The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-04 00:00:00

RAILWAY REFRESHMENTS.

_
There are a good many things in England that disgrac
the nation, and make us, or ought to make us, ashamed of
ourselves. There is the Haymarket at night, and there are
the r eople who playfully spend their leisure hours in heaving
asuc cession of half bricks at their wives. Bat, in one way,
there is nothing so disgraceful to England as the arrange-
ments at railway
peactultat,rivtyeroyf tahnisnonyaitniogn,alabnldot
eisasthilyat it is very definite,
.
The stations for what are termed refreshments.
very patent,
wisdom or efforts have as yet succeededremedi in cutting
ttiNngo
humantoherooto; the evil that fills the Haymarket. Acts of
Parliament have been passed, and passel in vain, against
that cruelty to children which does not awaken the resist-
ance of parents. Very brutal
me
brick near them, cannot resist tnhe verypres
ednreuen
of, with i
markt hhalf s ao
convenient, so patient, and often so aggravating, as a wife.
sethat there
theho
is in any deep cause
oßruatniyt itp3raobfosnunrdd tos diseasepoeisaulpo
at
ltiosmo th
h t choonntgr i-
vances of these wretched places. The English
h mind,
it
tried, get rid of
slow to effect its purposes, could surely,
the monstrous mismanagement whichrlesid es e
details of the system. Squabs of porkkppie off over all the
reed without
the slightest reference to the season, old jam threecir nered
puffs, fossil sandwitches, sausages concealed in heavy
pastry, sugary brittle cakes, and packets of sugar plums,e
cannot be the only things that inventive Englishmen might
think of. As to the beverage, if at any station in England
a cup of coffee is sold, we should be glad to hear of that
happy place. In all those wretched refreshment rooms that
we have visited, we have found a curious brown dilution of
chicory, or imitation of chicory, sold as coffee, for it is not
even good chicory. It is a liquid only sold at stations and
bad hotels, and to make and sell it must be one of the most
mournful and degrading of occupations. Perhaps it is too
much to think of tea, For even in the better class of Eng-
lish hotels a really decent cup of tea is unknown. We are
not sure that the people wh) keep refreshment rooms know
what tea and coffee are. They probably think that their
countrymen are born somehow to drink the imitation
chicory with which alone they are familiar. Now, in a na-
tion so rich as England, and where we persuade ourselves
that comfort is so well understood, it is disgraceful that a
traveller cannot get anything to eat and drink better than a
squab of pork. pie and a cup of imitation chicory. This mis-
management is disgraceful, because it is mean, and ignorant,
and barbarous, and because it wickedly causes much unne-
cessary discomfort. It is disgraceful, exactly as the old style
of Irish cottage was disgraceful. It degrades and annoys
everyone that has to do with it, and makes people satisfied
to give and satisfied to receive a mere cheat and imposition,

THE CHANNEL FLEET.—The Channel fleet, under
the command of Admiral Dacres, which arrived in
the Frith of Forth on Wednesday, has attracted immense
numbers of visitors from Edinburgh and Leith. In addi-
tion to employing all the available steamers in the Forth,
vessels have been attracted from the Tyne and from the
east of Scotland to engage in this profitable traffic. On
Friday, the Lord Provost, magistrates, and Council of
Edinburgh, and the Provost, magistrates, and Council of
Leith, with the Foreign Consuls at the port, visited the
flagship Edgar and the iron-clad Black Prince. The Chief
Magistrates and Corporations of both towns have invited
the Admiral and officers to dinner before they leave, and
there is to be a grand ball at Leith on Monday night. An
attempt was made by the Free Church Presbytery to get
the vessels closed against visitors on Sunday, but it has not
been successful. Hundreds of seamen are daily ashore in
Edinburgh and Leith, indulging in all sorts of frolics, but
keeping admirably within the bounds of good order. One
of them climbed to the pinnacle of the Scott Monument, on
Friday, on which he stood erect and cheered. His daring
and unprecedented feat was witnessed with perfect horror
by the people below.

