LONDON'S DANCERS.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12769, 10 February 1910, Page 1

LONDON'S DANCERS.

Life in London threatens to become really dangerous. Tiie average citizen hardly recognises thu risks no runs in his daily walks abroad in the streets of the metropolis, but they are very real. Apart from the- visible menace of six-ton motor 'buses' flying taxi-cabs, and vehiclar traiiio generally, there are invisible dangers. " in the city every square yard of pavement may be said to conceal a mine in the shape of gas mains and electric cables laid in close proximity. It only needs a leaky main and a slight fault in the cable — and there you ar«! Minor street explosions through the collision of gas and electricity are by. uo means uncommon, but happily they] rarely produce worse results than the blowing out of a manhole cover, the disturbance of a few yards of pavement or roadway, a broken window or two, and shocks to the system of those in the vicinity of the upheaval. Occasionally, however, there occurs a really serious explosion, as was tho case in Bermondsey some little time ago, when a child was killed, several people badly injured, and considerable damage done to property. That catastrophe brought home to Londoners the unpleasant possibilities of their streets. About noon tho other day they had another reminder, four men being injured, and a busy traffic artery block, ed for hours, by a gas explosion m Queen Victoria street, almost at the foot of Blackfriars Bridge, and adjoining the recently opened subways for pedestrians. Below the road is a junction chamber for post office wires. Work waa going on here, and, as a man named Tike was , descending a manhole, a tremendous explosion took place. Five manhole covers were blown out, and a number of pavement flags were displaced. Pike himself esoaped with a shock, and a man named Breedom, who was following him, was also uninjured, though he was blown bodily into the road. But a passer-by received a severe blow on the leg from one of the manhole covers, which necessitated Jiis removal to the hospital, and, as the result of a second explosion in an adjacent manhole, three workmen suffered more or less severe burns on their faces and hands. Fearing other explosions— for the street thereabouts is honeycombed with manholes, each one of which was a possible course of further outbreaks — the police speedily cleared the danger zone of people, and put a stop to all traffic in the neighbourhood till the gas leakage had been traced and stopped.