ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.
{Specially Written for the Witness Ladies' Page.)
rf"*. OfclLDKKlt. ANbtTHE CHRISTMAS SJTREETS.
7 fh® London streets on a fine afternoon, ' ■with fife tfittlfeMtobf tuope and «hopu«fai- ] dofrrs ilfiaiftg ••tarougi- the, tmlighty inak* • a fie tops- it is rsrovtb going a long-- journey to eee-^ft pieinre which even the waifis and straps, find -pleasure in contemplating, and when the, schools have let the j youngsters free those wao are not' going ' witn parents or relations to choose their j own presents get as near to Toy Fairyland •s possible to look at the delights that others posewe. ' ! •But the great open-air toy fair ->* Ludgate Hill or the pavement toy sellers have this year^been forbidden by the Gommissioner of Police to pursue their trade. In other years right from St. Paul's to I>odgaie Circus titeoe vendors ol tojit and novelties have lined the pavemnets, greatly adding, with their bright-coloured wares, to the pictukesqueness of the Christmas streets, and with their good-humOured criticism and the var.ety of theix penny ■ toys drew such a number of purchasers that last year the traffic was impeded, and * so this year the powers that be have decided that Ludgate Hill Toy Fair is to be no more, and thousands of fathers and 1 mothers and .many more children will regret it. And four hundred men and I women who reached along the route must ' take their baskets of wonders elsewhere. | The excitement and rush of Christmas shopping is on London, and to see the streets and the shops is almost as good as a pantomime. Every year the Christmas bazaars at the large shops are beconung more and more popular shows, and if only j to sed the bazaars every normal chikr is entranoecl. Piles and piles of toys, representing every conceivable and inconceivable animal, bird, or fish that ever was in the heavens above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth, make the choice of selection a distracting and an enchanting pleasure. But the toys in themselves do not end the temptation to purchasers; each house, to ado to the temptation, has some festive form of advertisement, such as an orchestra, a free entertainment hall, or a Punch and Judy show for those who do not profess to a more -scientific form of entertainment. For those who do Diabolo exhibitions by experts, intricate model railway systems, and gramophone concerts. .There are endless novelties of scientific toys — models of army airship*, and wirekss telegraphy outfits, acd model X-ray appliances lor boys with a scientific leaning. If the elder generation as the years pass are Inclined to 7 think the world has grown less merry and its problems more difficult to -solve 1 , & plunge into the child's world at Christmas is an assurance that the child set in the midst of the wise and weary still holds the secret of the kingdom of joy. They know this is the children's season, and troop along, their feet too light to touch the pavement in decorous walk, and, with anticipation shining in their' eyes, chatter audibly. The round of the children's bazaars *s in itself a festivity. One represents Fairyland, and down its groves are sparkling fairies and flowers and butterflies on the wing — a wonderland of rosy light and every gleam and glitter that tradition ever assigned to the laud where its Queen's magic wanidjean conjure the heart's {lesire of mortals. And the eiders, wise in the wisdom of illusion and tinsel and limelight, have still the pleasure of the children's pleasure; and the very essence of that pleasure is to take some old, old child — old in the knowledge of want, in the knowledge of cold and darkness and brutality ,-rand guide such into a fairyland of toys,* and let them chopse their own little Christmas feast and simple toy! What awe: what eyes! what tumultuous en.otioi.s sweep over the pinclied, wan face. Cake and jam and sweets for the pocket : with sixpence one can bring Fairyland to the cbila of mean streets; with a penny acVurance that there is some good thing for them. To many it is difficult to give to the children of well-to-do parents something •that will be a new pleasure — a surprise. They have possessed at one time or another most of the childish treasures. But X know a lady whose puree would not -allow tier to make presents of monetary value, and yet was unwilling to let the Festival of the Child pass without having .brought something of its meaning to some child's heart, and who gave six little girls "a "holy day," as one called it, for six shillings. They were gathered from a poor district, too far from the West End ever to have seen its glories. One stipulation their hostess mate— they were to be cleon 'and