Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-01
LIES GREAT PLAY.
Some Scenes at Charing Cross, the
Center of ChriStendOn, and
THE HEART OF THE WORLDS LIFE.
Picturesque Figures That Rise From the
Pages of History.
THE BUSY, ,BUSTLlNG CROWDS OF TO-DAY
rwK1rrEN FoR THE pIspArcH.1

tDraw near draw nearp' cried Ayesha,
with voice of thrilling exultation. "Be-
hold the very Fountain and Heart of Life
as it beats in the bosom OF the Great
World" And she showed them where the
great pulse beat and the great flame passed
by with an awe-inspiring sound. The fame
was like rainbow, many colored, and in
spired Ayesha's companions with an
intellectual glow, standing there at the
center of things, ''the very fount and seat of
Being" But strange and startling as this
imaginary experience undoubtedly is, if
you give your fancy the free rein which
"Sbe" requires, its stirring suggestiveness
is weak when compared with the romance
of that true center of the real worlds life,
which we call Charing Cross. The weird
sound of the revolving column of heat and
blaze, is a mere wInd-box accompaniment TO
a dance of theatrical sprites in rivalry with
the voice Of London, as the mighty city
laughs and cries, and shouts and storms
about the sounding streets-while ghosts
more impressive than any the prophecies
showed her new Killicrates stalk between
the serried hosts that come and 60 on daily
pilgrimages from West to East, from East
to West, or pause by Eleanor's monument
en- route for the uttermost ends of the earth.
London is the worlds halfway house
the island in the sea where travellers ofevery
hue and nation land, outward bound and
homeward. 1t is the center of the worlds
trade and commerce, the headquarters of
money changers, the seat of judgment for
arts and crafts. Whatever the national mer-
its NAV be, however i'll or good the native
art and work, London is the supreme Judge;
it has been so decreed by Europe, Asia, At
rica, America and Russia No art is COM
plete without the Endorsement of London;
painter, poet, scientist, inventor, whatever
their country, they lay their troubles at the
foot of London judicial majesty. She is the
arbiter, sometimes right, sometimes wrong.
Full Of prejudices, she has none where gen.
ius is in the question; she has decorated for
eigners with lavish honor; she has fostered
alien arts with unstinted liberality; she has
given strangers in blood and even foes at
heart and in action the best of her meal and
malt; her gates are ever open to ali creation
without tax, or bar. And thus it is that as
the counting house, the bank, and the club,
the drawing room of great empire, pill
grims come and go or remain at will, and
they have made London the center of the
universe, the pivot upon which the most vi
tai incidents of liie's great play turn in the
THE HEART OF THE WORLD.
Taking London as the center of the world,
Charing Cross being as near as may be the
center of London, we stand here under the
Postal Telegraph Clock at the heart of the
worlds life. The restored Eleanor Cross in
the railway courtyard over the way might
fairly be noted as marking mid-Christen-
dom, or let us say, mid-glohe. Rome bad
once this place; Paris has an ambition in
that direction; Berlin dreams dreams; New
York looks forward; each and all may have
their turn; but to-day the chief scene in the
worlds great drama, life's great play, is
here at Charing Cross. 1t is not architect
urally worthy of its fame, you say. Once
upon a time, however, London was as
picturesque as Bruges and as dirty
as Naples; but the gabled houses,
the bow windows, the diamond panes,
the overhanging balconies, the swinging
signs, the quaint costumes, the Sedan chairs,
the gilded chariots, belong to the ghosts of
the days when we were planting our flag |
beyond the most distant seas and establish |
ing an empire upon which the sun Dever |
sets. Here, where we stand, the recruiting |
sergeants of Elizabeth collected sailors TO |
90 forth against the Armada; at this very |
Cross of Charing the heralds have for CEN |
turies proclaimed the English wars; on this |
ground has surged the waves of revolution; |
Queen MRry's troops and Wyatt's rebels |
had here their brief passage of arms; here |
has been spilled the blood of Royalist and |
Cromwellian; once a year, for hundreds of |
wears, the Lord Mayor, in his chariot, has |
passed the Cross of Charing en- route for |
Westminster to assert the civic rights be- |
yond Temple Bar; these stones have echoed |
to the tramp of troops carrying their swords |
to battle in strange and distant lands; and |
here have been seen the tattered flags of the |
thinned but victorious regiments back from /
red fields of conquest.
Chsring Cross has seen pageants of war !
and professions of peace, which have |
changed the map of the world and altered |
the politics of Christendom. DR.. johnson |
said, ST think the full tide of existence is at |
Charing Cross" and without a doubt the |
antiquarian, the poet, the philosopher, the |
traveller, the realist, the lover of fictitious |
romance, and even the etymologist are each |
and severally interested in this particular |
scene of the mighty stage upon which we |
all are players, some of us as supers, others |
with speaking parts, and a few as leading |
characters. If we could only pick them out |
as they pass us near the Cross, the men and |
women who have been cast for great roles in |
the futurel Our predecessors could not in |
the past predict the men who should rule |
discovered after their deaths.
HEROES OF HISTORY.
Peter the Great must often have walked |
hereabouts, for he lived close by in Norfolk |
street, Strand, with the river flowing be- |
meath his windows. He hated what is I
called Society, could not endure to be stared
at. On the occasion of q ball, which he was
induced to attend at st. James, he insisted |
Upon having a small side room all IN him
self, where he could see without being seen.
He ate enormously and drank brandy spiced
with red pepper. The Marquis of Caer-
inarthen was his boon companion during his
stay in London, and what Peter liked best
was to sail about all day in Caermarthen's
yacht and drink with him all night. But
he worked hard at Deptford, though not as
he did at Zaandam, where he Iabored like
an ordinary artisan, received a workman's
pay and lived a workman's lie; vet on
leaving England he gave the King a ruby
worth e10, 900, taking it out of his pocket,
where he carried it wrapped in a piece of
brown paper. A wonderful figure among
the ghosts of Charing Cross, this strong
ambitious founder of the present Russian
Empire, which threaten our supremacy in
the Eastl
Think Of all the heroes, native and for
eign, from his day to this, who have mixed.
by fame, in the busy crowd, and
you would have a fine list of the dramatis
persona in ife's great play. To come down
from heroes TO the men who amuse and en-
tertain both great and small, whose work
cheers the poor mans hearth, and brings
Intellectual rest and comfort TO the home of
luxury and wealth, Charles Dickens, when
D boy, was q drudge in his relatives black
ing mandatory on a salary of six shillings