

E-text prepared by deaurider, Martin Pettit, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)



Note: Images of the original pages are available through
      Internet Archive. See
      https://archive.org/details/outaboutlondon00burk





OUT AND ABOUT LONDON


      *      *      *      *      *      *

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

NIGHTS IN LONDON


"Hundreds of books have been written about London, but few are as well
worth reading as this."--_London Times._

"Thomas Burke writes of London as Kipling wrote of India."--_Baltimore
Sun._

"A real book."--_New York Sun._

4th printing, $1.50

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS    NEW YORK

      *      *      *      *      *      *


OUT AND ABOUT LONDON

by

THOMAS BURKE

Author of "Limehouse Nights"
and "Nights In London"







[Illustration: Logo]

New York
Henry Holt and Company
1919

Copyright, 1919
by
Henry Holt and Company




                          1916

     _Lady, the world is old, and we are young.
       The world is old to-night and full of tears
     And tumbled dreams, and all its songs are sung,
       And echoes rise no more from the tombed years.
     Lady, the world is old, but we are young._

     _Once only shines the mellow moon so fair;
       One speck of Time is Love's Eternity.
     Once only can the stars so light your hair,
       And the night make your eyes my psaltery.
     Lady, the world is old. Love still is young._

     _Let us take hand ere the swift moment end.
       My heart is but a lamp to light your way.
     My song your counsellor, my love your friend,
       Your soul the shrine whereat I kneel and pray.
     Lady, the world grows old. Let us be young._

     _T. B._




CONTENTS

                           PAGE
ROUND THE TOWN, 1917          3

BACK TO DOCKLAND             30

CHINATOWN REVISITED          40

SOHO CARRIES ON              58

OUT OF TOWN                  69

IN SEARCH OF A SHOW          82

VODKA AND VAGABONDS          89

THE KIDS' MAN               113

CROWDED HOURS               123

SATURDAY NIGHT              134

RENDEZVOUS                  140

TRAGEDY AND COCKNEYISM      148

MINE EASE AT MINE INN       155

RELICS                      168

ATTABOY!                    176




OUT AND ABOUT LONDON




ROUND THE TOWN, 1917


It was a lucid, rain-washed morning--one of those rare mornings when
London seems to laugh before you, disclosing her random beauties. In
every park the trees were hung with adolescent tresses, green and white
and yellow, and the sky was busy with scudding clouds. Even the solemn
bricks had caught something of the sudden colour of the day, and London
seemed to toss in its long, winter sleep and to take the heavy breaths
of the awakening sluggard.

I turned from my Fleet Street window to my desk, took my pen, found it
in good working order, and put it down. I was hoping that it would be
damaged, or that the ink had run out; I like to deceive myself with some
excuse for not working. But on this occasion none presented itself save
the call of the streets and the happy aspect of things, and I made these
serve my purpose. With me it is always thus. Let there come the first
sharp taste of Spring in the February air and I am demoralized. Away
with labour. The sun is shining. The sky is bland. There are seven
hundred square miles of London in which Adventure is shyly lurking for
