"Where is Hamburg?"
"In Germany. The Teuton who checked your baggage could not by any effort of the imagination conceive the possibility of a person starting for anywhere except Hamburg. In two days your trunk will be lying on a dock in Germany."
"Well, there"s one consolation," observed Mr. Peasley; "the clothes in that trunk won"t fit any German."
When he arrived in London he began wiring for his trunk in several languages. After two days came a message couched in Volapuk or some other hybrid combination, which led him to believe that his property had been started for London.
Mr. Peasley spent a week in the world"s metropolis with no clothes except a knockabout travelling outfit and what he called his "Tuxedo,"
although, over here they say "dinner jacket." In Chicago or Omaha Mr.
Peasley could have got along for a week without any embarra.s.sment to himself or others. Even in New York the "Tuxedo" outfit would have carried him through, for it is regarded as a pa.s.sable apology for evening dress, provided the wearer wishes to advertise himself as a lonesome "stag." But in London there is no compromise. In every hotel lobby or dining-room, every restaurant, theatre or music hall, after the coagulated fog of the daytime settles into the opaque gloom of night, there is but one style of dress for any mortal who does not wish to publicly pose as a barbarian. The man who affects a "Tuxedo" might as well wear a sweater. In fact it would be better for him if he did wear a sweater, for then people would understand that he was making no effort to dress; but when he puts on a bobtail he conveys the impression that he is trying to be correct and doesn"t understand the rules.
An Englishman begins to blossom about half-past seven p.m. The men seen in the streets during the day seem a pretty dingy lot compared with a well-dressed stream along Fifth Avenue. Many of the tall hats bear a faithful resemblance to fur caps. The trousers bag and the coat collars are bunched in the rear and all the shoes seem about two sizes too large. Occasionally you see a man on his way to a train and he wears a shapeless bag of a garment made of some loosely woven material that looks like gunnysack, with a cap that resembles nothing so much as a welsh rabbit that has "spread." To complete the picture, he carries a horse blanket. He thinks it is a rug, but it isn"t. It is a horse blanket.
If the Englishman dressed for travel is the most sloppy of all civilised beings, so the Englishman in his night regalia is the most correct and irreproachable of mortals. He can wear evening clothes without being conscious of the fact that he is "dressed up." The trouble with the ordinary American who owns an open-faced suit is that he wears it only about once a month. For two days before a.s.suming the splendour of full dress he broods over the approaching ordeal. As the fateful night draws near he counts up his studs and investigates the "white vest" situation. In the deep solitude of his room he mournfully climbs into the camphor-laden garments, and when he is ready to venture forth, a tall collar choking him above, the gla.s.sy shoes pinching him below, he is just as much at ease as he would be in a full suit of armour, with casque and visor.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _"Dressed down" and "Dressed up"_]
However, all this is off the subject. Here was Mr. Peasley in London, desirous of "cutting a wide gash," as he very prettily termed it, plenty of good money from Iowa burning in his pocket, and he could not get out and "a.s.sociate" because of a mere deficiency in clothing.
At the first-cla.s.s theatres his "bowler" hat condemned him and he was sent into the gallery. When he walked into a restaurant the head waiter would give him one quick and searching glance and then put him off in some corner, behind a palm. Even in the music halls the surrounding "Johnnies" regarded him with wonder as another specimen of the eccentric Yankee.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _His bowler hat condemned him_]
We suggested to Mr. Peasley that he wear a placard reading "I have some clothes, but my trunk is in Hamburg." He said that as soon as his swell duds arrived he was going to put them on and revisit all of the places at which he had been humiliated and turned down, just to let the flunkeys know that they had been mistaken.
Mr. Peasley was greatly rejoiced to learn one day that he could attend a football game without wearing a special uniform. So he went out to see a non-brutal game played according to the a.s.sociation rules. The gentle pastime known as football in America is a modification and overdevelopment of the Rugby game as played in Great Britain. The a.s.sociation, or "Seeker" game, which is now being introduced in the United States as a counter-irritant for the old-fashioned form of manslaughter, is by far the more popular in England. The Rugby a.s.sociation is waning in popularity, not because of any outcry against the character of the play or any talk of "brutality," but because the British public has a more abiding fondness for the a.s.sociation game.
In America we think we are football crazy because we have a few big college games during October and November of each year. In Great Britain the football habit is something that abides, the same as the tea habit.
We are hysterical for about a month and then we forget the game unless we belong to the minority that is trying to debrutalise it and reduce the death rate.
Here it was, February in London, and on the first Sat.u.r.day after our arrival forty-five a.s.sociation games and thirty-eight Rugby games were reported in the London papers. At sixteen of the princ.i.p.al a.s.sociation games the total attendance was over two hundred and fifty thousand and the actual receipts at these same games amounted to about $45,000.
