Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1920-08-29

MeIt.er's hrst nrtIcic. dealing with
London, In given below.
LONDON. AUGUST 2s.-"You won't
way friends. IT'S not the good old
city. of the prc-war days"
SO when the boat train which had
.inah me south from Liverpool
nest but rather feared the worst,
me war. The strikes. the clash Of
lass and class, ght have trans
80 wen. And things did seem. at first
10 nave changed quite a bit six
:eaIs before. the portcrs at the grim
| tninS TO earn a bob" Now for two
shiliinSs tnormally 80 cents). go;
sack service. gruffncss and-no
My taxi cost me twice the prc-war
price, and when / looked about me
i i13r the reireshment bar. | found II
strange and painful shocks on my ar
rival. l had the luck to stumble on a
4 Dfisht ana cheerful room. which cost
me less Tor whole week than for
n hotcl. Ana (Which meant more. much
more than chcapness. to strungcr).
had ciVili,y and klndl.ncss thrown
put ms shoes outside my door
mat night. and in the morning they
were brought me--polished. For 30
VI ap SOl some breakfast,
Mot thrown at ne In an ungracious
way. but served with dcccncy in my
own room By a trim Belgian maid
nressen ana took II pre-war auto
nus. which, for the modest sum Of
aWonence q ccnts) conveyed me
swiftly from my headquarters near
d nskep street nt TT; to Gharinr Cross. a
And then set out through the
Strand and Fleet street. scarching
i tpr signs OF havoc wrought by those
III reached St. Paul's. But not a
single. spot passed seemed changed.
GO where ] would. saw the same
the well-known doors. only the
Cecil Hotel showed the trace OF time.
/ II had been turned Into some sor, OF
L government Offices
Crowds More Alert
Ihe crowds that came and went
moved more alertly. than six years
before The men slouched less and
no doubt. had taught them much
me women. too. had more eager
look They lacked the distinctive
ter. And also. they were s,i!l art
less in their dress
passed by AIdwych. II was still a
Courts and gardens They were JUS,
what they had been In the days OF
Dickens. Tom Pinch and all the rest
might have been dwelling there. The
long had stood--a cure for tourists,
OF the simpler kind. Convent Gar
dens, Holborn. Smithheld. had not
asleep as usual.
rubbed my eyes. Could there
have been war? Had anything
known: brisker and buster maybe,
and yet the same. ramblcd from
Smlthfield meat market across the
m ha IF a..
Mary, they had burned the bishops.
IN 'front.' OF me ] saw an ancient
house. beyond which rose the far
more ancient walls OF a twelfth cen
fury church. once part of great Au-
Eustinian monastery. l entered and
was swallowed up in peace.
carven vaults. y hush OF a vast
and Wondering tomb The calm Of
countless ages, undisturbed. y sweet
%a ssanan me reG19r of the
Chapel He showed me where the
builder of the church. Messire Lahire,
lay buried. and told me how. long
after Bluff King Hal had rid his
country. somewhat rudely. OF the
Monk, the erewhilc chapel had done
duty as factory. Then. with a
pleasant smile. he went his way. And
j went mine-back to the busting
Strand.
The tombs in the churchyard out
side seemed mute rebukes to Curl
q
West. They set me wondering at this
old. old, storied land. which clings so
closely TO its monuments and tradi-
tions. Could there really have been
TO tragic German raids? Had not a
million men laid down their lives for
England? Somewhere in London sure
IL there were ruins. Somewhere the
war must have left scars behind.
But. TO find ruins OF the kind had
In mind. one has to search for them.
Not in the heart OF. the great town.
n n h htrt -.
districts and outlying suburbs. The
scars? Well. you may see some. if
You know where to lay your hands
shsm or se ns oGss aSa
one side, Of the huge dome of the
Cathedral. AS for the marks OF the
authentic air raid tragedies they have
away. To even born Londoner Xix Q
myself. the city. on the surface. seems
untouched. But that new. restless
= OF men and women in the streets
hint at all sorts OF things And there
a:e other facts that stare one in
the face; The lady boobies" who
blind lads who Grope their way about
the town, the MANNED young shoe
blacks at the railroad stations.
No Trace OF Shyness.
What strikes the stranger most OF
all is the new bearing of the post
war London girls. 1t is independent
and perhaps little more; It cores
London, quite unrelated to the suf-
frage movement. The votes for wo-
men" days seem fully as remote to
$ the postwar girls as what they know
at second hand Of the Victorian age.
i cannot say I like the brash young
London lassies. evolved by hospitals
and munition factories. They have
no trace of either diffidence or shy
ness on the unblushing brows. They
8 meet their mon folks on n footing Of
equality. They smoke In public, and
not only in the restaurants, but in the
Y music halls and at tho movie" SHOWS
+ Groups of these modern girls stroll
here and there. regardless OF the code
4 of other times. They laugh and chat
= ter at the doors OF bar-rooms, and in
S hundred ways proclaim their recent
Z freedom.
y Many, the boldest OF them, were
$ once ill-paid slayeys, who. in the
natural course, would have been
& washing dishes. But otherss.. less
9 defiant. arc OF better birth. drawn
iron the upper and the lower mid