THE FREEDOM OF LONDON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1010, 27 June 1911, Page 4

THE FREEDOM OF LONDON.

In Loudon one is free to behave as one’s spirit tempts one, as a saint or a sinner. It does not matter which ; nobody bothers. Phis side of lunacy you may play the fool, and people will nut turn their heads to look at you. There are so many of ’em. There are fellows who will walk abroad without a hat. Why not ? There are suburban gentlemen who walk barefoot upon their garden lawns as one step towards the simple life. Certainly.

I once met a man in the Strand wearing a silk hat, a pink jacket, and green plush breeches. In his right baud he was carrying a Gladstone bag, with which he was walking round the world for a wager. He had been locked up in Paris. In Loudon nobody paid the slightest attention to him.

The freedom Of the City is conferred upon every soul alive who comes within the magic circle oi Greater London. There are no spies about, unless you are wanted by the police. Nobody else wants you, my friend. It is no use bringing j'our little local fame to market, or your little talents that blazed so brilliantly on a narrower stage. You are just one of the five million nonentities, or one of the million who are all so famous that nobody bothers about their fame, except “ Who’s Who?” which grows fatter every year.

In any one of our small houses iu our long streets you may live tor half a lifetime, and your nextdoor neighbours, as they come and go, would not take the trouble to inquire whether you are a commercial traveller, or whether king in exile, whether you are an Atheist or a Latter Day Saint, a minor poet or a major-general. You see they are all busy with their own souls, aud the unsolved problem of how to make both ends meet. They are busy bringing babies into the. world, aud burying their grandmothers, aud making their careers, aud drinking themselves to death, aud building for themselves heavenly mansions, on the instalment system. They have not time to trouble about your babies or your soul.