LONDON BEFOGGED.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12898, 8 February 1906, Page 7

LONDON BEFOGGED.

A correspondent in London! of tie " New Zealand Times" writes as follows of a London fog:— A fog-bound city is like a land of dreams. It is familiar, and yet unreal; substantial, yet ghostly. The din of the traffic, deadened by the fog, sinks to a anil whisper, and no sound of footsteps echoes on the pavements. Piguies emerge silently and suddenly from the gloom ahead, and are swallowed up as suddenly in the wall of darkness behind you. It is also the harvest time of the footpad, and the purgatory of the timid wavfarer. Sandbaggers were abroad in one part of South London on Monday, and many petty thefts have been recorded. . It was no uncommon experience for a skinny hand to; emerge froiii the darkness by the open front of a butcher s shop, deftly unhook a joint, and vanish with it into nothingness. Such thefts were impossible to trace. But the fog brought out the kindness as well as the meanness of human nature. People helped each other to find their way, or to cross a, crowded thoroughfare, and cheerfully gave up their own errands to soothe a. frightened child or lie'p a lady in distress. There is nothing like a fog for breaking down the barriers of reserve and conventionality. Perhaps the best instance one can give is the picture of Mr Balfour,' the late Prime M^ister,-fog-bound at St. Pancras station; -munching from a penny-in-the-slot": machine. Strangers clubbed together for mutual protection and guidance "and one came across many of these .."-tourist; parties." picking their -way across Lcindipn. from , the railway termini, led by" the &ht. of ;in iipprovided torch. The '"lirikTDoy,«\Vis a medieval relic that comes into fashion -with, (dense fog; Even pieces of brown-, pjvper soaked in oil sufficed to earn moriev ; for the torch-bearers in the city of dread- i ful night. . v . - v i ; , r ,.. .* . - v But it was'm the traffic of the streets. :• ajid at the railway-'statidns, that chaos reigned supreme. - Every cross road was." '» deadly labyrinth for. the drivers, and - -'buses and cabs by;'the; dozen lost -them- ■ selves helplessly in the fog. Some wan-;) dered about • aimlessly for Sours, trying to find their bearings; others gave up the task altogether and collected in long lines, unable to go onward or back. The Cabinet Ministers who- rwent .to Buckingham Palace in the afternoon to be sworn in had : to be led home by their drivers. It is not to be inferred that his Majesty's j hospitality had been too much for them. ' The trouble was that it. was impossiblej drive a carriage %r a -cab in such- a j Jog, and the only way of getting along | ■was to get down aid lead the horses by j it-he head. The train services, as usual in.' these conditions, were' terribly disorganised.' | The long-distance expresses were. mostly j jtwo hours ' late in" starting, and -on the suburban lines people took hours to .do : what would ordinarily -be a- twenty minutes' or half-hour's,; journey. .Altogether Was a raclceting, J chaotic, nerve-shaking jsort of question of what Tfche fog meant to London in loss_.of trade 'and other financial 'damage' is interesting. |The cost of Monday's experience is estimated by the " Express" at £350,000, of iwhich. the ..under >i—-Loss to Ktradesinen j £160,000; loss. in wages. !£80,000; ■ railways,. £30,000; Abuses and tramways, JBlO.ObO'; ciibimen, £2000; extra; light, - £IO,OOO j:; restaurants • /ftncfc teashops, £40,000; extra police, £SOO. Apparently the only 'points that- can be raised in jjdefence of, si .'London fog jire _ thur-y it provides a first-rate" "excuse for lazy'people jwHo are ; .late fin reaching-their business, 'and for husbands late in . returning home, and that it provides aktisric eye -wijh 'various picturesque effects in the "wayji'of arid the p. and !foi|i ' - r -. •