Hyde Park Sunday

Sunday, October 24th., George Street, London.

Four orators in Hyde Park. One: a sort of imitation working man, old, on political themes. Good crowd. Extremely dull. Two: an oriental preaching Islamism in fluent English with exaggerated Rs. Extremely dull. Three: a young manpreaching I don't know what, though I listened several times. Monotonous gestures. Extremely dull. Four: an evangelistic scene. A little man with a big nose, and a group of attendants including five or six dull women. Bad singing of bad hymns. Extremely dull. Still, he did say: "When I lived in the country and worked on my farm the girl came out and shouted (very loudly) "Mr Way" "What" "Dinner". "Ah! That was a good moment. But God's dinner is better than that. On the farm I wanted a fresh dinner every day. God's dinner lasts for ever ......" etc. How on earth do these people get to be the way they are?

Someone once said to me, or I may have read it somewhere, that speaking extempore from a soapbox in Hyde Park is one of those things every man should do at least once in his lifetime. I suppose I can see what he meant. Some of the other things were: sex with a prostitute, commit a murder and sleep rough. I seem to remember that I was quite impressed at the time!