A GERMAN IN LONDON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 59, 7 September 1909, Page 2

A GERMAN IN LONDON.

I found it very interesting to stand at the corner of Piccadilly and Regentstreet and watch the crowd pass by (writes Mr. Oscar T. Schwerin, in the London Daily Mail). A larger crowd ! probably than on any corner in Berlin. But ti different crowd. I mips the cxi cited expressions in the faces of the lady shoppers, the lively eyes looking in all directions, the occasional hearty laugh that interrupts an animated conversation. I miss the bright uniforms of soldiers and officers. (By the way, why is the English officer the only one in the world who does not wear his uniform iv the street?) I miss the pretty, smiling shopgirl going to lunch. I hear she "lives in," a thing a Berlin girl would never thing of consenting to. Men faultlessly dressed, ladies elegant and pretty — a crowd not quickly to be found anywhere oufc of London. And yet not the crowd after my own heart. It is too cold, too earnest. I miss the "gemutlichkeit." I wonder if I could succeed in defining that word ? There is no translation for it in English. It is characteristically German* It means a feeling of goodwill towards all the world around one, the wish to be happy and comfortable and to have all your immediate surroundings in the same condition. A feeling that looks upon every sad face as a personal insult. And "gemulichkeit" seems a somewhat rare article in London. Take, for instance, a dinner in progress at a first-class hotel. Elegant toilettes, splendid surroundings — and an absence of sound. Slowly, stiffly, like automatons, the dining ladies and gentlemen proceed with their meal. The scene is undoubtedly very impressive, but, oh, so sad ! Amid the sparkle of jewels and silver and crystal and p'ircelain, amid a scene that fairly invites, begs,_ cries for a bright smile, a low, rippling laugh, or at least that deep, animated hum that makes itself otherwise noticed wherever there is a iiirge gathering — the diners sit as in expectation of the judgment day. Sometimes somebody does speak. One word or two. The lips hardly part. The other nods his head in terrible earnest. Then silence reigns supreme again. And the splendid, lively waltz by Strauss, that ought to brighten the eye, redden the cheeks, and let every nerve in the body vibrate with the beat of the music, only serves to make tho silence more pronounced. Westralia has rushed its public debt up to £21,951,753, an incrase of .nearly a million and a half during the year, frays the Bulletin. Even deducting the sinking fund of £2,233,385 (the largest and most genuine sinking fund in Australasia, by the way, the debt stands at i £71, 12s 8d per head, against £69 Is 5d | per head a year ago. So Westralia will | soon be a third candidate for the honour of having tho biggest debt per head on earth. Ihere was a time, while the gold boom and the immigration boom and the big loan boom were all at their height, when a Westralia n politician remarked regretfully that it might soon be necessary to either reduce taxation or to charge some public works to revenue instead of to loans. The State has got over that embarrassment of riches now, and is kind of sorry thnt it went on the burst quite so hard when the great boom was with it. For Colds in the Head and Influanssa, Woods' Orwftt l'«jpp«tmi»it Cure, I» bit »nd ?b 6d per bottlo.^AdvL