THE LONDON CLIMATE AND THE LONDON THEATRES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1068, 13 October 1882, Page 4

THE LONDON CLIMATE AND THE LONDON THEATRES.

The one thing upon which the at ranin 1 ondi n is tempted to 'descant, •above and before all Olliers is the clitniate. That foieigners should dip Hieir pens in the blackest of ink when •describing it, end that they-should in <<lulge in a joyous To trivmplh so soon •ns they have put the “ si ver streak” he - ween themselves and it, is surely wery natural, and not at all reprehensible For the climate is simply •abominable. The month of July is nearly a fortnight old, and there has heen only one day free from rain, and •no* -one exempt from o>g. The sky is permanently dulled or darkened by the latter It is never azure, but sometimes a bluish grey, and more often ♦than otherwise a dingy buff or a dirty •chocolate colour. If wo had three •days of the sort of w alher in Me‘1 bourne, in the month of August, let ns say, we should he casting about for ■plausible explanations'of so phenomeinally nnp'easant a meteorological occurrence Hi re, however, people seem inured to it, and the macintosh, the umbrella, and the thick •soled shoe arthe necessatv complement of the wayfarer’s ordinary habiliments In no part of London or W PS minster is it possible for you to 'disregard Sidnev advice to “ take short views for the prospect is usually bounded, at. ■the distance of -one -or two hundred yards, by a veil of fog. Long vistas ihere are none. And with the absence of light there ns a correspondi"g absence of c I nr. •To f p»int a London street properly, yon , would have to paint It in monochrome Architects have been doing their best •to btighten the aspect of the metropolis l>y the free use of red brick, with terra-cotta ornaments, fnrhnilding purposes ; hut the blush which 'his mate rial l rings upon the face of the c : ty wanes very rapidly -It passes away "before the-year is over; and after a -time the soot performs its work, and "the newer stvnduresare undislinguish•ah]c from the o'd. In the narrower cquarters ot the town, in squalid lanes •and poverty-stricken courts and alleys, the p-e'-ailing 'doom is something to •shudder at. How men, women, and ■children vegetate under such wre-ched • conditions of existence is altogether inconceivable ‘Philanthropists wonder •at and deplore the habits of drunken mess which prevail among the poor r <clas-es. I am only astonished that ‘•there should be so little intoxication The condition of the streets of Lon•don afier an honr’s rain is disagreeable in theext.reme. The moisture is greasy •on the-footpaths and inndcl in the -carriage-ways. Both the grease and the mud are coloured and qualified bysoot, which is washed out of the atmosphere and p'ecipilated. But, in spite •of this deterging process, there is no purification of the air Tens of thousands of factory chimneys and locomotives are incessan'lv vomiting fresh supplies of flaky car on into the ’medium in which you live and move --and have your being, so that you are perpetually enveloped by it. The ugly pa’d hangs most heavily over th<mo e densely populated qnartei s of the • city, and esoecially over those in which the great railway t<nm ; ni and the principle manufactories are situated ; but its fringes extend far into what used to he the country, its limits 'varying wi»h the direction of the wind For th« floating mass rtf smoke and 'fog fluctuates from north to south, and fr->m east to west, according (o circumstances When the air is still, its • outer edges may be said to overlap Ealing on one side and Ilford on th" • other, Sydenham to the -South and Highgate to the north; hut it is ■steadily enlarging its c rcumference with the expansion of the suburbs, which are extending week by week, and absorbing large areas of what used -to he ru.ial districts in Middlesex, Essex, Kent, and Surrey. That there should he nearly 50 ‘theatres in London, and that the ■greater part of them should he well ifilled every night, is not at all sur;prising when one considers the magnitude of the population, and the necessity which exists for some artificid • counterpoise to the depressing influen- • ces of the filthy atmosphere, some • cheerful antidote in the evening to the ■weary routine of business or of I abo •vions “ pleasure,” which people have -gone through dining.the day To turn • out of the sloppy streets intoa brightly' ■ decorated and brightly-illuminated »th atre, with a good orchestra, artistic ■scenery, and a clever company engaged ■in the performance of a lively comedy, iis one of those agreeable transitions •which you appreciate more fully, per thaps, in London than in any other (large city. For three hours, at least, ;ynn ran secure complete oblivion of tihe weather, and lose sight of a cliunate wnicb cannot he spoken of unaccompanied by the employment of “ a ibig, big D,” except by the exercise of •a, severe fv-'frestraint. And this forgetfulness of a repulsive ire lity is no small boon, fur which, (however, you must be prepared to pay •a high price. The pi ices of admission Uiave doubled, if not trebled, during «the last thirty years; and the fee sysftem—which has been abol shed, it is *onl v right to add, by some managers helps ‘o render a visit to the best (parts of the house an expensive luxury -.only to bo indulged in by the people -with plenty of loose sovereigns in •fcbftir pockets. -J. S., in the Austrafcasian.