LONDON CHAT.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12975, 30 November 1907, Page 4

LONDON CHAT.

<JBOM OUR OWX rORBESrONDKNT.) LONDON,' October 18

Mr Lloyd-George haft &o far "come out" very well as President of the Board of* Trade. Hie insistence upon an open enquiry touching the Shrews bury accident and his personal presence at it constituted a new and wholesome departure, and as yet he has refrained from any injudicious or self-commit-ting pronouncements regarding the threatened etrike. But he has frankly admitted that the present situation does bring more to the front the grave questions of railway nationalisation ac a possible matter of "practical politics,' and I happen to know that he is having very searching and exhaustive investigations secretly made as to the working of the S'tate-ownedl railway system abroad and in the British coloniee, notably in New Zealand. Ido not look for railway nationalisation in Britain yet awhile. The recent and present experience of Italy is a formidable danger-signal in the way of thu would-be nationalisation.

".Everything is getting dearer!' That L> the loud and bitter cry of the Urui-sh public. Bread, meat, coals, vegetables, clothing — everything iv moving upward, and ai present there is no bign or' any arrest or' the movement. It is bad enough having to pay so much more tor everything, wit the hardship is all tho worse -when we gei interior quality at increased oust, 'lhis view of tne ease presented lteelf to the Westminster .Magistrate tho day before yesterday when a milk vendor wae. brought before him charged with selling lilthy and unwholesome milk", and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment without the option of a fine. Ihe medical officer of health for the City of Westminster deposed that m had examined tho milk. Ther© was a quantity of blacK emute flouting on the surface, and a largo quantity of very filthy material at tho bottom of the can. The fluid 6melt meet offensively, ivlicroscopic examination disclosed v quantity of vegt'tablo «nd othei dc.T.'is, consisting or straw, seeds, par 1 α-lre of tomato skins, fine grit, haiia —some human and others belonging to small animals—pieces of human skin, and other most o-bjectionable matter, Tho refuse apparently camo from a dirty stable or the street. 'Ihe prisoner said when the inspector seized th milk it was 1 foggy morning. He supposed its dirty wtKlitiuu \><-*i Ouv. to "blacks floating about.' The Magistrate pointed out that the fog migiu account tor a few blacks on tno top, but tot for tho abominable filth of all sorts.

Even "The Timce," the once immnoufrate and iniprc«gn«bl«, has at last "got at" by the enterprieing penny-fl-HntT. line case is put wit'ii s.'uch touching frankness by tho "Tluindcircir' , to-dey itiha>t it be a iihamo to sipoil tihe thing by "boiliTig d-'Wii," co I quote in exteneo. "Wβ havo received,' , cij-b "The Tinws," the follovMing letter from Canon Beeohing: —•Wo pr«ncihere aro elwfl.>Ts gratdul wiWn an importen* occasion brings '"Tlio Times" j-ej[>orter to our churches, because tHi»ti our -nords carry further, and your reporters hare, as c mile, aoi admirable inat-inct for wfliat is worth reproducing. But even Homer tometimes nods, and the atmosphere of tlhe Abbej- ie notoriously eewnnaferous. Boitili ti'utih and vanity compel mc to protect that of the thirty lines of iutorestang hiiitorical matter about King Edw&rd tho Confessor <a*t>i>ributed to mc inMondny morning'e iwue my sermon did not contain a single word.' We much regret to find that the -repoi-ter, who nias jiot one of out regular staff, has inflicted tliis injustice alike upon Canon Be*?ihing end.ourselves." One of tihe strangest and eeddest things in this life of London and ite s-.rburbs ie t-he oalm way in which people dflisanjjwMr «nd are never again heard of in tin's Jife. TJiere ds no fuse. They aimipily vanish. If tihey do reappear at all it ie dn the character of undertaker* , aubjecte. The latest caeo, of fchiis kind ie announced to-day. A shooting party out in *he pretty woods near came euddewly upon the dead body of a woman who. from her attire, Iliad evidently moved in ffood eooiety. Close try were en empty flask, o emell measuring glaae, a phial which had held brandy and weter, and an «mpty hypodermio syringe. Now, tjurc'ly, here <*re the jnaterials for a tragedy if onily a due could bo found. But even the identity of the woman is a oompJote mystery. Xo woman hae been nnissed from iihe npfigilubourhood. Xo women of lier dcscriptiion and style hfls been imissed at all. "My quotation from the police bill will suffice to show that ahe mußt have been a person of Mine pcrfanality ami <ftstin'citly noticesble. Yet exi>ei-te declare that eihe had bin wllirre she was found for nearly, if not quite, a y«><-.r. Her remains were wasted to a eikeJeton. and she was utterly unrecognisable. But is it not astonitihiinc. and even disquieting, that a weiWirreeed lady such cc r'ho should go to ian' unexpleaned death without even being iniaeed, and should only be discovered a£ter an interval of twelve mciitflis.?

It is h irw>.re detail in such a season Oβ this, l>ut ne a matter of fact a tremendous stoTin has 'Iwen raging nearly nil over Eiirow during the current week. TVwky it is blowing a terrific &.W.. gale in the English Channel, which hw olreedr caused several fatal shipwrecks. is falling in torrents even in London, whilst elsewhere tihpre i*> a porfrct deluge. On t.lro Midland main ]J.nf> one tmnnol is full of ivater right up to H9 roof! In Lorahardy several of the Ijakes have overflowed, censing incalculable devastation. In Scotland snou- is falling heavily. In shorty October is a worthy fliiorefEor to the- «%ht beastly monttie tilmt preceded the wonderfully beautaful Septombiv, to which wo liove juet wa a reluctant farewell.