LAUGHING LONDON

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 88, 8 January 1919, Page 8

LAUGHING LONDON

A NEW ZEALANDEE'S IMPRESSIONS. The English have certain stock methods '. of ninazing the colonial.' First is tho custom of bringing false charges against themselves. If you do not grasp exactly- ' what I mean,'recall a statement niad'o by or attributed to a visiting Nletor Zca.- \ 'land school teacher, that London children \ do'not laugh. They are actually the merriest little beasts in the world. I had seven days' siok leave. I was not able to move swiftly; but I eaw & lot. I saw and loved a laughing london. Grey as ever, clouded ns ever, maybe mysterious as ever to the man not born amid its masonry; but happier than two 1 years ago—moro used to little restrictions, and less "nervy." if thiit ,is the right word. AValk a little with 'me—if ■ I walk slowly and pauso now nnd then for breath, that's the war. In one of those quiot hotels where dear ladies listen patiently to the stories of very* , very ojd generals, there were smiles to spare. Iven those who had lost the moet smiled slowly as they talked about those who were going where their dearest had gone. They took me to tea in one of those great drapery places which are also art galleries nnd a dozen other things. AVe went at the wrong hour; but tub waitress smiled. ■ Sheer hard! iuck sent me to one of those narrow and furtivn streets where it seems that no good thing may be— a terrible street whero it ie always twilight and the folk who live in tho small llftta lie hidden through the day. A sad place, becauca those there knew the madness of th*ir own lives, and were bad with knowledge learnt in the wasted years. Tet I saw smiling faces there: and far up ths. winding concrete stairs an elderly Frenchwoman laughed Jit a memory as she told a story all compact of teara. As I came away a piano-organ was jangling and a little knot of your aged English street children were dancing. Surely they were happy? One day, at noon, I was , in , a departmental office of the Ministry ofi Munitions. I don't know if you hnve nests of beetles in this coijotry. Once as a boy I poked a stick into a nest, and the insects crawled out in myriads. So very young girls and flappers, and young women, and women who were elderly, came out to their lunches. There was little noise of laughter; but their smiles were obvious. I am content to believe I was right in thinking them happy. • i fed at a Y.M C.A. place which used to be a big night club when I was here last. AVas it eadder now? It wae merrier than it had ever been; and it had a new honesty in its mirth. Even if they had cut out the food, though I was hungry, I would have paid the shilling for the musiO and the laughter. In a different place, a restaurant whero you ate as in.pre-war days, drank the same wines as before, and joined the unmeant grumble that iiquors vera not the same, 6ave for most abominable waiting we liad-ns much reason to laugh as in the old days—more, perhaps, for were we not alive, free of routine, and careless yet that dawn came fioon and .denth. might lurk in the next day. As an aside, why aro the Spaniard and the Levanite gucli poor waiters? AVhy, these waiters dared to emilo at our jokes!. ■ London is more than a. mere town of smiling people. The loudest laughter I have hen.T<l has 'been from those who had the least to laugh about; and it is written that a man may smile and still be a, villain, while the woman who is merry in public is too often n. poor actress. You English, and particularly you Londoners, have something deeper, something more, complete. You have a sense of comfort we colonials' never know. Youi have homes, nnd some of us have none. Yon can sniilo through weary days; live on silly bun and tea lunches, be glad in foggy weather, live in deplorable dull suburbs —and still be content. At the ond of your day there is rest nnd home. God save us all, we've done well to come overseas if it has helped to let you rest ■in peace, nnd has taught us the folly, of restlessness, of the enniM which . sets cngpd lions striding nnd makes us forget . lo laugh.