Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1914-01-09

med and tinseled and decorated NO
less lavishly.
Through Central London.
The wise stranger reserves a night
free from theatergoing for a stroll
through central London's streets. OF
course he must see the Embankment,
where noble curve of lights trails
its reflection, like a flung-down neck
lace. in the water from Blackfriars
to Big Ben. The monstrous tram
cars, not very impressive by day, are
glass caskets of effulgence, spinning
along their polished rails below the
cliffs of the Cecil and the Savoy.
The more squalid south side of the
Thames displays an Illuminated adver-
tisement or two, exasperations to the
aesthetic. Westward, ST. Stephens
lifts a fine silhouette athwart a vague
flush of radiance beyond The light in
the clocktower shows that parliament
is sitting; and late extra" bought
in Northumberland avenue, will tell
us what the talk has been about. We
have forgotten it by the time we enter
Trafalgar square, where the silhou-
cite of lions and Nelson's Pillar are
clear-cut against flare of gold at the
Coliseum in st. Martins lane Those
spots of extremer dazzlement always
mark theater-though the picture
palaces are now nearly as blatant.
Up by Charing Cross road and round
into Coventry street or Shaftesbury
avenue we get the impression that the
whole Of London is given over to the
pursuit of pleasure.
This is theater-land: the vortex of
gaiety's whirlpool, only excelied, per-
haps only equaled, by our American
friends tabled half-mile of Broadway.
Why go inside any theater when this
tableau is to be seen free outside?
Why bother with burlesque and ballet
when the evolutions of London's mil
lion pedestrians roll and unroll, tan
gle and untangle here? Why seek
comedy and tragedy behind footlights?
A hundred yards of Piccadilly circus
exhibit enough comedy and tragedy
to last for many an evening. That,
think, or something like it, is how
our provincial often feels after his
walk through London at night Should
he be temperamentally a countryman,
fond of the fields and the fresh air OF
heaven, he may be glad enough to see
the last of this exhausting and garish
wilderness of houses and lights and
hectic activity; but, even so, he can
not fail to derive some amusement
from just those aspects of 1t which
leave the Londoner cold. The Lon
doner buys all his pleasures too di
rectly A theater is to him a place
wherein to see a play, cafe Is a
place wherein to obtain meat and
drink.
TO a stranger n theater is a place
wherein not only to see the play, but
this is a gift supplied without
charge-to see the playgoers; cafe
is a place wherein to get refreshment
for the body with the addition of
still more stimulating refreshment for
the mind Picturesi-London at night
is bewiIdering and kaleidoscope gal
lery of pictures; and even when the
streets have emptied and no sound is
heard but the boot of late taxicab
or the trundling of an early market
cart, fresh compositions present them
selves at every turning; mysterious
and endless perspectives of lamps,
strange, pale facades with blank win
dows rising like precipices from the
canyon of the roadway, or colorIess
trees, in some deserted square, throw
ing the pattern of their motionless
leaf-shadows upon the pavement be
side the sooty ratings.