New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-09-09

grained they were. or course they drank freely.
but less than their fathers and grandfathcrs 10
us of 1888 these moderate rotations are apt TO
appear garqantuoms The men who could carry
away two bottles of strong port under their oel'S
were common then Who is there to-day capable
of such bibulous fcats? At that time 1t was the
custom for the ladies to withdraw after dinner, and
for the men to sit for hours drinking hard-often
not rising until midnight or past For one thing
the wines and liquors were unadulterated, and
therefore did less immediate harm. Govt was q
fashionable complaint. Grog blossoms and bottle
noses Mr. Besant tells us, going out OF vogue.
the consumption Of gin and rum being on the de-
cline The incentives to heavy drinking were
many There few and not very magnificent
clubs. The Tavern still monopolized the general
custom. The Londoner not the domestic Great
ure he has sine become pcrforcc, by reasons of
| his distance from town Giving III the suburbs.
Most people went to the Tavern in the evening.
met their friends there and drank, smoked and
supped heartily. Digestions were probably sounder
than today. Certainly the fare was much coarser
and heartier, and more was eaten, and great deal
more was drunk. 1t is true the food was simpler.
and 1t generally as well cooked.
Mr.. Besant has nothing or very little, TO say of
the personal habits of his countrymen fifty years
| ago The Englishman of / 937 was not the " tub
bling" animal he has since become. 1t is question
able whether he was much ceanlier in his person
| than the contnentals whom he despised. The
| masses Of England without any question at all.
| were dirty as pgs-and it is not by any means
certain that civilization has reached them in that
direction yet The civilization of Rome is gen
orally regarded to-day only pseudo-clvllza-
ton; yet Western nation has ever evlnced equal
enlightenment with those Caesars who employed
the spoils of foreign war in building splendid
/ hot he Ilod in all fimp
open gratutously to the people Rome knew that
there more culture in personal cleanliness than in
whole scholastic systems. That is a truth which
since the fall of Rome has been forgotten by the
heads of States, and only partially realized ana
acted upon by small minorities anywhere In
Chaucers England men wore one leather suit
lifetime never washed more than the hands and
face strewed rushcs the floor instead of carpets;
put their kitchen middens alongside their front
doors, and no doubt sme: like wild beasts The
ladies were obliged to use powerful essences to
make themselves presentabe. The whole people
lived on about the grade Of Comanche Indians In
fact BY ls37 there was, Of course, an immense
| Improvement, and get, on looking back, the con-
ditions appear but little removed FROM those OF
barbarism.
With all this crudcness among the populace
there was an active and vigorous intellectual life,
of which London the centre. So far as news
papers and magazines were concerned, the me
tropolis in s37 was even better supplied than
at present Even more novels were published
yearly than now Most Of them were rubbish, and
so was much of the poetry put through the press;
and it is credtabe to the intelligence of the reading
public that it finally realized this, and forthwith
stopped buying such literature the re-
suit being the instant dispersion OF
the swarm Of bad noyelsts which had been
fattcning the publishers. Outside of London how
ever there were scarcely any journals or maya
zines save in Edinburgh The rural population
read little A large proportion of it could not
read and those who could looked upon literature
as i'm some sense frivolous and unmanly, and I'M
worthy Of serious attention In LONDON there were
what has now ceased to eXist-terary centres.
The Salon, as represented by Gore House and
Holland House. brought clever people of all kinds
together created intellectual friction and cmula-
| tion and thus did good service. With the growth
of the club system, which in supplanting the tav-
ern has killed sociability, and with the general
change in social customs this phase Of life has
completely disappeared. Conversation has gone
with the salon. There are no longer great con-
verscrs like Macaulay and Smith and Rogers and
Hayward and Coleridgc Hosts no longer care TO
keep their houses open until the small hours for
purposes of conversation, and modern society does
not care for that kind Of recreation In this
change there seems to be loss instead OF gain
Middle class life has advanced immensely. Fifty
years ago it was a dull and narrow one, without
any aid from art, and little enough from lltera-
ture j. has broadcned and expanded wonderfully
| in the interval though there is plenty OF room
for still further growth and Improvement. The
| hard and fast lines which separated 1T from the
upper circle have also been broken down Trade
has fought its way into society and intrenched
l 1ov-I ulya and mar IISpG
noble lords are not ashamed to put their
names upon business signs, to go
down into the city to do real work
| In the struggle for wealth money has become the
dominant consideration everywhere. and the rich
man can choose his own society practically. The
tendencies, Mr.. Besant thinks, are now strongly
against easy money-maldng. The agricultural
depression which has for so many years been III
crcasing is paupcrizing the great landed propre-
tor class and threatens to destroy an arlStocracy
which depends upon wealth for the maintenance
| of that dignity which alone retain for 1t any
popular respect If, however, Mr.. Bcsant is right
! In surprising that the impending ruin of the agri
cultural interest will signal the fall of England
from her pride of place, it will not matter much
what becomes of her nobility. In the greater
catastrophe their decline would pass almost unnO-
ticed.
The last fifty years have done most for the
working-classcs. They have advanced into com
parative ease and comfort, and at the expense OF
the rest. Mr. BeSant vigorously contests Henry
Georges patent fallacy that the poor arc growing
poorer, and no doubt the statement is the widest
and most perverse that an intelligent writer ever
put pen TO- Nothing can be more certain than It's
exact opposite, namely that the poor are growing
richer continually in all civilized countries. Or
ganization and democratizng legislation have won
for the English workngnen the improved condition
they now enjoy. Mr. Besant might have sketched
the agencies by which the change has been
effected. He might have said something about
trades-unionsm and cooperation and organlza-
ton among the agricultural laborers All tins
however, belongs more properly TO survey OF the
present than Of the past. and his man ooIect Is