obedient. From an. hour to half an hoar before the noon appointed for their meeting at her flat they arrived to partake of soup, and then followed a penny electric car ride. » They had partaken of their luncheon "with their manners," each eyeing one another in solemn silence, with an instinctive imitation of the' other's best .points. ' If one licked her spoon another licked hew, and if another pujfc her elbow on the table she bad imitators. , But that car ride! They cuddled together at the windows, and in piping voices commented on the swift panorama of the streets. Except one little guest, tfho, m *a grotesque "grannie bonnet" — a faded xefie of another world than hers, and which had evidently been borrowed for this festive occasion— sat close bes.de her hostess, 'not interested as the other B were in the outside light and brightness, but absorbed . in a problem of her own. "Please," she said timidly at length to her hostess, "I've got a halfpenny of ■ay own. Could I buy something with it for Freddy? — he's my little brother wot's lame." One shilling paid the fare to the West ' for six little slummites ; and then^for nothing, was a wonderful stroll dWn a wonderful street, where in florists' flower-
garden windows tif&^iiW<lenizenj-«f yej' jtregte and> badk^EHF^^yg^outfd&jtrer^toid |_tha£, these qo^ere -we're read, aid "did grow Yorriewlf^rVni the world. Sb, attest hie closed shops, they came to -the bazaar' of a well-known/ cat«rer>Jor children »t Christmas;' and" it happened that the "jfthoiw " for that year was " The Jungle," And in depths of forest lions and tigers, which gave all the thrill of horror without any fear of thereality — lions which looked abpujt to roar and tigers to spring, i The nertf «how visited was the '' Dolls' 1 Show." Ho ohild who had only seen an ordinary doll in shop windows could have conceived anything like it. Dolls from all nations in native costumes — Dutch dolls, Japanese t dolls, dolls with black skins, aixA darlings of pink and white with golden hair and blue eyes ; baby dolk. ,of almost life size, with long clothes, and eyes that shut when they went to sleep ; dolls that cried, and others that walked ; some in bright kimonos, and others in gorgeous ball Presses with jewels. The little slum girls looked quite respectful. But the doll's wedding, with the bride, in trailing bridal robes, on the arm of the splendid-looking bridegroom, and the resplendent bridesmaids following, just like real life — real high life ! Afterwards came ten — two shillings. The bill of fare was a sixpenny cake, eeven new currant buns lor threepence ; a large loaf, twopence halfpenny ; a pot of raspberry jam-nipTead thick — fourpence halfpenny ; a large pot of tea with hot water and sugar, sixpence ; and twopence for milk: and six little girVs with large appe- | tites not only feasted, but in an Italian restaurant with a gentleman to wait on them in a drees suit! Odd little puckers had smoothed out, that in a few years would be wrinkles in the old-young faces, and the »nrrH, hard voices were subdued, the shrewd eyes "Bright with looking on a wonderland. Hie Mttle outing did them a hundred times more good than if a shilling each had been given them to spend in their own way ; they w«re taken out of their sordid existence and shown another aide of life, into which they entered, and of -which they participated with all the adaptability of the London poor. After they had eaten all that they could there was still a bun and a slice of cake for the little lame brother at home, which, put into a hag by the comprehending waiter, was carried through the crowd carefully and happily by the sister. Then came the choosing of their own twopenny toy from a street vendor, and four and twopence had gone, for a toy — a train — was chosen for lame Teddy, and there still remained one and tenpence of the cd* ftbiDings— one shilling for the fates home and tenpenoet for extras: seven luscious oranges for sixpence went round, witn the seventh foe Teddy, and fourpenny v r^ th of sweets made seven packages. Then the evening concluded . with the long car ride back, and six children brought some of the light back in their faces, and! the seventh was to be made happy by his sister's remembrance. And but for remembrance of the.r needs hundreds of thousands of children would know nothing of Chr:stm||— not even its bread: to thousands it is the one real meal-time of the year. All the great charity organisations are at wprk weeks ahe;d) both those of the State ard the churches, to give to Darkest England some gleam of the meaning of the great Festival of Christendom. A.nd this year tlw poverty is appalling; even these known as the respectable poor and the lower