Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-07-11
RUSH SEASON ON IN
DEAR OLD LONDON
British Metropolis Is Now
Thronged With Tourists
From Many Places.
OFTEN SEE MORE THAN
THE AVERAGE LONDONER
Disposition to Go About City to
Learn Its Features Has Not AZ
fected Masses of People.

! Special Correspondence Of The star
|. LONDON. June 27.-The rush season is
now on in London and the place is full
lof visitors from all parts of the world
| seeing London or as much of it as
they can manage from the regulation
Isights to slinpses of the underworld and
night life in the big town. Night has be-
come the most brilliant portion of the
itwenty-four hours, and theaterS, balls
music halls. clubs. night clubs and all
are going full blast, and often it is the
visitor who sees more than the Londoner.
| For though the city by the Thames is
in many respects the most wonderful city
in the world. perhaps the most wonder
full thing about it is the ignorance of its
people. This ignorance cannot be express
ed in terms of statistics. Exact figures
about it do not exist, nor can it even be
unprecedented in systematic manner. 1t
is too al-embracing and too varied. But
it may he indicated by mentioning a few
facts which gradually grow on the stran-
ger who comes to live here.
London is the greatest shipping port in
the world. yet there millions of LoIr-
doners who have never seen ship. To
docks or to the river east of London
bridge. and it would never occur to them
to put themselves to the inconvenience of
such journey for such purpose. Lon
don is also the greatest beef-consuming
city in the world. yet. again, it is safe to
say that there are millions of Londoners
who have never seen a live COW.
Live cattle are taken by rail to Smith
| field market. sold. slaughtered and sent
in wagons to the butchers shops They
are never driven through the streets. and
the Londoner who wants to see a real
live COW would have to go a short dis
lance into the country. Sheep he may
see in the numerous public parks where
they are sometimes put to Craze in Or
der to keep the grass short; but pigs are
quite outside his ken. If he knows their
appearance at all. it is only through pic
lures in the school books which he read
| in his youthful days.
Where Civic Interest Ends.
London contains twenty mine boroughs.
and there are many rate payers who do
not know what borough they live in.
| They know that they receive demand
notes for rates and that they have to pay
them. There their interest in civic affairs
ends. There is not one man in six who
| could tell even the name of the mayor
of the borough in which he lives, and
there is not one man in twenty who could
mention the names of any of the officials
who represent the particular district
which he inhabits
If he takes the trouble to vote at a
! local election he will vote Oh a ticket
moderate. progressive or socialist, as the
case may be. The personality of the
candidate is matter that gives him no
concern. At parliamentary election the
personality of the candidate does count
for something. Yet the memory of the
contest soon passes away. and there are
hordes of voters in London who could
not tell the name of their member or even
| his politics.
From persons to places the transition is
natural. Here also the ignorance Of the
average Londoner is startling. Hamp-
stead Heath is known to the world as the
| resort Of cockney merrymakers but the
| tens of thousands who go there on bank
| holidays are but a minute fraction of the
population of London, and probably nine
| out of ten persons in the average London
crowd have never been to the heath and
I have no clear idea where it is. The same
state of ignorance prevails with regard
to Richmond Park. Kew Gardens Hamp-
ton Court, Epping Forest and Regent s
Park. Even Hyde Park. in spite of its
size and central situation, is an unknown
land to at least some millions of Lon
doners
Rule of London Life.
| The rule of life in London is to 20 to
and from ones place of business and.
apart from this. not to leave ones own
neighborhood. The man who lives in
Woolwich has in most cases never been
to Hammersmith or Islngton. and the
man in Wimbledon knows nothing but the
name, if he even does know the name of
the borough of West Ham. which in itself
is a city almost big as Washington.
have known charwoman in Chaplain
who was sixty years of age and had never
seen the Thames. though she had lived
I.an ia u-ith fa,
its banks.
Yet side by side with this vegetable ex-
! istence there is a rush of traffic the like
of winch is found nowhere else in the
world. The passengers in tramcarS,
buses and underground railways are
numbered by millions every day. The ia
cilities for local travel are endless One
can go thirty miles by tramcar from
| Waltham Cross in the north to Purey in
the south. or forty-five miles-with just
one short break-from Uxbridge in Mid
dlesex to Gravesend in Kent.
There are over one hundred different
| lines of motor buses, many of them do
| ing journeys of from twelve to twenty
miles. and then there are the under
ground railways with. in the case of
Some of them. a train every minute But
the vast bulk of the travelling represented
| by these modes of transit is done for
business purposes. 1t is true that the
disposition to go about for the mere
but broadly speaking it has not yet
| affected the masses
OF the regulation sights of London the
ordinary Londoner knows even less than
he does of its Topography 1t is chiefly
visitors from the country. the continent.
or America who make their way to the
| Tower, Westminster Abbey, the National
Gallery. or the house of commons The
Londoner looks with contempt on people
VINO worry themselves going to see such
! places Even thrills have very little at
traction Tor him. A short trip to Hendon
a Few miles to the northwest, would en-
able MN to see the best known airmen
Loodlhs me loop and performing all
KINDS OF sensational tricks in the air
but these things move him not.
me 1act Is his life is so artificial,
SO much is done for him and so little
Is ,elts Tor him to think about that
ne taxes everything for granted Ii is
hothlhg 10 him that the gas burned in
ms gas stove is obtained by heating coal
in a retort As rule he is moi aw.ra