LONDON IN WAR TIME.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 10164, 1 September 1915, Page 3

LONDON IN WAR TIME.

(By Mrs Mdlfchto^Roes.) LONDON? July 14. I have written before of the..marvellous cheerfulness of the nation in this time of trial, and only this afternoon the fact was again brought home to me. Wc had gone to the Trocadero for tea and company, for, though the fare at this restaurant is delicious, there is a finer feast for the eye and ear. There gathers a most fascinating crowd of folk, and there, just now, go the men in khaki, cither on the eve of departure or back from the trenches. There aro no "knuts" now in Piccadilly, and the natural accompaniment to a pretty girl is a smart young officer. Soldiers arc gregarious animals, and never go about alone, as a rule, unless on duty. So in they trooped to the beautiful room, gay with its lights, for it was pouring outside, its handsome decorations and its hundreds of tiny daintilyspread tables. There were men from all regiments, .-and one saw the maple-leaf of the Canadian among the rest. Magnificent young fellows they were too, many very tall and many very good-looking—in that straight-featured, blue-eyed, bronzedcheeked style that is so typically English. There were some wounded men there. A stately mother, smiling bravely, helped in her boy on crutches, and two lovely girls hovered about a lad who had lost his leg. Near us, a man with his head swathed in bandages smoked his cigarette, drank his tea, and laughed with a knot of young girls. A young Canadian with his arm in a sling, and a line of white across his hair where a bullet had shaved him, was greeting two old acquaintances with hearty friendship, and ever the stream of soldiers and women kept coming in, until every seat was filled, and the babel of voices and clink of china and silver was extraordinary. It was France Day. and girls had been selling badges and medals. They being piquant and striking especially in the way of side-curl:; and chapcaux, threaded their way deftly among the tables and waylaid men—lor preference—as they entered. One amiablo Frenchman with a tricolour ling sticking out of his breast-pocket, two medaha and throe badges, had to submit to a further decoration for which he paid "What you please, monsieur," which is, naturally, lno 1- * than you intended. Now and again the gay clatter fell into silence, when the line orchestra, whose First violin is a genius and handles his instrument most picturesquely, broke out into music. Notably a lovely selection from "La BoIwme" was hugely enjoyed, and much applauded. Impressive, too, was the spontaneous rising and the absolute silence of the cosmopolitan audience when the Marseillaise crashed out, succeeded by hearty chipping. It was the gayest of scenes, and one would have thought dull care hail been banished far away. ' But probably not one in all the throng was without a heart-ache, and certainly not one was spending idle days. To the officers on their way to the front, perhaps in a day or two. the wounded men back again, no oue could grudge their scrap of pleasure. To the women, too, this was but an interlude in a busyday. One of my companions had come from a Red Cross lecture, afld had been for months working hard preparing for examinations. The other had been learning to drive a motor all dav, to l>e able to take charge of one of the great vans that bring the foodstuffs from the dock to the Belgian Relief Committee's rooms, : ;nd the third girl was chauffeur to her family to let a man free to go to the front." Everywhere in England to-day there is a passion for service, and the most vehement grumbles I have heard come from those who havo offered and have not vet got work. A * lovelv summer day favoured the Flower Show at Holland House, the most picturesque show of the year, because of its environment. The flowers were glori ous the roses absolutely magnificent, and the'orchids quite wonderful; but it was a relief to leave the hot crowded tents, ablaze with colour and heavy with perfume, for the exquisite grounds of the old house, where a woman's quick brain and ready wit ruled the politicians of her day, and » where the greatest minds of the age held converse in the beautiful rooms or under the magnificent trees. It was extraordinary that such a wide space, of garden should lie in the heart of so crowded a district, and the world of motor 'bus and tube, petrol-scented, dusty and noisy, seemed far away, though just beyond the clustering trees. As for the war. one almost, for one happy minute, forgot it, until up the alley of roses—crimson, pink and ivory—with its grassy path, limped a wounded soldier on his wife's arm. Lady Holland is the genius of the house—she who drew round her in the first half of the 19th century so brilliant a circle. There is no home in England that has seen such princely hospitality or sheltered such talent and wit. We found the bust of its famous chatelaine-piquant, delicate

