Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-03

With the words properly arranged it
reads:
NV brewers have tent their clerk,
And / must pay my score;
For if I trust my beer
What shall do for more?
On tavern sign in the Isle of Man kept
by Abraham Lowe, was put this facetlous
information:
I'm Abraham Lowe, and half way up the hill,
If / were higher up. what's funnier still.
I'd still be Lowe; come in and take your MI
OF porter, ale, wine, spirits-what you will.
Step in my friend. pray, no further 60;
My prices, like myself, are always low.
The slgn-board was in use IN Greece and
Rome. We owe, it is said, to the Romans
the bush, and sometimes ivy sprig, which
stood often over the inner door; whence or
iginated the saying that "Good wine needs
no bush" "No," said q certain wag, "it
only needs few bottles and a corkscrew." +"
On the Talbot Inn sign, Gloucestershire,
standing at the foot of hill, was put this
couplet facing the foot:
Before you do this hill go up
Stop and drink a cheerful cup.
But the passenger on the other side read:
You are down this hill, all dangers past;
Stop and take cheerful glass.
The publican who had the following for a
sign:
Try my dinners; they can't be beat.
was viotimized by customer, who evident
ly did not relish them, for by wiping out the
initial of the final word, he made the an
nouncement read:
Trymy dinners; they can't be eat.
A writer in Blacksoood's says the wayside
inns of Scotland are not equal to those OF
England. There is rustic charm and
neatness of the latter, "smiling with their
trellised gables, low windows, and over
hanging caves all a-twitter with swallows,
a little way off the road, behind pine tree, -
that is unique. And then there is the
pretty barmaid, with sweet voice, whom be
commends.
The Boar's Head Inn at Cheapside was
spoken of by Shakespeare, and the Miter
Tavern in Fleet street was for two centuries
famous. The name of Shakespeare fingers
about this, too, as it does at the Mermaid.
II was here DR.. johnson made the ac-
quaintance of Boswell. They drank bottle
of port wine apiece and sat out their talk
until in the morning. At the Mermaid
Sir Walter Raleigh instituted "The Mer-
maid Club" among whose members were
Shakespeare, Beaumont, Fletcher, Selden,
Cotton, Carew, Martin and Donne, than
whom no greater galaxy of fine wits ever
assembled. Beaumont, in recalling the days
of its glory to Ben Jonson, says:
What things have we not seen
Done at the Mermaids, heard words that have
been
So nimble and SO full of subtle flame.
As if that every one from whence they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in Jest
And had resolved to live fool the rest
OF his dull life.
And the bright quotation, which many
will remember, goes still further. Fuller
speaks, too, of the memorable wit combats
held here between Shakespeare and Ben
Jonson, (which trlo," he SAYS, "I beheld
like Spanish great galleon and an English
man of war. Master Jonson Qike the for
mer), was built far higher in learning,
solid, but slow in his performances; Shake.
speare, with the English man of war, lesser
in bulk. but lighter in sailing, could turn
with all tides and take advantage of all
winds by the quickness of his wit and in
vention."
Later on Hogarth exhibited his wit at the
Miter, and employed his genius occasion
aIIy on a tavern sign. Inviting a party
once to dine with him at the Miter tavern.
he engraved card on which was represented
within a circle pie, with miter at the
ton. and the supporters, dexter and sinister,
a knife a fork, and underneath, in Greek
characters. this motto: ETA ceta fri"
There is no end, really, of piquant gossip
on record about taverns, and equally exten.
siye is the list OF tales and bright gossip that
have been produced in them. The old:time
inn may be passing, but its memory will long
remain. Old DR.. johnson, who was moi
easily pleased, said of it: ''There is nothing
which has yet been contrivei by man By
which so much happiness is produced as BY
a good tavern or inn." And Falstaff asks
aShall / not take mine ease at mine OWL
imp"
But Shenstone's lines will forever stand
out as the most notable ascription to the
old-time tavern. They have often been
found fault with, we are told, as being a
disparagement to ordinary hospitality and
of human nature, but they appeal by their
pathos to one side of our common expert
ence. Shenstone says:
Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round,
Where'er his stages may have been,
Nav sigh to think he still has found
The warmest welcome at an inn.
1t is almost cruel to parody SO touching 9
eulogy, but it is said wag who once saw
these lines appropriately displayed at no
tel wrote beneath them the following stanza
whoe,er has travelled much about
Must very often sigh 70 think
Thatevery host will turn you out
Unless you've plenty of the chink
JOEL BENTON.