YOUNG LONDON.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 349, 21 November 1879, Page 2

YOUNG LONDON.

Westeourne Grovk and Thereabouts,

(From the Daily Telegraph, July 2.)

•It is only recently I arrived at the conclusion that lam growing very old. The precise, number qf years which have passed, oVer my head have really very little to do with tVe* nia'tter ; kince I am obviously, neither : (he ifeiiiorhbr the junior, in point of time; o£ntimr>er& of my friends and acquaintances who were born in the same::* year of grace that I first saw. the lightin," ; <; and who are at present bearing themselves ; . w.ithjquite a youthful jauntiness, and forming'all kind's of gcheines for the future.";-A , nlan is as old as-he feels, and a woman is a$ old as slie looks ; and one reason why I feel that old age has come upon me is that.l can call to.mind an immense number of tilings which have utterly passed atvay, and that I see around me a number ; as immense of things wholly, brightly, and happily new. Sydney Smith, in the winter time of a very long and keenly observant life, enumerated in a letter to the newspaper, ju sf fifteen appliances of civilization of which the world was destitute when he was youog. The list comprised gas, railroads and steamboats, wooden pavQDjents,' policemen, waterproof- ' braces, colchicum. quinine, clubs,, calomel, the right to buy game, savings' hanks," penny postage, and commuted tithes. To this catalogue of " Modem Changes " he added umbrellas, which in his youth were ■ seldom used and very costly ; and,ho concluded by hinting that in his younger days, even in the best society, one-third of the gentlemen, at least, were always drunk. It was in'the year 1843 that the Canon of St. Paul's recorded these changes. Let any elderly person with a tolerably. retentive memory eet himself to the task of calendar-

ins: the social changes which Have taken place since he was a boy. Here are a very few. Whon I first began to* remember" things, tluve were but two railroads in the United Kingdom, the Manchester and

Liverpool and the Stockton mid Darlington. It took the best part of four days to get to Paris;, and . the • postage of a letter to that city was .one and eight-, pence. There were no ocean steamers'; and* five weeks were often consumed in a journey to New York. There were no lucifer matches lighting on or off the box; ilint an.l steel, the tinder box. and matches dipped in brimstone, reigned supreme in the kitchen ; oil was still burnt in the street lamps of Grosvciior Square.' There were no electric, telegraphs,.'no postoffice money orders, no steel pens—in c6tnmon use, I mean—no envelopes, no perambulators, and no Chubb's locks. There were no cheap newspapers, no shilling magazines, no post-cards, no perforated stamps and counterfoils.; claret, loaded with red hermitage, was quoted at from eight to eleven shillings a bottle ; no paraffin dies, no " composites." nor no Child's night lights ; no paraffin, no colza, and wax candles were four shillings a pound. There was not an liotel in England where a lady could dine in a public room. There were only two decent French restaurants in London—Verey's Regent street, and Fricour's in MaryJebone street. There was no photography, no benzoline. no chloroform, no glycerine, no collodion, and no gun cotton. There were no mauve, arid he magenta'dies. There were no: preserved meats, soups, or vegetables. There was. but little chocolate, and no edeioa, Soda water was a shilling a bottle. There were no hansom cabs, and no '■ knifeboards" to the omnibuses. There were no .refrigerators, and no sewing machines.' The regiments of infantry in the Household Brigade wore white trousers throughout the summer, and rheumatis.h was chronically rife among them owing to the damp' pipe-clay with which their nether garments were smeared. There were no keyless nor crystai-cased watches; |no : : Albert or Breguef watch-chains; no electrogilding nor piivcring, and no electrotyping. The steel I'eik in ordinary use had only two prongs ; " balanced " table knives were unknown. Ther-fr were no stays that were not instruments of torture, and no walking toots for iaditf. There-was no Balbriggan nor Balmoral hosiery. There was no tarasn.-.m>. si:d it was common for hypochondriacal people to have themselves bled once a month. There were, lam happy to cay, only a£<'w "rantoons" or velocipedes, and there were no revolvers. There was no guttapercha, and very few cigars. :.I have thus glanced at some fifty' additions to our social economy "which have been made during less than 50 years ; but the list could, will) extrc-mest ease, be expanded to five hundred. The knowledge and remembrance of these changes are sub ■ stanually tny justification for undertaking io write a scries of papers on "Young London."

A match between two renowned lady switmaers was lately decided at the Lainiieth Baths before a large and select com■pany. The. competitors were Miss A Beckwith, daughter of the renowned pro, lessor of swimming, and MissL. Saigeman. who has the title of champion lady swimmer of the South Coast. The distance of the match under notice was two miles, and to complete this the fair opponents had to swim 88 lengths of the bath. Miss Beck." ■with had previously swam *20'niiies in the Thames in-Ghr 2-smin, having received no assistance whatever during the journey. Both at the commencement swam , on the chest, and Miss Saigsfnan' hold a slight lead for 14 lengths.; Miss Beckwith then drew up levol,.,and at.the finish of half a mile they touched simultaneously. On completing six more legths the Littlohampton representative was five yards ahead, but ere two more lengths had been traversed the liondon ; 'lady Went -alongside. At the conclusion of one mile Miss Beckwitli was in front, and just before its termination her opponent turned on her back for a few yards. Miss Saigeman from this point invariably led until eight lengths from home, when Miss Beckwith spurted in front, was soon eight yards ahead, and continuing to increase her lead, ultimately won, amidst great cheering, by 41 yards (or a yard over one length). Both on finishing received an ovation, and .were presented with, bouquets. The winner accomplished her task in Ihr 42min 33sec.

It has seldom fallen to our lot (says the S. M. Herald) to record a more inhumane conspiracy against-a helpless and innocent 3nf.11 than that recently tried and suitably sentenced by Sir William Marning at Tarn worth. A. constable induces three other persons to assist in stealing a sheep. for tiio purpose of claiming the reward of £100 promised by the Peel River Company for information rchuiting in the'conviction of the offender. . The Btolen property is then carried to a hut ,where Ah Saw, a poor Chinaman, just out of prison, lies ill in bed, and the constable arrives on the spot in execution of his duty, arrests the Chinaman; charges him with theft, trumps up evidence, gets bis accomplices to swear to it,'obtains a conviction, and the unfortunate victim is imprisoned for 12 months. Itv/ould have been contrary even to human probabilites if such a quartette of heartless thieves had not fallen out'and' obtained a reward they little bargained for. But this is a poor compensation to the unhappy Chinaman for the false imprisonment and the wrong he has endured. It was stated in evidence that one of the conspirators had said, " It's no odds about a Chinaman getting into it." A sentiment like that should be execrated from one end of the Colony to the other. Sir William Manning has vindicated ths law, if he has not compensated the victim. For the honor of New South Wales, it is to be hoped that ih&re is not a man left in our police force capable cf abusing Iris position as this man Cough abused his.