Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-07-30
In LONDON own.


The Practice of authors of ac-
nHo&lciged fame of contributing to
{ llc press. az followed in England.
has led to the publication in the Loa-
don Daily News of Il sketch by Rich
ard Let;allienne. Mr.. LeGallienne
has for many years lived in New
York and his recent return to London
invited the contribution parts of
which are quoted below
OF course. there are men to whom
one great city is as another-eom-
mercial travellers. impresarios, globe
trottinS millonaires. Being none of
these. | am not as much at home in
st. Petersburg as in Budapest; in
Berlin as in Paris; and whilst One
might have envicd such plastic cos
mopolitansm. | am realizing. this
last day or two in London, that. were
such an accomplishment made. it had
been impossible for me to feel rs
deeply as l do my brief reincarnation
into city and country with which
was once so intimate, and which
now seems so romantically- strange
while remaining so poignantfy Ia
miliar.
My home was once this London
this England-in which | am now
writing; but nothing so much as be-
ing in London again could have made
me realize that my home now is New
York, and how long and how in
stinctiveiy without knowing it. /
have been an American. To
find London almost as new and
seemed when | first sighted her soar
ing morning towers, and yet to know
her for an enchanted ghostland; t.
be able to find my way through her
streets-in spite of the new Kings
way and Aldwych, --with closed eyes.
and yet to see her, II almost seems.
for the first time; surely il is a Curl
Gus, almost uncanny experience.
Do / find London changed? | am
asked. | have been SO busy in re-
discovering what had half-forgot-
ten. in finding novelties in things an
GENTLY familiar, that the question is
one that ] feel hardly cornnetent to
answer. For instance, / had all but
forgotten there was so noble thing
IL, the world as an old-fashioned Eng
llSD DOIk PIE. 1tSlcIuetS .'t' " -
in window, with such a thrill OF
recognition as made friend with
whom ! was walking think for mo-
ment that I had seen ghost Re
knows nothing of the human hearf
who can not realize how tremulous
with ancient heartbreak may De the
sight of an old fashioned EngilsH
pork pie-after ten years IN America
And. again. how curiously novel and
charming seemed the soft and courte-
Gus English voices-with or without
aitehes-alI about one in the streets
and in the shops-I had almost san
the stores" | am enamoured of the
American accent these many years,
and-the calumny of superficial Cd
seryations to the contrary Wall
maintain. so far as my own expert
opce goes-that there is as mucn
courtesy broadcast in America as Ill
any land; more, / am inclined 70
tbinl, than in France. Yet, for all
that. that something or other IN the
Enelish voice which | had heard long
since and lost awhile smote me with
a peculiar pleasure, ana, thoush / INV
the comradely American Cap or
prof pSSOr '--dIlu am hNP''H
hear it again-yet the novelty OF De
ing addressed once more as Sir mas
had must own, a certain anti
quarian charm.
Wandering in quiet by-street near
nv hotel. and reading the names aho
SIGNS an various old places OF pusi-
ness T came upon the word sweep,
7 believe il was on brass plate. for
tba moment wondered what :.
meant. and then l realized, with
great gratitude, that London haa no'
changed so much, after all, since tue
DAYS of Charles Lamb. AS l hlerstu
| into broader thoroughfare, my ears
J were stricken with the sound OF MN
strelsv. 1t is true that the tune vas
changed. IT was Enthusiastically rag
time" vet there was the old piano =
gan once more.
Across the extemporized stage every
now and then taxicabs tooteo eau
tiously. longing in their hearts 70
stay: and once a motor coal wagon
! like a sort of amateur freight train'
Numbered across: but not even tnese
! could break the spell that held ina.
ring of enchanted loiterers, from
which presently the pennies fell INK
.rain-the eternal spell still operating +
| vas glad to see, under the protecvion