Flintshire Observer Mining Journal and General Advertiser for the Counties of Flint Denbigh

I OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT. One of the characteristic traits of the Eng- lish people has been brought to the front during the sanguinary struggle between tho Turks and the Greeks, with which the papers have been full for the past fortnight, and that is the readiness to put the hand in the pocket to relieve real distress. The claims upon our Warse had already been heavy in a remarkable degree this year, for, in addition to the Queen's Nurses' Commemoration Fund, the Prince of Wales's London Hospital Fund, and the num- berless other good objects, for which money is being asked in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee, there is the Mansion House Indian Famine Fund, which has a special claim upon the benevolence of the Briton. But the news oi the death struggle, first among the mountains of Macedonia and then on the Thessalian plains, brought immediately to the front the needs of the sick and wounded and the intelli- gence that the Hellenic hurt had to be operated upon without chloroform, because of the absolute lack of medical necessities, added to the eager- ness with which the good of heart set to work to assuage pain. There has been no such national movement in the matter as was the case over a quarter of a century ago, when, during the Franco-German War, British help was given impartially to the wounded on both sides, for the Greco-Turkish struggle has not come home to the popular imagination with the same vividness as did that titanic conflict, raging almost at our very doors. But the true benevolence of the Briton in the time of need has once again been asserted. In these days of speculation, the language and even the slang of the Stock Exchange are so widely understood that, when it was reported a few days since that there had come a slump in the prices of windows whence to see the Royal procession to St. Paul's on Commemora- tion Day, the meaning was at once com- prehended. The speculators, indeed, had been over doing the business, as had been thought all along by cautious ob- servers, and the public-always willing to pay a fair, but never an exorbitant price for its sightseeing—are simply standing aloof. The fact is, that while a good sum will be paid for the use of some of the best windows along the line, the route is so long and the windows are so many that only the indiscreet or the extrava- gant will give a large amount for any but the very best. This is a consideration which, in their greed for gain, some of the speculators had ignored. They had forgotten that, while it is possible to make a corner in a score or a hundred windows, such an operation is virtually out of the question when the windows are to be numbered by the thousand. Any intending visitors to London on Diamond Jubilee Day, therefore, may rest assured that not only will they be able to obtain a window, if so they wish, but one at a reasonable price. The heavy rains which have already fallen this year have not avoided the Thames Valley, where, during March, for instance, over two and a half inches fell, as against only one and a half, the average fall for thirty years. Water- drinkers, therefore, should be specially glad to know that of the one hundred and eighty-nine samples examined during that month of the whole metropolitan supply, only one was re- corded as turbid," the remainder being clear, bright, and well filtered. The fact is the more to be remarked, because, at the early spring season, there is always a considerable amount of fish spawn in the Thames and Lee, the two rivers which mainly supply London, clogging up the filters, and rendering very frequent cleaning necessary. This, added to the abnormal rainfall, necessarily put a severe Btrain upon the filtration plant of the different metropolitan water companies; and the results show that these have been well able to cope with the difficulties. It is not as if water analysis in these days was a simple matter, for it is now not merely chemical but bacteriological, and what the latter means may be judged from the fact that, while the average number of microbes per cubic centimetre in un- filtered Thames water was the appalling total of nine thousand, one hundred and eighty- ^even, it was no more than thirty-three in that ^giich was filtered. t is so much the fashion for the average teller in the metropolis to belittle the appear- ance of the great capital in which he has the honour to live, that those who admire the many and varied beauties of the metropolis will be delighted to know that "An Apprecia- tion of London" has been submitted to the Surveyors' Institution by Mr. Walter Simms, one of its Fellows, which should satisfy even the most devoted citizen. It is pointed out that the vague idea of our capital may be almost said to be sterotyped into the phrase a wilder- ness of brick and mortar and that, while this is belied by the fact that from Charing-cross, its typical centre, stretches a system of parks in which one can roam at pleasure or walk for three miles in an uninterrupted straight line, there is to be seen from the Thames Embankment hard by a splendid panorama such as no other city in the world can present. It was this panorama which caused Words- worth to pen his wondrous sonnet—"On Westminster-bridge;" and the Londoner who can read those lines without being proud of his dwelling place must be callous indeed. No special intuition is needed by any passer along the Strand just now to make him aware of the fact that the time-honoured May Meetings" are in full swing. It is as impossible to mistake the clerical appearance of the swarms of visitors who have Exeter Hall for their temporary resting place as it is to err about the qualities and callings of the stout and roseate persons who are to be met close to the Agricultural Hall at Islington m Cattle Show Week." It would be interesting—if the feat were reasonably possible to trace the gradual fashiorfin which it became the custom to hold the annual assemblies of the various religious bodies and institutions in London at the end of April and the beginning of May. The convenience of such an arrangement is manifest, for there are many who are keenly interested in more than one such meeting but when was that convenience first so clearly recognised that its observance became crystal- lised into a custom. Those who believe that increased kinship between countries and peoples comes with im- proved methods of inter-communication will rejoice to know that from this week such methods will come into operation in regard to England and Ireland. Not only are both the day and the night services between London and Dublin, by way of Holyhead, being consider- ably accelerated, but—what is, perhaps, of more importance to the ordinary traveller — the mail tiains between London and Holyhead, which have hitherto carried first and second- class passengers only, now, in addition, carry third-class passengers between England and Ireland and, while the fares by these trains are reduced, the special express" charges hitherto paid by ordinary passengers travelling in them are abolished. Why Ireland has had so long to wait for this has always been a puzzle, for it is now a full quarter of a century since travellers between England and Scotland were allowed to travel third class-an innovation, when it was introduced, which greatly shocked the old- fashioned type of railway manager, who looked upon the public as a necessary evil, to be endured but by no meaw to be encouraged. That type is only slowly dying out, but its ex- tinction is a question ot only a few more years and it is now becoming increasingly possible to hope that when we enter the new century this country, which was the pioneer of the railway system, will once more take the lead in making that system comfortable and economical, as well as efficient. A frequent occurrence in our London streets is that of a tramcar driver whistling frantically as a request to a waggoner who is occupying the lines in front of him to get out of the way. The waggoner is seldom prompt to do this, but he never lingers over-long, for he is well aware I that the law is oa the side of the tramcar- driver, and that he will be summoned if he delays the car for any unconscionable time. But how many country waggoners are equally tware that they are bound to pull on one side to give a cyclist room to pass them P Many of them look upon cyclists as if they were mortal enemies, and deliberately keep their carts in the middle of the road so as to give the votaries of the wheel as much trouble as possible. It is as well for them, therefore, to be made aware that the cyclist in the country, like the tramcar driver in the town, has the law on his side, and that, if he rings his bell as a token of warning, the sarter is bound to give him a fair amount of room under penalty of a fine. This, indeed, is a little bit of practical law which deserves to be widuly made known. P,