THE LIGHTS OF LONDON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20704, 30 April 1929, Page 14

THE LIGHTS OF LONDON.

, Docs any writer on your great city fail to pay tribute to the lights of London? asks Mary Macleod Moore in the Daily Telegraph. , I doubt it. yet one cannot resist the temptation to add another small''offering to.the many laid before the shrine, for memories of the lights of London linger whe%much else is forgotten.’ The thought of them illumines the past; brings a faint echo of.old melodies; The lights mean pathos, gaiety, tragedy, comedy, mystery. . They are the lure which has brought men and women from . all Over the world to London Town. The lights of London welcome us as we draw near after a long journey and catch for miles the friendly glow. Is there a lovelier sight than one sees from a London bridge at night? Along the Embankment run the trams all ablaze with light, and across the river are the huge twinkling, signs, condemned by many as inartistic, yet adding to the colour of the scene. And, as you glance, up at Big Ben, you can tell by the light if our legislators are still engaged on their anxious duties. There are those who find their chief joy in London lights at such , points as Piccadilly Circus and the Strand, though the man from Paris, New York, or Brussels will tell you scornfully that our lights are but the faint reflection of. the blaze to; be seen in his own city. Those with quieter tastes will choose that lovely sweep, strung with,ropes of, light, reaching from the Admiralty Arch to where the mass of Buckingham Palace blocks the way. Past the Palace you go, up Constitution Hill, crowned by the quadriga which looks, down on the massive Royal Artillery Monument, and on the. lights of Hyde Park Corner. The lights of London shine on unconventional and varied scenes. Go late on a Saturday evening to one of those streets where you can buy anything from silk stockings to cats’ meat at the stalls lighted by flares. An ole wrinkled woman is buying 1 a penn’orth of sprouts, a dashing girl is choosing pearls for six- ' pence, a young Jew wearing a frock coat and spats is offering “real” ermine to a : hatless girl .with a face of a queen of tragedy. ... , London lights in the rain! The' strange patterns in gold made on the wet stones of Trafalgar Square by the lights of the buses arid cars tearing ,|jy. Tall St Martin’s, offering more than 1 a cloak to the, beggars for temporal arid spiritual help in the presence of Nelson, who is looking down on" a changed world. j