South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-09-05
Fleet Street And The Strand Buster
But London of Dicken s Day Unchanged

ditions. really tragic German
raids? Had not million men laid down their lives
for England? Somewhere in London surely there were
ruins Somewhere the must have left behind.
But, to find ruins of the kind had in mind, has
search for them. Not in the heart the great
town as had thought but in the rural districts and
outlying suburbs. The scars? Well you may
some, if you know where to lay your hands them.
Close to the Obelsk for instance the Enhancement
and one side of the huge dome of the cathedral.
AS for the marks of the authentic air raid
they quickly completely cleared away.
a born Londoner like myself the city, on
surface, untouched. But that new restless
look in many eyes the hurried walk of men and women
in the streets hint at all things And there
other facts that n lady
boobies who patrol the thoroughfares the poor blind
lads who grope their way about the town,
young sboeblacks at the railroad stations.
What strikes the stranger of all
bearing of the postwar London girls ndepend-
ent and perhaps a little more. 1t corresponds with a
great vital change in London quite unrelated to the
suffrage movement. The Votes for days seem
fully as remote to the postwar girls what they
know at second hand Of the Victorian age. I cannot
like the brash young London lasses evolved by
hospitals and muniion factories They have no trace
Of either diidence shyness the unblushing brows
They meet their men-folks footing equality.
They public only n the restaurants.
but in the halls at the movie shows
Groups OF these modern girls stroll here there
CARELESS of the code of other times They laugh and
chatter at the doors of bar-rooms, in a hundred
proclaim their freedom
Many the bodest Of them, ilI-paid slaveys
who, in the natural course, would have washing
dishes But others, less defiant of better birth
drawn from the upper and the lower middle classes
sWeethearts and their careless brothers Their fathers
wash the dishes nowadays Their mothers a.
and darn the socks. Someone clean the knives
and cook the food And they apparently don't do such
things They form large of the increasing audi
ences which patronize the London cinemas. They
helped mob Dug" and Mary Pickford They
throng the tubes and storm the autobuses No
der servants archaic types here. The hospitals
and factories have absorbed them all. A few girls
may condescend wait they are rare
outside the London clubs and bars.
For there bars here, of yore, though they
again change in London habits.
Not only has the marred the brilliant sea
sons" Of the long and almost wiped the old
'Piccadilly nuts 1t has done 1t has produced
a brand class. the newly rich. composed of prof.
sharks. them, loud blatant
in hotels You watch them roll by in too snowy cars
They ape the styles and langud tricks Of vanished
swes They fast buying up the stateliest homes
of England And in their longing to be taken for
real "nobs" they now buying up furniture
pictures They have developed an unnatural
bric-a-brac. raised the prices of a hundred
other
But to go back to our nuttOns
The bars 1 have said, may still be found here.
But they open only and then B
get all the drink wants. From TO 10
again, good liquor flows. And, after that there
a very pause when London is almost completely
dry. This change has killed the night life Of the town
those after-theater suppers sorry shams
promenades in the big music halls have gone. The
thousands who stream out Of all the theaters the
Of Leicester Square longer the streets
ablaze with signs which tell Of roting and mirth and
rank debauchery. Except in a few clubs and in the
of those who happen have well stocked shelves
and cellars. 10 o'clock each night the London
crowds go sober from choice but from necessity
And here, If my experience is test there
scenes need OF secret spies to enforce the liquor
laws Not all the strikes and upheavas OF the dav not
all appeals OF hafbaked bolshevists has really
shaken the deeprooed love Of order British soul
The liquor laws have vexed and angered millions So
in railroad fares the raoning sugar.
high cost OF rent and clothing. But a whole,
British public has not fought in violent ways
against the law.
There is . point, however, az which every British
heart viii draw the line Try they will. proaib-
tionists will fail here. The prohteers not vet
been man-handler But Lloyd George should dare 10
stop and wine and other drinks the Britons
ove-well he might have a rather nasty time. There
Nre some things which Brtons will ~ stand.