LONDON TO-DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 71, 17 December 1919, Page 7

LONDON TO-DAY

A CROWDED HOUR

NOBILITY AND GENTRY

There never were such limes. The country is hopelessly Ixinkrupt, ami rollii>!J in luxury—so \niies Mr. Alexander 11. Thonipson'in the "Daily Mail."

Tho London streets, he continues, never were so crowd eel. The fashionjiblo restaurants, the hotels, thp theatres, the niusic-hnlls, the picture winy,vs. the b : g West End stores are packed beyond record mid precedent. Never in ' tlm high and palmy state of Koine did such a motley horde throng the places of public assembly.

There is more wealth anil splendour in T..:itidon 10-day Minn in the Arabian Night.?. Such a bustling, hustling, 'litermixed and inlerlangling wonder' There is a cosmopolitan medley of frock coats, mantles, burnous, hats, caps, ! urban', and gaberdines.' Within a hundred yards' walk a long Ihe Strand or "Piccadilly you .shall jostle Japanese, Chinese, .uid Americans, mi .Archbishop, 1 a victorious general. the hero (if the. lust football match, an iuJinitude of Dutch, a bevy of famous actressy, a tatooed Islander from the South Seas, a Hasuto chief, a trader from Tierra del 'Kuego, and even natives of I'mlsey. Amazing Mixture. There are habitues of Court and pol'ce court, of Church and lurf, of Stock Exchange and Parliament, a wonderful mixture of eartli ivorns.s, pigeon?, rook*, . ultures, <tml carrion c-raws, flunkeys and panders', thp cankers of a fevered time and topsy-turvy world.

What art; these phenomena doing here Whence conies the money they so jrodi gi'.lly lavish P'

Bankruntey? Ticonomy? Plii.t ? Why, I lie car of luxury,never rolled t:im'j!y. The general air of prosperity ;m<l plenty-of-money-ln-spend is the crowning, constant wonder of the amazing pageant. In. the course of an hour's trudge throuirh the vain ami slush tho only people I .-aw who showed signals of distress wero the bliic-cliin noii, biokendown actors in buttonci! coats and mouldv hats, the sere and yellow veterans of ths slajro who etprnally do hover between Short's aim the liodega. 11l all ' the Mar's changes they haven't chanced. 'l'hey still wnit in irrepressible expectation of the Blwml T'lvilanI'hroDist who is l<> come one day to take I hem by the hand,, tn all'ord tiiem unlimited fluid assmigenien!, and engage them all to play Hamlet till the sheeted dead do rise to squeak and gibber in the London slroc|s. War-rich Nobility. I went lo one. of the highest-priced restaurants lor 1 imchcon. . The plnco was nackeo. Alter, a short wait, through cross and shameful favouritism, I secured a sent. Judging from the quality and quantity of the wines which were beinsr imbibed, the people were all uf tho lushest war-rich nobilily. They drank as iienerously as the lord of the nroverb. The. "duchess" at the next tabic, whose iewellerv must have cost tliousanos, o-all-ed the waiter ".low," and when she ordered her sumptuous and delicate repasl filto asked him for "a double 'elpin' of craekliii.'" The fceno at the esil recalled memories of the days when 1 ulaved forward al football. Everybody wauled eais or taxis,, and nushea aside everybody else to get them. One fat'-paunched "marquis," of obviouslv foreign origin, inserted his elbow in the small of my back what time a puffy and profusely perspiring plutocrat in a I'ur coat did me (he. honour 10. sland on mv Victory corn. Then the 'blood of mine ancient but still hefty Yorkshire race surged in my snnguinarv conduits, and, sparing neither forcimier nor war contractor, I rudely split t.he serried ranks of Britain's new chivalry and quit. Turkish Baths Full Up. . Then I met a theatrical manager from Chicago, a stupendous man who knows more about jazz dances and bedroom scenes than .Shakespeare ever guessed. When ho landed in this r.amlet he had an impression that London was down .and out, with the., shutters up and tho brokers in.

After trying every hotel from F.uston to Knightsbridge he partially recovered. Having come straight from Chicago, where the brain waves tome from, he had one. "I will try," ho said to himself, "a brilliantly bright and wholly original idea. If I cannot, get a'bedroom I will charter a cubicle in tho Turkish baths. The British are a brave and thirsty race, but in the cerebellar subtleties they cannot touch Chicago. This stunt is pure 'Jlericau."

But when he got there the cupboards were not bare. The place was full of mutton-headed persons with straw in their hair, silly primitive cattle dealers from Hogwash-in-tbc-Shi'di. who yet had had the sense to book their cubicles a full week earlier.

The Chicago man was very much surprised. He inquired .whether lie could have a cubicle next day. 'i'lie manager answered that every divan in the place was engaged for quite a week ahead. "The only place we can clfer you," he obligingly added, "is -a shelf 011 the top of the main boiler. The stent gentleman who occupied it last night has not yet come down, hut if you core to wait a minute I will send an attendant witli a sheet of blotting-paper to collect him."

The man from Chicago, liavins thought it over, concluded that a sent on the Embankment might peradveuture bo better l!or his cough.