G. R. SIMS ON EARLY LONDON.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3139, 16 October 1922, Page 8

G. R. SIMS ON EARLY LONDON.

VIOLENCE AS AMUSEMENT. The veteran journalist and author. Mr George R. Sims, whose death has been reported in the cable news, did not uphold the "good old times" at the expense of the new. The London ot oO years ago. he said 1 in one ol his later volumes, was a London of drunkenness, disorder, and debauchery. He looked: back at it from a London that was sober and clean-mouthed and decerns, the safest and best-ordered capital in the world. In the earlier period! "night life" was continued until the early morning, and more than one heir to a title made a foolish mistake as a result of a chance meeting at a disreputable dancing room or cafe. "Devil-may-care dukes, madcap marquises and eccentric earls mixed freely with the 'Champagne' Charlies' of the countinghouse, and the counter. The world, the half-world, and the under-world met and mingled in London's midnight carnival."

The police were very forbearing. A sergeant said in evidence that on visiting a bar, at :* o'clock in the morning, he"saw one of the "gay dogs" of Hie time, who struck him a violent blow with his stick. "I shook my head at him." said the sergeant, "but he merely laughed at me in his usual way." ''Young bloods about town," wrote Mr Sims, "would link arms in the Haymarket and sweep along, roaring the chorus of the latest Bacchanalian ditty of a lion eomiquo. and if a policeman got in (lie way his hat was banged over his eyes before he could open his mouth." '(Policemen then wore tall hats, not helmets.) This violence recalls one of Charles Godfrey's songs, given on an old Melbourne bill. Ol a similar incident he used to sing: "P«|t 'em up—knock 'em down; the line's but a crown : I've paid it many a time." And the inspiring sentiments usually brought a good deal of applause! In the London of Mr Sims' youth midnight marauders and garrotters llourished. and clubs known as life-pre-serve l>> were carried by men who had a lonelv walk home. Well-dressed men would exchange black eyes upon the slightest provocation, real or imagined. TO create a disturbance in a place of public amusement was part of the programme of the high-spirited youth. .Mr Sims went into a ground-floor room in the borough the morning alter a woman bad been beaten to death in I lie back yard. To the occupant ol' the room a middle-aged widow, he said. "Why didn't you interfere when the poor creature called for help?" "Well." said the woman, "if we was to get 111> every lime we 'card 'murder!' shouted in this 'ere place we should be 'oppin' in and out o' bed all night long."