Show fra fr 0 f in london s busy streets i t special correspondence it Is a hard thing to get out of lon ion no matter in what direction one walks or drives masses of brick and tone work surround one on every side there seems to be no end to england s capital this Is natural enough when one considers that 6 people call themselves lon doners this army of humankind must live and must work in order to house and teed itself As evidence ot the fact that it works london has street after street filled from one end to the other with stores and offices there s the strand running into his tone fleet street Edge ware and roads fashionable re gent and bond streets oxford street with its silverware piccadilly for many bleci s lined with shops and farther on with exclusive clubhouses and other streets far too numerous to mention there is much to bei seen on all of these streets besides shops throngs of people and masses of ve hides fill the walks and roads it LS not the street car that distresses one here it is the clatter of horses hoofs tower seen from the thames the slamming of cab doors the appeal of the street venders the slash of the horse whip and the uncontrollable never ending procession of men and women who is there who has not heard of london s you go to the park to to to church to theater in london from any direction and how do you get therea on an electric car tl at will transfer you to a cable car and to still another electric trama most probably not tor there are very few street car lines in london you take a bus such as abound in lon don by thousands a bus drawn by two horses a bus placarded with signs of every possible color and de so that it is difficult to see its label a top heavy clumsy good natured looking bus which if it goes your way will stop to take you on or let you off at any point it you do not want to inconvenience traffic by stopping the bus you can jump on and oft whether you are a man or a woman role of the hackney cab Omni busses however are not the only means of transportation in lon don the number of hackney cabs lately estimated at between 12 and 15 play a very import nt role in london street lite it is these cabs particularly which make crossing the streets dangerous for they come upon one unexpectedly from all directions and from around unnoticed corners at a rate that bewilders one to say the least however the drivers are more careful here than in most cities and they go out of the way of trans when they see them in the road uncertain whether to go back ward or forward we must not forget to mention the underground railway for it bears a large share of the burden of london s traffic more than 2 people are said to travel on it every week so that the underground does the im work of thinning out the crowded streets now add to the thousands and thoi sands of buses cabs and delivery traffic to assist a few timid persons the cleanliness ot the streets of london a city generally spoken of as dirty is very surprising dust alev accumulates and on windy days such as have been frequent lately some are disagreeable but the care given them throughout the day together with the splendid pavements makes the worst of them bearable the gutters and the street beyond out to about five feet from the curb stone if a broad street are sprinkled numerous times a day it narrow the whole street is sprinkled boys in white jackets are busy all the time sweeping and cleaning in every block there is at least one large box for dumpings and waste paper and what is more the public has been so trained that it never throws papers about no one walking down these busy streets can be immune to the attract eions of the shop windows so let us take a look at them too stores line the streets on both sides without an inch of space between them they are not large as a rule but they have very large windows filled with shelves and shelves of goods many have more than halt their stock thus dis played jewelry shops there are with out number and show windows are full to overflowing tea houses seem to be next in order with win dows full of bakers goods A strange sight it Is to an american walking down the strand between 9 and 10 clock in the morning ta see the shopkeepers leisurely lei surly opening their iron shutters or gates or the boy only just beginning to sweep out the store the street is crowded at this late hour with men hurrying to their of cices and at 5 30 p m many close up again so that the business day in london is very short types of street venders who can walk about in this city without noticing the wretched looking men women young girls and little children standing day in and day out and often late into the night in the gutters trying to sell to passers by a box of matches a map of london a twisting toy snake or a bunch of flow ers tied to a who can forget those looks of appeals and yet how little one can help them london has a great many very poor people and nowhere not even in paris whose dames de la halle are noted for their vulgarity and brutality are the women as looking as are those of the lowest classes in this huge metropolis so full of culture and wealth noblemen and christian churches there 11 a street type small slight round shouldered dressed in black with the invariable black sailor hat hair loosely knotted at the back of the neck and always about to fall shoes terribly ragged and a look so ignorant and vacant as to be more bestial than human A very common type this is it almost haunts one there is a masculine type equally re he is the man we meet corn ing out of the alehouse or standing at the door wishing he had enough pence to go in most unkempt tor lorn neglected helpless beings and here without number yet if we can get away from this sordidness and misery london has a gleat fascination and charm when the spring sun shines on the dear old abbey and the massive houses of par diament and the gayly dressed and happy people throng into hyde and everybody seems to know that everybody else is full of the joys ol 01 springtime and the squares are full of delightful flavers and shrubbery then london Is fair indeed fortu nate is he who can be there london has an atmosphere all its own so well irnel ed in the words which hall caine put into the mouth of glory Q bayle to be in london means to live and to live means to be in lon don there is no joy so great no mem ory so full of sincere pleasure as Is that of london in the springtime one cannot have too much of it dr rotten row hyde park ft afons the huge n imber of private vehicles owned by the upper thou sands who flock to the city every spring elegant equipages with smart ly flunkies and imagine the pell mell on a sunny may afternoon at trafalgar square or near hyde park corner it is a sight only by the pen of a dickens or a thack eray at the street cross I 1 said pell mell it Is that and et it Is not for the order in london streets Is perfect every one drives to the left down the center of broad streets at frequent freau ent intervals are small safety lalands a small cement elevation upon which eight or ten people can stand in crossing the street one for the island watching the horses thai come only one way and from there to the other side one need watch only the other direction if the crossing is an un usually difficult one a policeman is sure to be there and he will stop all johnson said the man that is tired of london is tired of existence |