crowd. We hope some MEM
bers of the L. C.. c. education COM
mittee were there and some heads
Of training colleges and goodly num-
ber of elementary school teachers.
They should be proud Of their work
IL they were. Is this brilliant re-
suit Of education on people pecu-
liarly gifted, according to Liberal his
torians, with political genius? Sir
Robert Morant's views on the point
would be interesting. There seems
to be very little doubt that the mul.
titude in London Is extremely good
natured and extremely ignorant-at
any rate politically. So perhaps 1t
may be ideally fit for democracy as
too ignorant to be able to affect policy
and good tempered to mind not af-
fecting it.-London Saturday Re-
view.
Doqs For Military Work.