London, Dee 24. country woke up to the existence ost before the, day itself the Gt. Christmas. There. as been very. peculiar weather by way of anticipation, Last. week it waa very cold and then it thawed steadily and then the country had a sore of mixed variety of weather which wag very difficult to explain. On the Tuesday before the Friday London had non-stop rain all day; fon the other hand snow fell heavily the country as far south as St. Albans but not further south, Owing to the heavy fall of snow in the district between Birmingham and Coventry scarcely any moroc traffic was able to proceed on the roads, During the afternoon and evening very little "traffic passed through Coventry, which is on the main road between London and Birmingham. Dozens of lorries were held up. They were unable '1 move owing to the slippery state of the snow, Trains from the north were nearly an hour and a halt Lehind the scheduled time of rival at Euston last evening. The train due from Manchester at 8.10 pin. reached Euston a few minutes before 10, Heavy snow in Staffordghire was the main cause of the delay, At present the indications sare that at Christmas time itself there will be some further snow in the north and probably fine cold weather in the south, with rather northerly winds, The bad weather has thus not facilitated transport at Christmas and our trafic difficulties are worse than usual, In addition to the delay to trains everywhere the telephone verviee to the Continent and to various parts of the country has ken down, motor omnibus ser-viees have been suspended in the provinees, the electric light has failed here and th even some well-wishers are becoming much more careful in their parcel tying.
Letters to Father Christmas, There is of course' the usual pathetic side to the Christmas mail. A great sackful of letters officially marked "address unknown" awaits Father Christmas at Mount Pleasant, near Holborn, one of the: greatest postal clearing houses in the world. There are, hap) still a lot of children at home and abroad who think they can get in touch with Sar.ta Claus by sending him letters through the post. discovered many of these pathetic appeals sorted and scheduled yesterday in that storehouse of Lost Hopes—the dead letter office, Letters written in a childish hand have been sent to Father Christmas, at all kinds of fairyland addresses. One was addressed to Santa Claus Mistletoe Manor" Christmas Tree Avenue, Sledgetown Fairyland, another to "Father Christmas, 54, "Foresty Street, Snowbough, Tecland, N.W;" a third to Christmas, 32, Sun Alley, Rainbow Square, Cioud Bank" and a fourth to "Father Christmas, Esq, Eng-Tnnd." Tt might be "added that} apparently there is a good deal of dissatisfaction over the wages paid to auxiliary postmen and in some places we are officially threatened with eweanny methods,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.