middle clafses are feeling the pinch. Those who work in the heart of the poorest areas j are distracted how to meet the need, ] although private charity alone does a tremendous work. I At every hospital and workhouee or | other charitable institution there is the j Christma* festivity. Tons of toys go to , tl* • cbil&en'i wards, and in connection j with one of the largest of the London, hospitals there is a competition every year by ladiW for the greatest number of dressed doll* contributed, and a public «fa>w of the dolls beforehand— dolls chiefly , made with tl^ir clothes to take off and on, for the nurses say that the daily dreeing and undressing ->i her doll will keep | a little sufferer happy ior hours. Witu bojs mechanical toys, something on wheels, ar.d imitation animals and col- i diers are the favourites. Every j church has its own particular chanties for its parish, its poor dinner fund, etc.-; , for each half-crown contributed by the > affluaut of the congregation, a dinner of j meat and vegetables and plum pudding : is sent .to a deserving lvome where else , tnere would bs no CtrTsttnas dinner. Treloar the ex-Lord Mayor of Ltvndon, alone sends at \«ast 2000 hampers to the euyp-es of London, and one o'd gentlemrn whose name did not iranspiie til he died sent each Christmas 1000 sixpences to a cna- ; ritv for children's Chrisimas-boxes. Ar.d thousands of chanties are done that the world never bears about: the individual charities from royalty down all grades of society to the "Tom All Alon* s alley, where one "Joe ' who has two crusts tfves one A the writs to the Ly who has none. A Christmas or .o ago it came under my own notice that a poor charwoman, whose odd earned shfltina kept all she and her chilo. hr.d of S together, spoke quite %*&£* . gratefully <* bavin* *S^ Christmas. "Oh, yefi, thank you we had a very comfortable time. I'd had work, you see, and>wo ladies made me a present of an extra few shillings. I hadn t expected it; it was » god-Bend I I took it
straight off to the landlord : it paid off my back rent. You see, with us, mam, tb~e rent is the burden — to keep a roof over ' our heads the chief thing, and when the rent's paid up it's sweet to go to bed at night 'and feel one can't be turned out into the street and that the child is IyinfrjjjraTm beside you. Well, the rent ' -Has pai4{?-and I hadn't expected those j t^waa^P-erowns to pay *t. m£ j "jHth* a half-crown clear.. £ And* dfte^iady had given me a bag of almonds and raisins and apples for Nellie — which I'd hid for a surprise for Christmas Day.' My J you should Have seen Keflie when she found her stocking full. She hadn't had a stocking since her lather " A moment's pauee, then, brightly, J'As I was saying, I'd got half a crown clear', | and the bone of a ham, which- the other lady said I might takeaway, with some good pickings on it. So 1 bought a sack 1 of coals — one and tuppence, — an' threepennyworth of kindling, a pound of onions, and a pint of haricot beans. I'd got some groceries left from - last week, foi when times are herd I cam do wiib dry bread' if I have a cup of tea. Oh, yes, mam, often for weeks, ard Nellie too ! And I treated us to a quarter of butler, and, with two quarters, loaves, we were set up. I cut all the ham off the bone to keep by for the week, an' the night before put on the bone with the beans and onions ,for soup. And' good it was, too, my Christmas dinner. And I'd boiled some potatoes. There was enough and to spare, so I took two baßine — it was thick with beans and made a dinner — to the widow and her boy in the room j beneath me. And as we'd got a fire and j she hadn't, and Nellie said it would be, more like Christmas if she shared her jtlmonos and apples with the poor boy, I asked them up for a cup of tea. And— | well, there, it was a bit extravagant, but ! it was a sort of Christmas party, and ■we had a slice of ham a-piece 1 " A few shillings and a ham bone made a feast for four, the poor receives: bestowing again on one poorer. The very stjirit of Christmas, which in thw land makes it for thousand*' the onjy inautbl^ way in which to live it. And it is becoming more and more the fashion among the rich to teach their children to share their abundance with the poor.^ And' what a city of abundance!* The markets are indescriba,bk. But my space is filled. The Christmas markets must b« left for. another letter.
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Otago Witness, Issue 2810, 22 January 1908, Page 83
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2,443ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND. Otago Witness, Issue 2810, 22 January 1908, Page 83
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