LONDON CHAT.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10786, 13 October 1900, Page 9

LONDON CHAT.

(from otna special corbisfondjnt.)

LONDON, August 31. Juat. bow the London parks and gardens and squares are looking beautiful. The heavy rains following that extraordinary heat, hare imparted a general freshness and verdure rarely to be seen, at the cad of August. But the effect of this month's memorable storm on the harvest has been simply disastrous. Destruction has raged far and wide, and I fear that this will prove one of the "ieanest" years on record so far as the grain crops are concerned. The plague has come! It has established itself firmly in Glasgow, the second city of the Empire. Of this I fear no doubt longer remains possible. There are no fewer than twelve cases under treatment, and fifty persons are isolated. Two deaths have already occurred. Until the results of the autopsy proved conclusively that the cause of death was bubonic plague, everyone hoped against hope that the alarm was a false one. JBut now all doubt is swept away, and it only remains to be seen whether modern science and appliances can stamp out the terrible pest beiore it gets a wider hold.

Another great public and commercial calamity threatens in the shops ot a strike among the colliery and railway employees. It is unnecessary that I should enter into the details of tne quarrel. In one .case it arose through some dispute as to the dismissal of a signalman. In the other it threatens through the coincidence of a ruinous rise in the price of fuel with a simultaneous demand on th« part of the employees for "more screw." The authorities have declared that they will meet the men so far as is reasonably possible, but that if the latter seek to impose unreasonable conditions all the railway companies will combine to resist undue encroachments on the ,port of the Trades Unions. ...

It is rather a novelty to have a real live Duke in the Bankruptcy Court, but the Duke of .Manchester has managed to get there, and is now in tne of a Beceiver. This is not a pleasant thing for his .relatives —one of whom is, of course, the present Duchess of Devonshire—but the young Duke has contrived to muddle into such, a ghastly monetary mess since his accession to the dukedom that the Bankruptcy Court seems to be his only .possible haven of refuge. ' Although th* Ramsbott-oin system of water-taking at spes-d, by means of a scoop lowered from the locomotive tender into a long trdugh of water, placed between the raiss, has been in use for nearly forty years on the 'London and North-Western Railway, it has only been adopted during the last two or tlhree years on the Great Western, Grsat Eastern, and North-Eastern lines. But in all cases the plan has proved a complete success, enabling runs of nearly 200 miles to be made without a halt, and also rendering it feasible to diminish the. dead weight of the engine-tenders by about 20 tons each in some cases. It is now to be adopted a!so on the Great Northern Kailway, which is laying down troughs at two points ,on its main line. These will enable the runs from London to York or to Leeds, 188 and 186 miles respectively, to be made without any intermediate ,stop for water, while the weight of each tender will be reduced by 15 to 20 tons. Music has hardly begun again yet except so far as the Queen's Hall Promenades are concerned. Those are now in full swing, and Henry Wood's orchestra enchants audiences so large that the term "promenade" is a misnomer. People simply crowd" in until the great hall resembles a sardine-box in which all the sardines are packed upright. Wagner, as heretofore, dominates everything, and never seems to weary the hearers. Tschaikowsky is a good second, his "Pathetic" Symphony, "1812" Overture, and "Casse Noisette" suite remaining as popular as ever; indeed, their charm seems to be inexhaustible. And I don't wonder f

London is still in its deadest phase. "Qountry cousins" and American and foreign tourists "throng its streets, but its citizens and society-folk are far away. And the streets are "up" to an. extent which is almost, without parallel. Why a good, road should be ruthlessly torn up and the traffic disorganised tor weeks merely that a new set of blocks should be put down and covered with a fresh coating of something-or-other, nobody seems able to explain.