Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-11-07
SIGHT Of WOUNDED
FIRES THE BRITISH
Enlistment Had Dragged Until
Battle Victims Began to
Come Home. j
PATRIOTISM IN LONDON
DOESN'T BECOME NOISY
Participation in Great War Doesn't
Disturb Calm Characteristic
Of the Briton. =

Special Correspondence of tn. Star.
LONDON. October 2e.-Three carloads
Of wounded Tommies did more to gain
recruits for England's new army than
all the lords in England Jumped Lord
Kitchener had blandly limited that CON
scrtption might become necessary. Ear
Roberts had said the same thing bluntly
All the other men of title had hammered
1t in. Stil recruits dribbied In at the
rate OF q few hundred a day. Half tn.
time the recruiting sergeants sat IN tn.
pavilions twiddling their thumbs.
Then one day the wounded began 10
come home.
At o'clock that day London was con-
tentedly unaware that @ war was going
on so far as surface Indications showed
At o'clock the buses and taxis plying
on the Strand ran into an immovable
mass Of peope--and stuck there. Char
ing Cross station was invested by smil
ing. good-natured. quiet army. No one
cheered. 1t isn't the English fashion, it
appears. 10 cheer. In moments OF tre-
mendous strain it is permissible to say
Hear! hear, No one wept- No one
fiuttered han1kerchiefs.
Procession of Wars Victims.
could see narrow. shifting lane through
the crowd. Now and then n taxicab
worked through Il. Always the crowd
gave way before II and filled In iinme
diately behind. The tall blue helmets OF
urgent policemen might be discovered al
intervals. They pushed and ordered and
no one paid the least attention TO then.
In those taxis were Tomnies-very smi-
ing. grubby, smeared Tommies-for the
most part smoking garettes. Every one
grinned back in friendly fashion. Nov
and then ambulance came through
with blinds down. Sometimes a white.
drawn man was held upright In the cab
by the arms of sympathetic nurse
Then the people in the street fell silent
The next day recruiting began in
earnest. one was reminded Of the line
in ono of kipling's stories-"The Ath-
lones had seen their dead Still Lon
don took matters in a quiet, naatter-of-
fact fashion. the youngsters lined up
before the recruiting sergeants joked
with one another. The men and women
who peered through the bars OF the
tall fence about ST. Martin in the fields
at the awkward squad drilling there
wore pleasant smiles. There were no
evidences of strain or unea siness. But
recruits came in at the rate of 5000 q
day--quite as many as the antiQuated
machinery of the war office was pre-
pared to handle.
Paris and London Different.
Throughout the early weeks of this
war one WAS continually being struck
by the different mental atmosphere OF
Paris and London. A flag floats above
every third business place in Paris
Every other man you meet wears a
uniform. one cannot get taxi be-
cause all the taxis are being used by
| soldiers. 1t is quite safe to say that
every second business house is closed
Upon the window you will observe .
card.
The proprietor and the personnel
have gone to serve with the army. This
shop viii not be reopened until after
the war
Here no shops are closed except that
here and there a dealer in antiauitie.
has gone under because his American
Patrons have no thought for cracked
glass and old silver. The hotels are
running at loss. Some manufac toriex
have been forced to shut down. But
these things do not show upon the sur
face. London of 1914 Is so nearly Lon
don Of 1913 that one exasperated Amer
lean complained:
l. This is a rotten sort OF country
Here YOU are in the midst OF great
war. but when l rode down the Thames
from Hampton Court to Richmond yes
terday L saw about 10000 young men
lying on their backs in boats being
pauoleu ABOUT Dy pretty girls.
London's Awakening Slow.
Nevertheless London has awakened
London is n big animal. and. like all
big animals. her mental processes are
tardy. And she has no formulas for
showing emotion. There was a bit of
cheering at one music hall one night
because of patriotic program, and
next day the papers mildly deprecated
the unseemly noise" But she is verv
much in earnest in that calm plea SAINT
well bred way that London has. Her
men recall the remark of an ex-bar-
room tighter.
Look out for the man who Gomez
toward you when he fights, and smiles
as he comes.
There has been a tremendous outburst
of charitable giving. One fund alone
took in more than sl0,o00,o00 in two
weeks. and no one knows how rnarv
other funds there are. There are scores
of overlapping and mutually interior
ing projects Of relief. So many there
are that from high quarters has come
a plaintive plea that no more efforts of
the sort be organized, but that generos-
ity be turned into existing channels
Every English woman you meet is
making garments for the soldiers
They are one of the real dangers tn
our forces complained a humorous of
ticial. I've tried on some of these
underclothes. You can't get into EN-.
and when you do get into 'em you