THE HOUSEWIFE AND THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2364, 21 January 1915, Page 7

THE HOUSEWIFE AND THE WAR

. ft- , LITTLE EFFECT IN LONDON SO FAR. London, November SO. Sixteen weeks of war have now passed, with singularly- little effect upon some departments of the national life. It has scarcely touched the domestic budget. The price of sugar has doubled and tea has gone up since the war tax was ' put on it, but otherwise household necessaries cost about the same as before. A fortnight's coal strike or railway strike would have made much more trouble to the housewife. The normal routine of the middle-class home has Buffered little disturbance. In my own suburb we have three mail deliveries a day instead of five, but the reduction is really nothing to grumble about. The train service in all parts of the country is running as usual, and excursion facilities, suspended for a few weeks, long since have been .restored. There are fewer omnibuses, but quite enough to meet reasonable needs. _ In the day time, the chief difference m the aspect of the streets is the frequent appearance of military uniforms. In every busy street there is a sprinkling of men in khaki among the miscellaneous orowd on the sidewalk, and one sees occasional squads marching in middle of the road, but without the old-fashioned accompaniment of a band. Musio seems to be officially regarded as a superfluity in .this war. But after dark the life of the streets is considerably affected by the light-out policy. ! Ahko in the city and in the suburbs [ there is m use only the minimum of street lamps required for the safety of the pedestrian. Sky signs are comF i ®jj ab °l»shed, and store-keepers are W •,, n rnOTe tnan a comparatively dull illumination of their windows. ' There are restrictions indoors also where skylights would give away the identity of a public building. In the British Museum reading-room onlv the I st P aU l am P? at the desks are now lighted. The big.central lamps are on vacation, and the glass of the domo is obscured by some opaque covering. With the streets so dull, it is not very exhilarating to be about at night. In consequence a good many meetings ands entertainments are being put forw,a™ *<>, earlier hours than usual. One or the leading choral societies, for instance, altered the hour of a recent Albert Hall concert from eight o'closck to three. There is not really any general apprehension of Zeppelin raids, but [these lighting precautions are cheerfully accepted on the ground that it is a * ?' e 'l to oo on the safe side.—Now [York "Evening Post."