Show CUPID GIVEN ROUGH DEAL BY L LONDON OFFICIALS Parks Are Without Seats and Lovers Must Spoon as They Wa Walk k By Ey V Wa-ic Muir Mui Special Correspondent International News Service and London Daily Express LONDON Jan 2 What What is ii the most pathetic pathetic sight in irm London I observe It every evening ve ing as I go home to dinner And if I fare after dinner to a theatre I see the pathetic pathetic sight again Through my taxicab window when I return from the theatre I patch catch atch a fleeting le ting glimpse once more of that pathetic sight London lovers ers i HANG OVER GATES Everywhere Everywhere-at at area gates in the gloomy side streets or loitering by the railings which surround I Ithe the gardens in the squares there squares there are couples courting They stand silently these pairs Their silence Is extraordinary Hour after hour lour they exchange not a word They are too happy to talk They Their are unconscious of the passersby unconscious unconscious unconscious of the fog even of ot the rain CRUEL COURTSHIP Their enchantment is enviable But what a civilization is this which al allows allows al- al lows such cruel well cruel well uncomfortable courtships Do these poor blissful youngsters really prefer to stand wearisomely in doorways and under the dripping trees whose branches hang oyer over backyard walls Of course they dont don't They have no spacious h homes In which the courtship may i I progress befittingly as is the case with the rich middle and upper I classes There is more privacy in the I street t than then under the family roof 1001 To be sure there may be no family roof The girl is probably living in above a shop th the young oung man rents only a bedroom in lodgings lodgings and and as likely as not shares this with another young man friend LONELY IN CROWDS Hence the p pathos thos of these London with their paradoxical effect I of 01 loneliness in the midst of a crowd What is to b be done for these boys and the girls girls the future citizens of the empire Useless to suggest that halls halls' should be opened where light and warmth would a accompany company suitable suitable- supervision supervision super super- vision L Let t us be candid about this London lovers dont don't respond to these well meant attempts they attempts they h have ve several sev sey- eral times been made made to to furnish them with a kind of charitable spuriously spur spur- cheery social center Given that there is no home parlor in which i they can sit they vote for the freedom free free- dom of the open street A strange taste the philanthropic worker may c consider it but there i It is i NOWHERE TO SIT DOWN What What Is is' veritably in inhuman uman however however how how- how I ever Js JJ that in our our streets and squares ther there a are e no seats The I lovers have hare vh no nowhere re to sit down am and rest Hour after atte hour they must stand or trudge Is it conceivable that the well to do can realize how few public seats exist In London You may walk wan for miles mUes and miles and not find one single bench on which to relax your fatigued limbs WAIT TURN AT BENCH And I could take you to a spot wh where re there is one bench Just large enough to accommodate six persons and every night on that bench you yot will behold dumbly seated three pairs of ot lovers In the shadows ai all allaround allaround around you will descry other pairs ol ot of lovers patiently standing holding each others other's hands If one pair of the lovers move from that bench their vacated place Is instantly taken by another pair COND CONDUCT CT BLAMELESS These young people be It understood understood under wider stood are behaving exactly as lovers in a wealthier class behave Their conduct is as a rule irreproachable To dismiss the whole business as mere mere spooning Is both vulgar and I short sighted All lovers layers spoon anc and have a right to spoon Bluntly these should be encouraged encouraged encouraged aged not looked askance at Their discomforts their heir publicity are the outcome of f social condition n for which at the moment moment especially especially in the light of the house shortage it shortage it seems hopeless hopeless hopeless hope hope- less to find a speedy cure |