THE LIBRARIES OF CONSTANTINOPLE.—It is per-
haps net generally known thatthecapital of Turkey
possesses a large number of public libraries, a general cata-
logue of which is now being made. According to an esti-
mate which is considered reliable, the total number of ma-
nuscripts thus catalogued will exceed a million. Unfortu-
nately, however, many of these MSS. have been so damaged
by lying in heaps in damp cellars or worm-eaten chests as
to be partially, and in some cases entirely, illegible. It is
also to be regretted that, until now, none of the treasures of
the early period of Byzantine literature, which it was hoped
would be brought to light, have been found. It has, on the
contrary, been proved that all the works of those times,
which are known to have existed, have been ruthlessly
destroyed. The remaining works are consequently chiefly
in Arabic, or in other Semitic languages ; but they form, on
the other hand, the richest collection of oriental literature in
existence. Ahmet Vafik Effendi, Subhi Bey, and other
Turkish men of letters, have proposed that this inestimable
mast; of literary treasures be collected in one building, so as
to render it accessible to students engaged in historical re-
searches, and there is every reason to believe that this pro-
posal will be adopted, notwithstanding the opposition it has
hitherto met with. The & already to
t step wards the formation of
an Imperial library s been taken by placing
40,000 volumes of good workls in
H various Euroin the Dar-
pean lan..
guages, and which belonged to l ami Pasha,
al-Fanoon, the building of the university. Orders have
been given to increase this collection considerably, so as to
create a tolerably complete library for consultation, to which
the public will be freely admitted. Adding to such a collec-
tion the MSS. already mentioned, Constantinople would
be superior to any capital in a literary point of view, espe-
cially if by some lucky chance the plays of Menander, or
the lost books of Livy, or the remaining tragedies of
rEsehylus, were suddenly brought to light from amidst the
parchments now being so carefully examined.
A HUGE MACHINE.—A new steam dredger, No.
5, built by Messrs. Wingate and Co., of Glasgow,
and supposed to be the largest machine of the kind in the
world, has been started by the River Tyne Improvement
Commissioners in Shields Harbour. It is calculated that this
at full worqku, witllitlyifotfldor,
f material
oeodOgetons
stupendous
per
day. T
pemarcdhaiyn.e,Twhheenmachine, as now employed, works
oadmirahhlye eanngdinisellis of al horseftingan power, immensean
nominal, and is cap-
able of being worked up to three times that power. There
are two ladders, each containing 35 buckets, and weighing
upwards of 100 tons. Each bucket weighs one ton and a
quarter, and the ladders are calculated to operate in 30 feet
of water, and, when working at speed, will each fill a hopper
barge in from 60 to 55 minutes.
TWISLETON FIENNES.—The late Lord Safe and
Sale was a very eccentric man, and the greatest
epicure of his day. His dinners were worthy of the days
country, every sea,
an
of Vitellius or Heliogabalus. Every
find so was searched and ransacked to country,
oneenewsf dheliiscaha
ey
efor
our British Sybarite. I remember,
a
fasts, an omelette being served which was composedrk-
en-
tirely of golden pheasants' eggs
and would drink
abs yHn
et
hadhe an
adc
veryar
astrong
constitution,
quantities which were perfectly awful to behold. These
stimulants produced noeffect upon his brain ; but his
in which he indulged. way the excesses of all kinds
He
natured man, but a very ddwas a kind, liberal, and good-
the astonishment of a servantol shall never forget
On entering his
service,
e I had recommended to him
Fiennes was John made his appearance as
going out to
if he had any orders. He dinner, and asked his new master
received the following answer
" Place two bottles of sherry by my bed-side, and call me
ow." —Capt ain Gronoav'a Recollections.
SERIOUS FIRE AND NARROW ESCAPE.—Be-
tween 4 and 5
o'clock this morning a fire broke out -
in the workshops of Mr. Joseph Stokes, wholesale manufac-
turer of ice chests
Tottenham-court-road, and
resultingbaths Be, North-mews,.l.tyi destruction of
property. It appears that a person ' •ng opposite Mr.
Stokes's workshops observing flames issuing from them,
gave an alarm, and messengers being sent to the different
engine stations, in a short time the engines from Wells-
street, King-street, Crown-street, and Baker-street, under
the direction of Mr. Staples, the foreman of the district,
and engineers Girard and Wilkinson, were on the spot, two
workshops, by this time, being on fire. While the fire was
raging, one of the firemen from Wells-street had a narrow
escape, having by some means fallen from the workshop
window. The firemen, aided by a good supply of water
succeeded in extinguishing the fire, when it was found that
two of the workshops and their contents, consisting of ice
chests, &c., in the course of manufacture, benches, presses,
and the whole of the tools of several workmen, were totally
• e-office but,
destroyed. Mr. Stokes is insured in the Sun Fir l t
the workmen are unfortunately not insured, and the
them is consequently very serious. luau adjoining
build-
ing there was a large quantity of timber which,through the
exertions of the firemen, was prevented from taking fire.
A CHILD DROWNED IN A WASHING TUE.—
Yesterday Mr. J. Humphreys, the coroner for
Middlesex, held an inquest at the Lord MorpethTavern,
Old Ford-road, Bow, relative to
the death
from drowning,
of Isabella
Mar-
garet Diaper, aged 18 raonths, mho
died
at the ng,
The
the mother playingback of her
deceased was left by
during her momentary absence fell into a tub of
house, and
mother subsequently found the deceased im-
water, The ruo
d downwards, and when she pulled her out life
tnersed bead
was apparently extinct. Mr. Brereton, the surgeon, of Old
Ford-road, was promptly sent for, and used Dr. Marshall
/boo system to restore life, but his efforts were in vain.
After some remarks from the coroner, the jury returned a
verdict of "Accidental death,"