There were two games at each of which the attendance was over thirty thousand, with the receipts exceeding $5,000. A very conservative estimate of the total attendance at the games played on this Sat.u.r.day would be five hundred thousand. In other words, on one Sat.u.r.day afternoon in February the attendance at football games was equal to the total attendance at all of the big college games during an entire season in the United States. No wonder that the English newspapers are beginning to ask editorially "Is football a curse?" There is no clamour regarding the roughness of the game, but it is said to cost too much money and to take up too much time for the benefits derived.
The game to which Mr. Peasley conducted us was played in rather inclement weather--that is, inclement London weather--which means that it was the most terrible day that the imagination can picture--a dark, chilly, drippy day, with frequent downpours. It has been said that one cannot obtain icewater in London. This is a mistake. We obtained it by the hogshead.
In spite of the fact that the weather was bad beyond description, seventeen thousand spectators attended the game and saw it through to a watery finish.
Mr. Peasley looked on and was much disappointed. He said they used too many players and the number of fatalities was not at all in keeping with the advertised importance of the game. It was a huge crowd, but the prevailing spirit of solemnity worried Mr. Peasley. He spoke to a native standing alongside of him and asked:--"What"s the matter with you folks over here? Don"t you know how to back up a team? Where are all of your flags and ribbons, your tally-hos and tin horns? Is this a football game or a funeral?"
"Why should one wear ribbons at a football game?" asked the Englishman.
"Might as well put a little ginger into the exercises," suggested Mr.
Peasley. "Do you sing during the game?"
"Heavens, no. Sing? Why should one sing during a football game? In what manner is vocal music related to an outdoor pastime of this character?"
"You ought to go to a game in Iowa City. We sing till we"re black in the face--all about "Eat "em up, boys," "Kill "em in their tracks," and "Buck through the line." What"s the use of coming to a game if you stand around all afternoon and don"t take part? Have you got any yells?"
"What are those?"
"Can you beat that?" asked Mr. Peasley, turning to us. "A football game without any yells!"
The game started. By straining our eyes we could make out through the deep gloom some thirty energetic young men, very lightly clad, splashing about in all directions, and kicking in all sorts of aimless directions. Mr. Peasley said it was a mighty poor excuse for football.
No one was knocked out; there was no bucking the line; there didn"t even seem to be a doctor in evidence. We could not follow the fine points of the contest. Evidently some good plays were being made, for occasionally a low, growling sound--a concerted murmur--would arise from the mult.i.tude banked along the side lines.
"What is the meaning of that sound they are making?" asked Mr. Peasley, turning to the native standing alongside of him.
"They are cheering," was the reply.
"They are what?"
"Cheering."
"Great Scott! Do you call that cheering? At home, when we want to encourage the boys we get up on our hind legs and make a noise that you can hear in the next township. We put cracks in the azure dome.
Cheering! Why, a game of croquet in the court house yard is eight times as thrilling as this thing. Look at those fellows juggling the ball with their feet. Why doesn"t somebody pick it up and b.u.t.t through that crowd and start a little rough work?"
The native gave Mr. Peasley one hopeless look and moved away.
We could not blame our companion for being disappointed over the cheering. An English cheer is not the ear-splitting demoniacal shriek, such as an American patriot lets out when he hears from another batch of precincts.
The English cheer is simply a loud grunt, or a sort of guttural "Hey!
hey!" or "Hurray!"
When an English crowd cheers the sound is similar to that made by a Roman mob in the wings of a theatre.
After having once heard the "cheering" one can understand the meaning of a pa.s.sage in the Parliamentary report, reading about as follows: "The gentleman hoped the house would not act with haste. (Cheers). He still had confidence in the committee (cheers), but would advise a careful consideration (cheers), etc."
It might be supposed from such a report that Parliament was one continuous "rough house," but we looked in one day and it is more like a cross between a Presbyterian synod and bee-keepers" convention.
About four o"clock we saw a large section of the football crowd moving over toward a booth at one end of the grounds. Mr. Peasley hurried after them, thinking that possibly someone had started a fight on the side and that his love of excitement might be gratified after all.
Presently he returned in a state of deep disgust.
"Do you know why all those folks are flockin" over there?" he asked.
"Goin" after their tea. Tea! Turnin" their backs on a football game to go and get a cup of tea! Why, that tea thing over there is worse than the liquor habit. Do you know, when the final judgment day comes and Gabriel blows his horn and all of humanity is bunched up, waitin"
for the sheep to be cut out from the goats and put into a separate corral, some Englishman will look at his watch and discover that it"s five o"clock and then the whole British nation will turn its back on the proceedings and go off looking for tea."
After we had stood in the rain for about an hour someone told Mr.
Peasley that one team or the other had won by three goals to nothing, and we followed the moist throng out through the big gates.
"Come with me," said Mr. Peasley, "and I will take you to the only dry place in London."
So we descended to the "tuppenny tube."
CHAPTER IV