South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-09-05

You won't know London" said my clever Broad
way friends the good old city OF the prewar
days"
SO when the boat train which had brought south
Liverpool slowed up Elston. hoped the best,
but rather feared the worst The war, the strikes.
the clash OF class and class might have transformed
world I used well. And things did
seem. at first to have changed quite bit Six years
before. porters the grim terminal would have
done almost anything a bob" Now. for two
shngs (normally so cents) got slack service, gruf-
ness and-no thanks.
Ny taxi cost twice the pre-war price, and when
I looked about me for the refreshments bar, found
But, set-on to these strange and painful
shocks on my arrival, had the luck to stumble on a
bright and cheerful room. which cost less for a
whole than for night at any good New York
hotel And (Which more much than
cheapness to a stranger) had civily and kndlness
thrown in.
put my shoes outside my door that night and in
the morning they brought me, in ungracious
way but served with decency in my by a
trim Belgian maid
dressed and took pre-war autobus which for the
modest sum Of "twopence" (four cents) conveyed
swiftly headquarters Baker st. to Charing
Cross a distance of miles
And SET through the Strand and Fleet st,
searching for signs Of havoc wrought by those Hun
raids and walked until reached St. Paurs.
But not a single spot I passed seemed changed Go
where I would 1 saw the old shops. the
old names above the well known doors. Only the Cecil
hotel showed the Of time. 1t had been turned
into some sort of government offices.
The crowds that came moved alertly
than six years before. The slouched less and
had a restless Trench discipline. doubt had
taught them much. The women, too, had eager
look They lacked distinctive OF their
Broadway sister. And alas, they still artless in
PASSED by Aldwych II was still a waste. I strayed
into the Temple courts and gardens. They were just
what they had been the days OF Dickens Tom Pinch
and al might have been dwelling there The
Cheshire Cheese" stood where 1t long had stood-a
cure for tourists. simpler kind. Convent Gar
den, Holborn. smithfeld. had not budged. And Soho
Square was asleep usual.
rubbed my eyes Could there have been war?
Had anything occurred in those six years? This
the London had always known. brisker and buster
maybe and yet the I rambled from. Smithheld
market across he place where, in the OF
Bloody Mary, they had burned the bishops.
of me I saw an ancient house. beyond which rose
far more ancient walls of 18th century church
part a great Augustinian monastery. entered and
was swallowed up in peace.
Gray crumbling arches. pillars. carven vaults.
hush as of vast Wondering tomb. The all Of
countless ages, undlsturbed. A sweet old man the
the church standing silently before the
Lady Chapel He showed where the builder Of the
church, Messire LAhire. lay buried, and told me how
long after King Hal had rid his country some
rudey of the monks the erewhile chapel
duty as a factory Then. with a pleasant smile he
went his way. And I mine-back to the busting
Strand.
The tonbs IN the churchyard outside seemed mute
rebukes to curious pilgrims such l. from the far
west They wondering this Old told stored
land. which cngs closely its monuments and TIA.