It is, indeed, well said that the Briton is a poor hater, and almost
the only evidence that I could see of his being stirred by the events
of last night was in the heightened activity of recruiting. The astute
authorities, quick to see the advantage of taking the tide at flood,
kept speakers--both civilians and soldiers--all day at the barriers
where the crowds were held back in the vicinities of the points
bombed, and many hitherto wavering volunteers were gathered in as a
consequence. Here and there threatening crowds gathered in front of
bakeries and butcher shops which bore German names; but their leaders
were half-tipsy cockney dames whom the ever imperturbable “Bobbies”
had no trouble in hustling on out of the way. No, stubborn fighter
that he is, the Briton is only the most indifferent of haters.
III
From the time of the big raid, in early September, until the second
week in October there was not a single night on which the moon, wind,
clouds, or some combination of meteorological conditions was not
unfavourable to Zeppelin action, and it was not until this date that
they tried to come again. Although rather nearer than before to two or
three of the explosions, I had no such opportunity to view the
progress of the raid as on the previous occasion, and this latest
bombing is, perhaps, most memorable to me as having served to shake
the monumental calm of two of the most famous and impressive of all
London’s institutions, the “Bobby” and the Frivolity chorus girl. I
turn again to my journal.
* * * * *
LONDON, _October_--
I was at the Frivolity last night with my friend Captain J----, of the
Royal Artillery, home from France on a week’s leave, to see an
oculist. About nine-thirty the nearing boom of heavy explosions
heralded another Zeppelin attack. I started for the door at once, but
J----, an old Londoner, pulled me down into my stall by the coat-tail,
dryly observing that, right before us under the Frivolity footlights,
there was transpiring an infinitely more epochal event than anything
that could possibly be seen outside.
“We have had other Zeppelin raids,” he shouted close to my ear, to
make himself heard above the uneasy bustle which filled the theatre as
the bombs boomed more imminent, “but never before in history has man
beheld the Frivolity chorus shaken from its traditional languor. But
now look! They faint to left and right, and I’m jolly certain that
M---- doesn’t get her cue to embrace G---- until the next act. ’Pon my
word, I never expected to live to see the waters of this fount of
brides for the British peerage so disturbed.” J----’s voice trailed
off into wondering speechlessness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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