The Monticellonian., 1918-03-01

evolence rose in Ade's heart, and, talk ing pencil from his pocket, he wrote with quaint eighteenth century four ishes on the wall behind him "Sam Johnson" On her return from up- stairs the visitor promptly spotted the autograph and was overjoyed.
 "Is@it not amazing" remarked Mir Ade in telling the story, "how much happiness we can give to others by these little acts of kindness?" To the tourist from overseas even the great figures of the Victorian era wear a halo of sancity. Carlyle's house is q constant center of attraction. Some years ago an Englishman in America happening to enter into conversation with a negro schoolteacher, learned that one of the keenest desires of her life was to see London. and that she especially wanted to visit every place that was connected with the characters in Dickens.
 Places of Special Interest.
 Many Americans, again, spend indus trious days in hunting up buildings that have some historic connection with the foundation and early development of their own communities. There is a long list of churches where eminent Americans of the colonial period were baptised: William Penn, at All Hal lows, Barking; Roger Williams at St Sepulchere's; Calvert. the founder of Maryland, at St. Giles-in-the-F Fields i; General Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia. at Martin -the-Fields; and John Harvard at St. Saviour's Cathe- dral, Southwark, where the incident is now commemorated by memorial window. St. Ethelburga's is of inter- est as the church where Henry Hud- son and his crew are reported to have made their last communion the night before they sailed. The house in New man street, occupied by Benjamin West, may be quoted as an example of many buildings whose associations appeal to American visitors almost eX- clusively.
 It would be quite a mistake, how ever, to suppose that to the American London serves no other purpose than to make more vivid what he has learn ed at school. However diligent he may be in following up its historical and literary associations, he finds time to sample it's lighter side-its theaters and other entertainments, and it's so- cial festivities, in so far as he has access to them. Even that ornament of the American-learned world, Dr. An drew D. White, the late president of Cornell university, records in his au- photography how, after working in the British museum, he found refreshment in an evening at Maskelyne and Cooke's great temple of jugglery."
 Yet, after all, as Oliver Wendell Holmes puts It, "the great sight is Lon don." In the old days, before the era of motor traffic, nothing could beat the top of horse-drawn bus as a means of regaling oneself with the ever-chang- ing panorama of the streets, and, al though the petrol engine has banished the more leisurely progress of that time, an outside seat on bus remains unrivaled as point from which to observe the everyday life of the city. The streets themselves impress an American with their tidiness. Their paving is kept in good repair, and they are free from the litter that disfgures important thoroughfares in New York.
 AS a rule, the American in London means to have good time, and gets it. There are, of course, exceptions people who lack the gifts of sympathy and imagination, and who accordingly miss all that is of unique interest in the scenes they visit.