Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-12-19

AOAet -aAaNNHs
In an article copied into our columns some
weeks ago, reference was made to the move
ment which has met with so much success
in England for the establishment of "cofIee
palaces in the large cities as counter at
traction to the tippling-dens and gin-hells.
In Lippincotts Magazine for December, Mr..
Writ Skies has an article describing in a very
interesting way the methods adopted and
the results accomplished by those who are at
work in this movement. Mr.. Skies refers,
in the outset, to the special difficulties which
beset the temperance reformation in Great
Britain. The drink traffic there is strongly
intrenched in the laws and is counted upon
rs one of the main sources of the government
revenues and drinking customs pervade all
classes of society. At the conclusion of one
of Mr.. Coughs lectures in London recently,
clergyman of the Church of England was
found dead dl unk under one of the benches.
All London has been gossiping lately over
the drunken caprices of an earl, whose ances-
trail line stretches back to the Plantagenets.
Even the ladies' maids expect to be furnished
with beer-money, and among all classes and
ages the appetite for beer is found. The
temperance reformer, therefore, finds that
the evil which he combats is so universal
that he seems to be at war with every sort of
man.
With view to meeting the enemy in a
certain sense, on his own ground and with
his own weapons, the temperance people of
Great Britain, with the Duke of Westminster
at their head, have formed the Coffee Public
House Association, under the auspices of
which scores of buildings are springing up
all over the country known in general as
coffee palaces" The policy of the promot-
ers of this enterprise has been to adopt those
styles of architecture and ornamentation with
which the working classes are familiar, either
in the modern gin shops, with their sham
rosewood their sham marble and their plate
glass windows, or in the quaint hostelries of
olden time. In Liverpool for example, some
of the most alluring and garish of the public
houses are conducted by the Association on
strictly temperance principles Since the
first house of this kind was opened in that
city, seventeen thousand persons have signed
the pledge in books kept for the purpose of
registration. In the old town of Chester the
Little Nags Head Cocoa House" is of as
quaint and picturesque architecture as any
editice in the place. In London the coffee
houses range in appearance from very hum
BILE shops TO immense street-corner locations
with numerous entrances through swi nging
doors and adorned with all the flaring con
comtants which appeal to the taste of their
patrons. The first house of the kind opened
in London was the Edinburgh Castle" an
eX-gin- hell situated in one of the worst pre-
cincts of the East End. 1t was a success
from the beginning the hot coffee strong
tea, rich cocoa, the warm room, and the daily
papers to be found there, proving irresistible
attractions. Another very successful coffee
palace is the "Rose and Crown" situated in
Brompton in very fashionable neighbor-
hood. An inn has stood on that site for over
yer Cromwell's body-guard was quartered
and his coat-of-arms emblazoned on the front
Although coffee is sold at the low price of
one penny a cup, aud tea at a half-penny,
large profits have been realized The coffee
palaces now, Mr.. Skies says, rear their
bright, new cheerful faces in almost every
s1uald quarter. Where the beer-sellers are
thickest there the coffee-palace projectors
most earnestly strive for a foot hold, and,
having got it. they as earnestly strive to COM
pete with the publicans for popularity. They
call their palaces by the familiar names the
vulgar Briton loves; the Market Tavern is in
Lower Thames street the Temple Arms
adorns the Seven Dials, that centre of moral
and physical degradation the Ph@nix Tav-
ern is in Harrow Road the Red Boot orna-
ments the High Street in Camden Town;
the Chequers is at Stoke Newington, near
Mr.. Spurgeon's Tabernacle rough-and-
ready quarter the Anchor is in Goswell
Road, where the sailors can easily find it"
and thus, with their picturesque names and
general attractiveness, they win men and
women of untidy abodes to the enjoyment of
a social cup of coffee in place of gin or beer