The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-07-18
HOLLY TREE INNS.

The city of Glasgow has long bore the
reputation of being the most immoral and
Incorporate of any of the cities of the
United Kingdom, yet out of this Nazareth
camethe good thing which is known in our
America as The Holly Tree Inn.
In 1860 an opulent merchant of Glasgow
Thomas Corbett,) influenced by the belief
that the working classes might be supplied
with cooked food of wholesome and agree
able kind, at much cheaper rate than they
were paying, conceived the idea of opening
an establishment for that purpose, and
adopted the term, "Great Western Cook
ing Depot" Such was the popularity of
the scheme, that branch after branch was
added at about the rate of one every TIVE
months, and at the close of the second year
thirteen branches were established, with
other ones in prospect. The establishments
are so judiciously and economically man.
aged, that they are not only self-sustaining,
but Mr.. c. realizes per cent on his invest
ments, and so attractive and beneficial to
the classes designed to be reached that 10,-
900 midday meals have been served in
month in one establishment alone Similar
establishments are now to be found in all
the principal cities of England, Scotland
and Ireland.
These facts coming to the knowledge of
Mrs. James T. Fields, of Boston, and she,
DESTROYS of making life less hard and
drunken to the working classes, founded
what in honor of Chas. Dickens, she called
Holly Tree Inns. They were designed as
substitutes for drinking saloons, and recog-
nizing the fact that in all transactions the
highest bidder gets the prize, she sought to
make them more comfortable, more CHEEKY
and attractive, than those places where the
decoying light streams through screened
doors and artifcially frosted window panes.
Accordingly, in many of our cities cosy and
attractive rooms have been provided and
thrown open free to all corners, Sundays
and week days, where at all times nutri-
tious and palatable food can be procured
for smaller sum than it can be obtained
elsewhere; and where the needed for amuse-
ment and relaxation shall be recognized in
! oii0 ihlSlSSlo Va SutCuLuOut anu OluCIs
Whatever of innocent amusement has
been dragged into the service of vice, is in
these places enlisted in the interests of
virtue. Harmless amusements, daily and
illustrated papers, books and music are
among its attractions. On the Sabbath it
becomes place of religious instruction
and worship, and affords opportunities to
Christian laborers greatly to be praised.
Mrs. Fields says of them "they are entirely
successful pecuniarily, wherever they are
we'll managed and there can be no doubt of
the assistance these inns have rendered to
working men and women. We can dis
tinctly cite cases of families saved from
utter ruin through their fundamentally"
Here is an opportunity for an honest hand
to hand fight with vice. If in the poorest
and most populated quarters of the city,
clearly cheerful Holly Tree Inns were
opened near by grog shops, where good
coffee, tea, and food can be obtained for
less than liquor prices, is it not reasonable
to believe that the grog shop would lose
many customers, and homes now darkened
by intemperance and stained with crime,
would be bright and happy? doubt not
you will agree with US that it is useless to
tell badly md miserably housed, over
worked men and women who have long
been poisoned with foul air, and worse
whisky, that they must touch nothing but
water. They must haze something parm or
,oarming, and the practical road to Temper
ance is to find palatable substitute for the
liquid fire now preyin9 on poor humanity.