Mr. Henry Blackburn has been visiting Manchester and Liverpool, and has confided his impressions of these great cities to the editor of the Manchester Guardian. He admires Manchester for "its admirable tramway, street police, and other traffic arrangements," but there is an amari aliquid in the shape of the Manchester street Arab. Mr. Blackburn has all an artist's tolerance; but, as might be expected of a black and white artist, he feels bound to draw the line, and he draws it before street Arabs. He thinks it worth while to mention—
"A pedestrian's experience of his, generally, free fight with the street gamin culminating on Saturday afternoon last at 2.15 by being tripped up and thrown down in the middle of the road near the Central Station, and only saved from further contact with the said tramcars by rolling quickly round and round into the gutter. This rapid act was witnessed, doubtless, by several of your readers, two of whom rendered timely assistance. I am aware that it is the rule in any household or community for a guest to conform to its ways for the time being, and not to complain of any contretemps; but, having had a second encounter (of less consequence) on the very steps of the entrance to the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, on the same afternoon, I venture to think that the juvenile—and in some respects perfectly delightful—street vendors of matches, flowers, and football newspapers have a little too much of a free run in both these cities."
At Last.—Mr. Lane, the Magistrate, appealed to by an Indian gentleman as to whether he—the I. G.—might "turn round upon" rude street-boys, who called him "Lulali," and asked whether he—the Magistrate—would like it himself, replied that he had lived too long in the world to care about such matters. This imperturbable "Beak" is evidently then—at last—the often-talked-of "Long Lane that has no turning."
Transcriber's Note
Obvious punctuation errors have been repaired.
Page 124: 'fidgetting' may have been correct, in England, in 1895, and has been retained.
Page 129: 'bicyles' corrected to 'bicycles'