I suppose they put by their books when they took tea,
which is the other most noticeable dissipation in England. But I
cannot enter upon that chapter; it is too large a theme; I will
say, merely, that as the saloons are on Sixth Avenue, so the tea-
rooms are in every part of the island.
[Illustration: LEADS A LIFE OF GAYETY ON THE SANDS]
XVIII
It had seemed to me in former visits to England that the
Christian Sabbath was a more depressing day there than here, but
from the last I have a more cheerful memory of it. I still felt
it dispiriting in London, where as many fled from it as could,
and where the empty streets symbolized a world abandoned to
destruction; but this was mainly in the forenoon. Even then, the
markets and fairs in the avenues given up to them were the scenes
of an activity which was not without gayety, and certainly not
without noise; and when the afternoon came, the lower classes,
such as had remained in town, thronged to the public houses, and
the upper classes to the evening parade in the Park.
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