mid humorous-in its place in the row o heads that decorate the stone cloisters at the foot of the Dutch garden, which with the lovelv turrets and oriels, of dark red brick with lace-like iroywork, is the most vivid memory of Holland House It is approached from the terrace by wide stone steps that crave for farthingale and velvet coat instead of tailor-made and tweeds, and it is flat, walled, with niches, statues and drinking fountains, and laid out in intricate patterns with box hedges about eighteen inches high. Set in the quaint . Arabesques and curves arc old-world flowers of vivid tints, making a lovely forma design of leaf and bloom. A sun-dial centres the garden, and the scented hush of the place is enthralling-such a restful balm after the tragic turmoil of the world without the gates. Like so many English houses, this great mansion presents a nithcr severe and dignified aspect to the public gaze, and blossoms into beauty o turret and oriel, carving and Arabesque at the back-rather like the average English man who rigidly conventional and shyly grim to acquaintances, makes tho *>cst ot friends to those who pierce his reserve. But indeed, the conventional barriers arc being'broken down nowadays No mtroduc tionfarc mccs,ary where kliak. » concerned, and il i> quite the thing to talk to ai> soldiers that one meets. A lad I met on the top of a motor bus-he was just off to he trenches-told me his young brother had been through it all since the beginning. and had just come back. with abu let in hit brain, that has made him a hopeless paralytic. "He was only 15 when he joined. -iid the bov, who was no more iiimsell, "and he signed on as 20. so you can guess he was well grown. I'm. going out to do mv bit row. It's a big job, though. A Canadian had just come out of hospital and was creeping about in the eunshinc, looking at London traffic with fascinated eyes. Ho had been wounded at Ncuvo Ohapollo, and was going back. "What a w.-lcome you men will get when vou go home, wo told him, but he shook his head, and said very simply, "I'm nut thinking I'll get home this time. 1 could go back to Canada. I'd like line to see mv folks and the old town, but Im going to stav with the rest of the lads, and help to finish up. Tlverc are only four of us left from a hundred and ninety-six, and we'll go back together." One's heart is very ck>e t<> the lips as one listens to the simple doctrine of duty that tfieao soldiers, who know what the 'hell of battle is, practice. I heard from the lips of a man who had seen a Zcppe.iin raid, a very; interesting description of it. He was walking along a quiet road, some distance from London, between 11 and 12 one night—a lovely starlit night, and was thinking how still and calm it was, and how deserted tho road, when he heard a. noise such as cn<« hears sometimes beside a telegraph wire, like the whirr of a gigantic locust. No -telegraph was rear and ho paused to locate the sound which seemed in the air around him. Suddenly across the dark sky he saw short vivid flashes of lightning, and heard a. rumble and rattle as of artillery. In an instant the road was alive and the dark houses showed sudden lights and poured out people ii.to tho tfrect. It was less than a mile away, and little damage was done, the borhbs 1 falling in a hopeless slum and destroying three of tho worst cottages. But it was curiosity, not the panic, that possessed the people. We have been glorifying enthusiastically the Victoria Cross men, and well they deserve it, though judging from their delightful shyness and dislike to publicity, they themselves would rather lie in the trenches. O'Lcary is perhaps the most picturesque figure and is adored by his countrymen. He. saved by his courage half his company and lost count of the Germans he .killed. Only 25, he has a fascinating broerue and merry ows, and is modest about his decoration. The other fellows, ho says, were unlucky! London gave him a grand welcome last week, thousands of people collecting in the park, nrd fhnfinnds more cheering him on hie wav. Mr T. P. O'Connor, MP., who accom-

pnnicd him. played quite a second fiddio. O'Lcary is a hero to nis comrades, and in the trenches to-day six Germans to one Irishman i« the Mike O'Lcary record tlicv all try to attain.