A TOUCH OF THE SUN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 199, 20 August 1904, Page 9

A TOUCH OF THE SUN.

LONDON, July 15. Midsummer, and a heat that suggests a 'nor'-wester" in New Zealand's City ef the Plains. London is a simmering rrirnac-c, and its millions of people gasp for breath and devote what'little energy is left to the impossible task of trying to get cool. Neither the City nor its people are adaptable to hot weather. The narrow, crowded streets are not made for outside cafes such as they have on the Continent; the gaunt brick houses are innocent of verandahs; convention compels unhappy City clerks and fashionable people to swelter in black frock coats. A few bold spirits invade the City in Panamas and flannels, but it is strange how religiously London as a whole sticks to its "blacks," no matter what the temperature. The food and drink problem grows urgent in this 'Weather, but remains unsolved. Strange, is it not, that in all these centuries of civilisation man has not discovered or invented a really satisfactory summer drink. Beer and spirits leave one warmer than ever; iced .water seems to feed rather than assuage the thirst, and as for lemonade and gingerbeer, which is all tiie temper—ice folk seem able to offer us, they are an insult to any selfrespecting palate. A French chemist this week gives th* latest recipe- for a summer drink-iced water with, a dash of iodine. It appears that the iodine kills the microbes, and gives a fruit flavour, not unpleasant, to tho liquid; but it sounds too medicinal to become really popular. As for food, the dwoller in London may well despair. The hot, badly-ventilated restaurants fail dismally to rise to the occasion. Nobody wants a heavy mid-day meal on a hot summer's day, nor is anyone tempted to exclaim with the curate in tho pli-.y, "If I only had a bun!" The problem is to bridge, the gulf between these two extremes, and the London caterer makes no attempt to solve it. Then the newspapers add a new terror to one's daily fare. 1 lunch off bananas, and the '"Daily Express" comes along with a horrible story to the effect that the costermongers ripen tbe green bunches by putting them in the family bed! I drink a glass of milk, and then read with alarm that niueh of the milk supplied to Ivondon is adulterated. '"The greater the amount, of preservatives," says tho public health officer, in Westminster, '"tiie dirtier ia theinilk, and the more unfit it ia for human consumption." I shali have to give up pepper as Well as milk and banana*. Pepper ha* been found by the food inspectors to have been adulterated with ground olive stones, collet-ted in s©_* instances iiorribile dietu! —by men who prewl around the dustbins of Italian cities and pick out the olive stones from amongst the fijthy garbage. J. fly to strawberries, and even then the "Lancet"' does its best to spoil my meal by telling mc that strawberries are useless js rv iou.i, containing as they do nearly 90 per cent, of water, a little sugar, and practically nothing else. Obviously a !>>:ui must either avoid the paper.- or his lunch. He must either be frightened To death, or starved to death! 1 can -cc no other alternative. (Continued on Page 11.\