NEW SPIRIT IN LONDON

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2267, 29 September 1914, Page 6

NEW SPIRIT IN LONDON

"DIZZINESS,HAS GONE" 'There is no more, mafficking. A new metal has come into tho London crowd nut of-the crucible of these last few days'. The'froth. arid fumo of flag-wag-ging havo eva'porate'l; do, too, have Tift-ed: boric-quaking mists of dread and suspense.' Exultation and depression are-alike unhealthy. It is good that we are now free from them (wrote a . contributor to; the "Daily Mail" on ./August'B). The faces in the street are ■■ the barometers of the souk that men hide. It does pnoY heart good to walk :;London and to behold : that very notable rise—apparent to - everyone and swift in its example—of the mercury of the, people. The. great war took all our comprehension;* unawares. Although it has bo'lwl for years, it walked at last like an imbelievable spectre into a, warm and lighted room. What v/onvderthat we were nhaken? What y/onder at a creeping skug of the spirit in : front of the ur.'tnov/n?

•■■People and Lord Kitchener. The dizziness has jjoh*. The trial before-us,' Week as it is, is not as black- a.s our anticipation of it, Wβ have , -'already-surprised, ourselves ho ■Wks than we ha ire confounded our ene"ies by our rally and our rcadinew. T™ 'financial situation in aav«d, the * iiks reopen, the food suppliOß are (safe--.-■rded, and food prices "contro'led. ■ tremendous accession of calmnew. and liance has come to the nation by the - .noointiuont of Lord Kitchener to the ■'■'V Office. The news that the Army r, in his hands, a rock of a man, an ni-caniscr incarnate, has swept through

London like a vivifying breeze. The 'British jiublic makes idols only after, a long trial of them and in this ease it is faithfulto the best military genius at its service.-. '■■'■, London is swinging back to ae much of - its normal life' as... possible.. The stores, arid,.provision dealers report a decline of the senseless rush for provisions,, and in a few days, perhaps, even tho crowds who , cheer in Whitehall will realise'that every man's first duty of usefulness and : common patriotism will be to ftet: calmly, about his normal daily task. Many tilings must be new to us. [ They, are better met by. meeting them half-way and .at. once. Voluntary retrenchment to-day is easier t'han invuluntary retrenchment to-morrow. War, with all its terrors,' is still the great purgative of'.human selfishness. Hard> ship has a pleasanter face when it is looked on squarely.; The sario and 'the thoughtful.,have : already realised . that there may be a long path ..whereon we must endure.: -The sooner the senseless and_ the selfish come to tliat same, realisation the ! better for themselves and for all of us;; ;And:it is well to remember how.-little so far are the worst of our" troubles.compared to those of' our suffering allies. Life is going to bo differentr-it has got to be different. One can assert that in not. a club or. restaurant in London can, people make' costly indulgence without the frowns, of those near;to them.- There,is already such, a.sobering of. minds that fopperies and ostentations have almost -disappeared freni the streets. We may lnutrii ■bravely, and the wayfarer will kindle to 'us, but coarse and vacant hilarity to, rasps on; what; is on. all our minds, that a scowl is, its public rebuke. -

u \ \;\ Changes -In the People. .-."-. .. These are-some of the 'chances; apparent'already in London, and the deeper changes' widen, '.affecting, every one of us. The'ieddies of war come into lr.nny backwaters, and big people and little people are equally hit in many and diverse occupations and incomes. But -the: man who- is. yaguely| indignant because some of his. local trains are cancelled, the housewifo who will not sinrender, one'iota, of -her stereotyped menu,.,the comfortable people who seem still to think that /the vastest of ■ all ..struggles ",of. history must keep itself politely out!: lo£ ■'. their fortunes—these .will-suffer most of all. In the meantime London has found herself. Except for the idlers, in. .Whitehall, the.barri- . carle in-the: Hamburg-American steamshin' offices, the, throngs: round the., news bulletin boards; the heart-thrilling rush of thousands to the recruiting-office, the passage of .troops'through \the streets, and, the drilling that is .going oh in the'courtyard of Somerset House.and on the hitherto inviolate • lawns: of the Temnle; sheis brayelv being the usual London—the great city serene.- But. look closely on the,faces'in'the street. A new,light is upon them. With all' Great Britain nnd we are t.isrht-lipped and steeled to whatever is before us.' And wo arp learning with a great comfort of self-command that although nothing is so contagious as panic still more, is nothing so infectious as. courage. 7■ ,Y . ' /> . ;