Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-06-09
Special correspondence of Gazette and journal

special correspondence OF Gazetto and journal
LONDON, May Silt is impossible to
imagine greater contrast than exists be-
tween London actors and London variety
actors; between the legitimate London
stage and that vast and various collection
of amusement establishments known us
music halls, in which music has never en-
tered, and between the audiences at Lon
don theatres and the throngs which gather
at ''the halls"
The London actor, as shown in my last
letter, is q man of good birth and breeding
He has had the advantage of the best Of
early training and environment. His yo
cation is one which requires manful effort
Intense application, many years of appren-
ticeship and study, and condtces to high
moral and intellectual ambitions. lie is a
home lover, builder and keeper. His so
cial status is the best. His associations are
with men and women of talent and active
ment. And, in most cases, he passes from
his days of activity into long and mellow
evening of life. i'll which he is still often d
public favorite and is always sought after
as a companion and reminiscentialist;
and at last, when the dark curtain is rung
down upon him, he enters well-merited
rep0se, embalmed in the loving memory
of men, If not craven or painted in the
inches of renown.
There are ut present in London score
or more of great music halls into each of
which nightly crowd from 1000 to 5000
people. There hundreds upon hundreds
of lesser affairs, ranging from the old time
free-and-easy, from which the modern
music hall has sprung to the penny
gaffs," where audiences from 100 to 800
persons may be found. Besides these,
would almost venture the assertion, there
are thousands of pubs OF public houses,
drinking places with assembly rooms be-
hind the bar, where free smoking con
certs' attract permanent nightly audi.
ence of from score to Il hundred working
men and the foul rabble that subsists upon
their generosity and weakness.
Indeed any one who knows this great
city at all in that wandering, yagrant, OBJ
servant way which leads thought into
grave conclusions, would have no hesi-
fancy in saying that quarter of a million
human beings may be found any week
day night in these places CHEEKY or
more so, from liquor, and from these
sources securing their odd ideas of inter
national contrasts; feeling their beery
patriotism us the bravest of Britons deliri-
ously prompted; gathering from vile
mouthed performers quips the news and
scandals of the day; increasing their CON
tempt of order and law from their endless
satire and ridicule, gaining in general and
particular deeper hatred OF English
society. above them; and hearing, often
with their wives and daughters beside
them, the most sacred relations Of men
and women never spoken or sung of save
as perennial playground for cunning and
infdelity; until the hcartiest British
laugh is in response to the broadest British
entendre, and the loudest British roar
rises from these great seas of upturned
faces when the vilest music-hall indeccncy
is perpetrated.
OF all these places the ''penny-gaff," OF
outrageously ridiculous pantomime, OIL
voiceless melodrama, or voorhees, tragedy
in which there is understandable murder
highway robbery, and other lurid crime
but all enacted without spoken word b,
evade the law governing dramatic repre-
sensations, is the least HARMFUL for il La
no bar; and to get his penny 'orth" o
play, the Whitechapel barbarian is KEEP
for at least two hours away from u publ
house. Drink is the real attraction of al
the others.
The wise lawmakers of London will no
permit any dramatic representation at an,
place where liquor is sold Sonethin
which would appeal to the intellect mgh
lessen the demand for drink So the
make it easy to debauch the masses with
combination of sensationalisn, scnsualisu
and drink; and from the lowest fire.
smoking concert to such music hal
palaces as the London Pavilion. Alhan
bra, Iivoli, Royal, Oxford and Irocader,
not one in one hundred could exist a for
night on the merit Of its Performance
alone.
The vast and debasing system has grow
without let OF hlndranee of law, or elfol
at redemption by reliEionists. ont of iii
ancient British custom, for which rigl
the British classes and masses would All
time have fought parliament and king, 1
singing and roaring when ut drink Il
and by it became the custom Of putin
those of their companions with the be
voices upon their lcet, and, willy mill,
making them sing or recite. Then can
volunteering at these assemblages. Pul
lieans saw their advantage and gradual
enlarged their premises, building d raist
dais or platform to accommodate amb
tious spirits in time added piano an
accompanies and bevv of barinai,ls an
female beer-servcrs to ogle and wheed
among the crowds, and another BIRTHS
institution" was established among ii
people who never, never will be slaves
To-day, just as an hundred or mo
years ago, you cannot pass the distance
80 yards in certain localities of all lar
English cities, without hearing a pand
monium OF song behind some door whiC
bears the legend,
'FREE SMOKING CONCERT WITHIN"
On Saturday afternoons and eyenin
every one Of these places is thrOnged
su location with workingmen. With til,
empty dinner pals in hand, half of the
unwashed of the CRIME of honest labor
scores OF thousands, they stream into III
smoking concert" and to that. The
with their fellow workmen; with d
precious pipe in mouth or hand; mug
bitter or -four ale' before them; y,
haps a painted barmaid OH one knee N
sRip Van Winkle.ike somnolence as
eheir families and their needs, they shu
'Hencore l''-"Hencore to the yolUutt
soloist' the pimply pianist or the pug
little clOggist and all the other nieag
freaks Of their ALI oliday 'eaven = rc
bravely in choruses; are at peace with
the world, and without an iota Of yiciousn,
i'll all their pitful lives, wholly forget
OF their slavish labor and slaves wage
until the wife Nemesis, "missus,n fin
them ont and yanks them and what is L
OF their hobs to the home-hovel;
they are tossed from the closing doors
the stones Of the street for the lnial ri,
ing Of London yulturcs and nighthaWl
The great London music-ball is silnpl,
larger and more insiduously hurtful "
OF the free smoking concert room.
the hands OF q stock company viii
profits to the extent Of twenty-five a
thirty per cent, instead Of single public
who is satisfied with ten. 1t is practica
gigantic bar or series of tiers Of ba
surrounding an auditorium where tn
sands instead of scores can be admitted,
merely nominal entrance fee wiier
stage with speciality performers suppl;
the platform, the pianist and tie yOli
teer and where the same classes, or III
vicious ones, with "'Arrys and Arrie
OF London fill the pit, while every man
OF cad fast fellow Of tile gentry d
nobility, including good sprnking
London Bohemia, sauEter in Tie prom
AIDES and ill the boxes and stalls,
You can bring along your pipe
smoke il inst the same as at the OF
place. The constant explosion of scratcl
matches is Of the same deathiy odor
familiar sound. There are the snIne