A LONDON FOG.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7329, 15 February 1902, Page 4

A LONDON FOG.

(By MARY GAUNT, in the Melbourne { "Argus.") Take a vsry dirty blanket, soak it -well in dh*ty water, wring it so that it just does not drip, and wrap it tight round you, and if you only wrap it tight enough and. make it clammy enough, you have a London fog. To people who are accustomed to the faraway skies and bright, clear atmosphere of Australia, it comes as a revelation. Look out of your window, and 'though there are houses all round you, you can see nothing, hear nothing but mysterious muffled sounds, and your nostrils ara greeted with a strong smell of mingled soot and sulphur. Go out. into the street, and you can see nothing, nob even the lamps ; the fog smothers everything. . You can h-sar the dull rumble of traffic, but it is impossible to tell which way it is coming, for that matter it doesn't know itself, and in spite of the conductor at their heads leading them and carrying a lantern, the /bus horses get on to the platform again and again, and make efforts to get into somebody's frontdoor, or tumble down somebody's area. Stand still a moment, and out of the darkness looms up a figure, man or woman, it is impossible to say which, greatly magnified by the fog. You don't see it com« ing ; the blanket parts, and there it is ; and presently it will park again, and it will be gone. Meanwhile it is a little irate. " Can you tell me," it says in injured tones, "what- the dickens the lions from Trafalgar Square are doing in Piccadilly. There's no reason they should be on the $ose if it is the worst fog of the season." '"Piccadilly? This isn't. Piccadilly; it's Pall Mall." iA policeman, appears. He has heard our conversation, and lifted the curtain^ ' " Piccadilly! -PaUMall!" he says, stolid- 1 ly. "This - is the curb at Trafalgar Square," and he plaints his feet as if defying anyone to take that from himj " and that there— "' He arises an arm, and a horse's head .looks over it thoughtfully. There is a "hansom behind the corse, and a, cabby's voice says aggrievedly — - " I've got a fare as wants to get to Regent's Circus under ten minutes." " You're on the wrong side of the road, my man." The policeman makes a step forward, and lam alone again, wrapped, up in the blanket, and all around me are tile disquieting sounds of the traffic that,., I. . cannot see; ' <~~\ «ai Now and again come catcalls and ;hiT?j3' out of the unknown; it is the London lar-. fikin amusing himself, and I must confess it sounds ratiier eerie". By four o'clock people are going about with torches, and small boys make their appearance with candles in little boxes. " Tike 'yer home keerful, lidy, tike her anywheres." But I don't want *o go anywhere. I just want to stand and watch the victims of the fog. Another small" boy comes into view witn n very, large lady in tow, and a very small candle in a box. She evidently has not much faith ia her guide, and is talking straight on, end; ' "Yusjlidy; yus;liuyj step keerful now Jheir's 'the kerb z " and then he- falls against,; me; whether by accident or design, I Know not. ' ■ ■■■-.'.■ "My word!" ihe whispers, "^he is a treat, ' and- they, too, ar« gone under the dirty blanket. • ±>y and by I hear the bewildered squawking of a bsiated motor-car, it is oui> there in tiia darkness^ and it doesn't know where it is, ana only realises that it' is a danger to itself and -everyoody else. ' Then an omnibus lumbers rignt up on to the pavement ; the horses sup ami stagger on tne greasy scones, a-nd i, too, realise that there is an element of cianger in tne log; aiiti I : feel my way along careiuliy '{iiP-t^ stumble into .oh© arms ox my mead,' ther policeman, again. . '"' „ '• Get nic v. hansom, if you can, please. " W ell, lady, I aunno as they'll go a' night luce txus. Well, perhaps ne will; its lilting a bit, 1 tmnk." i'm giud to hear tna-t, though I don't agree- vita nini. However, a hansom -is iound t wnose driver also tninksi it's lifting a bit, and we proceed at a snail's pace to Hyde Park Comer — the driver says it's iiyd« Park Uomer, and I'm bound to believe him, for i can see nothing myself — and here,, we come to a lull stop, and, stay^ stiii lor aisolidisour. ( . Kw aici Uaboy iiolds lmue conversations witfoanethrougu til© trap-door occasionally. " 1 never saen suca a tog in ail my born days, did you it" x very truwiiully reply that I never even dreamt 01 su'cn a lug, ana we listen ia biieuue to tne shouts and chaiE that are going on around us. Then he pub las utua in again. - Don't' you be afraid, lady. Don't you gx> and scream. I'll get you home right ciiougn if you don't sci.ea.iu.'' -i prcauito iaitntuliy i won't scream, especially as 1 don't see how that is tv nitnd mutters, and agam we wait for. the log to iiit. J3y and by a big ha<nd;-.fishi tniust turough che trap-door, and a voicesays plaintively — , Would yer mind rubbing tbat t lady? It's gone numb." It leeis like a lump of ice, and I rub and rut) till a /little warmth comes into ib, and then the fog iiits just a littie } and we crawl Home, acd i register a solemn vow that out into a Lonuon log 1 never go agam of my own free will. you it-el that something might happen in auch dense, impenetrable darkness, and 1 can tyuite well believe the tale told by a woman who is mourning lor her lost sjaltkin jacket. She was going to some house in the West End, 1 'forget .the exact address, but she knew she was /within a very short dis-t tanee of it, only the fog was so thick she could not see the doorstep, alone the numbers. Very foolishly, she appealed to the lirsb passer-by. _"Tll take you there, he said, most courteously; "it's only a step." It was only a step. "Here's the house," he said, bringing her right opposite the door. " You're all right now, and I'll trouble you for that sealskin you're wearing." And she had to give it to him. Nothing that I can. say will do justice to a London fog. It is the nastiest thing 1 have ever met, and at ceases to be funny after tne first ten minutes. The pavement is greasy and filthy, everything you touch is riithy ; and when you go inside and look at yourself in the glass you will see that you are dirty, too ; you are so black you might have just had a job coal-heav-ing. Keallv, it is no wonder the English are a great" colonising nation. A few hundred winters with fogs like this always threatening must have made our forefathers look anxiously for fresh fields and pastures new. j No wonder the English will dare anything, any climate — the man who can stand a j London fog need^fear^nothing. . • AUTHENTIC MEDICAL OPINIONS WOHTH KNOWING:— JDr Osbornesays: » I use SANDER and SONS' EUCALYPTI EXTRACT as a spray for nasal catarrh, low fever, asthma, etc., with gr».at success. I find this preparation superior to all others." Dr Sta-hl : " I have used various preparations of Eucalyptus, but I cot best results from SANDER AKD SONS' EUCx\LYPTI EXTRACT than j from any other." Dr Preston: "I never v«e any Eucalyptus preparation other than SANDER AJS!D SONSJ, as I found the others to be almost- useless." Dr Hari>: "It goes without saying that SANDES AND SONS' EUCALYPTI EXTRACT i, the besL in the ma-rket." In influenza, all ieveis, throat and lung trouble, diphtheria, diarrhoea, dysentery, kidney complaints, rbeuroatism, wounds, sprains, ulcers, etc., ifc is invaluable. See that you get SANDER AND SONS', and reject spuriom preparations, which are sometimes supplied by unscrupulous dealers. — (Adrt.) At the great fur. market at Leipzig there are yearly sold 6000 bear skins, 54,000 of sable, 66,000 of otter, and 160,000 of ermine.