Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-12-28 | Page 25 | London is Cold to Little Cupid

LONDON IS COLD TO LITTLE COPID Sweethearts, With No Light Places in Which to Spoon, Arouse Pity. Area Gates in Gloomy Side Streets Are Favorite Trysting Spots. , . By WARD MUIB, j Special Correspondent International News Service and London Daily Express. LONDON, Dee. 27. What is the most pathetic sight in London? ' I observe it every evening as I go homo to dinner. And if I faro forth after dinner to a thenfor I sVo the pathetic pa-thetic sight again. Through my taxi-cab taxi-cab window, when 1 return from the theater. I catch a fleeting glimpse once more of that pathetic sight, i London lovers! Everywhere at area gates in the gloomy side streets, or loitering by the prison-like railings which surround the gardens in tho squares thero are couples courting. They stand silently, these pairs. Their silence is extraordinary. Hour after hour they exchange not a word. They are too happy to talk. They are unconscious of the passers-by, unconscious uncon-scious of the fog. even of tl:,j rain. Their enchantment is enviable. But wlvtt a civilization ia this which allows al-lows such cruel well, uncomfortable courtships! Do these poor, blissful youngsters really prefer to stand, wearisomely, in doorways and undrr dripping trees whose branches hang over backyard walls.' Of course they j doti 't. Homes Are Lacking. j They havo no spacious homes in which the courtship may progress be-fittingly, be-fittingly, as is the case with the rich middle and up! or classes. Thero is more privacy in tho street than under the tamily roof. To be sure,, there may he no family roof. Tho girl is probably "living in'' above a shop; the young man rents only a bedroom in iodgyugs and, as j likely iis not, shares this with another young man friiend. Houce the pathos of these London wooings, with their paradoxicttl effect of loneliness in the midst of a crowd. What is to be done for these boys and girls tho future citizens of the empire : "Useless 'to suggest t'aat halls should be opened where light and warmth would accompany suitable supervision! Let t'.s be candid about this. London lovers dou 't respond to these well-meant well-meant attempts they haw- several times been made to furnish them with a kind of charitable, spuriously cheery social center. Uiven that there is no home parlor in which they can sit, they vote for the freedom of the open street. A strange taste, tho "philanthropic "philan-thropic worker'' may consider it; but there it is! I What is veritably inhuman, however, is that in our streets and squares there are no seats. Tho lovers have nowhere to sit down and rest. Hour after hour they must stand or trudge. ; Benches Are Scarce. Js it eonecivabVj that tho well-to-do can realize how few public Beats exist in London? You may walk for miles and miles and not find one single If.'iich on which to relax your fatigued limbs. And I could take you to a spot where there is one bench just large enough to accommodate six persons, and every night on that, bench you will behold, duinblv seated, three pairs of lovers. ln the shadows all around you v, ill descry other pairs of lovers, patiently standing, holding each other's hands. If one pair of the lovers moves from that bench their vacated place is instantly in-stantly taken by another pair. These young people, be it understood, are behaving exactly as lovers in a wealthier class behave. Their conduct is, as a rule, irreproachable. To dismiss dis-miss . the. fflio'e business as mere "spooning" is both vulgar and shortsighted. short-sighted. All lovers "spoon" and have a right to "-spoon." Bluntly, these "spoon-ings'' "spoon-ings'' should he encouraged, not looked askance at. Their discomforts, their publicity, are the outcome of social conditions con-ditions for which at the moment especially in the light of the house shortage it seems hopeless to find a speedy cure.