Morning journal and courier., 1892-06-04
WAKEMAN,s wANDERINGs.

WAKEMAN,S wANDERINGS. Haunts of London Actors-The Mu- sic Halls of London and Their Ori- gin-Drink Their Real Attraction London Actors Contrasted With "Prosser,' Music Hall Perrormers- A Picturesque Weekly Assemblage. LONDON, May 31. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER.
 It is impossible to imagine greater con- trast than exists between London actors and London variety actors; between the legitimate London stage and that vast and various collection of amusement establish ments known as music halls, in which mu- sic has never entered, and between the au- diences at London theaters and the throngs which gather at "the halls"
 The London actor, as shown in my last letter, is man of good birth and breed ing. He has had the advantage of the best of early training and environment. His vocation is one which requires manful effort, intense application, many years of apprenticeship and study, and conduces to high moral and intellectual ambitions. He is home lover, builder and keeper. His social status is the best. His associations are with men and women of talent and achievement. And, in most cases, he passes from his days of activity into a long and mellowevening of life, in which he is still often a public favorite and is al- ways sought after as a companion and a reminiscentialist; and at last, when the dark curtain is rung down upon him, he enters well-merited repose, embalmed in the loving memory of men, if not gra- ven or painted in the niches of renown.
 The London dramatic stage and its au- diences are a credit to any nation. As a whole the morale, atmosphere and results are good. believe that, as a rule, Eng fish players, plays and audiences together represent the best expression and receptiv- ity of genuine mirth and sentiment which can anywhere be found And on the large lines of consideration, it may be safely Said that whatever may be represented, comedy, drama or tragedy, upon the stage of London and has met with public satis- faction, has been the product of dramatic authors having no superiors, has been giv- en interpretation by the ablest and most conscientious of actors, and has reached the magic realm of success through as eau tious and severe criticism and purgingly- heslthful laggard approval, as are necesss- " to give something of real value to the entire amusement world.
 But good as all this surely is, what can be the secret of that strange and inexpl- cable national taste which not only makes possible but stubbornly clings to and con- tinues to develop with giant strides that incomparably greater and ineIpressibly in ane and beastly form of amusement found in the London music hallsi
 A reputable English writer once gave, from the English standpoint, pleasant cue to the secret in the proposition that "the greater height a people touch in their development the lower mostly are the depths of their recoil. Unhappy, then. the nation that has no appreciation of hopeless vulgarityl"
 There are at present in London score or more of great music halls into each of which nightly crowd from two to i've thousand people. There are hundreds upon hundreds of lesser affairs, ranging from the old time free-and-easy, from which the modern music-hsll has sprung to the "penny- gsffs," where audiences of from one to five hundred persons may be found Besides these, would almost ven ture the assertion, there are thousands of "pubs" or public houses, drinking places with assembly rooms behind the bar, where free Smoking concerts" attract a perma- nent nightly audience of from a score to a hundred workingmen and the foul rabble that subsists upon their generosity and weakness.
 Indeed any one who knows this great city at all in that wandering, vagrsnt, ob- servant way which leads thought into grave conclusions, whould have no hesi- tancy in saying that quarter of a million human beings may be found any week k-day night in these places ''cheery," or more so, from liquor, and from these sources secur- ing their odd ideas of international con- trasts; feeling their beery patriotism as the bravest of Britons deliriously prompt ed; gathering from vile mouthed perform ers' quips the news and scandals of the day; increasing their contempt of order and law from their endless satire and ridi- cule; gaining in general and particular deeper hatred of English society above them; and hearing, often with their wives cred relations of men and women never spoken or sung of save as perennial play ground for cumming and infidelity; until the heartiest 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 indecency is perpetrated.
 Of all these places the "penny gaffs :" or | outrageously ridiculous pantomime,s or voiceless melodrama, or wordless tragedy, | in which there is indescribsble murder, l.: 1,,r, | but all enacted without spoken word to | evade the law governing dramatic repre- l sentations, is the least harmful, for it has 1 no bar; and to get his "penny 'orth" of | play, the Whitechapel barbarian is kept for at least two hours away from public | house. Drink is the real attraction of all | the others.
 l The wise lawmakers of London will not | permit any dramatic representation at any place where liquor is cold. Something which would appeal to the intellect might lessen the demand for drink. So they make it easy to debauch the masses with { combination of sensstionalism, sensuslisn and drink; and from the lowest fre'
 "smoking concert" to such music-hsl
 palaces as the London Pavilion, Alham
 bra, Tvoli, Royal, Oxford and Trocadero
 not one in one hundred could exist fort
 night on the merit of its performance
 alone.
 The vast and bebssing system has growl
 without let or hindrance of law, or efor
 at redemption by religionists, out of tn
 ancient Britist custom, for which right tn
 British classes and masses would any tim
 have fought parliament and king, of sing
 ing and roaring when at drink. By an'
 by it became the custom of putting thos
 of their companions with the best voice
 upon their feet, and, willy nilly, makinl
 them sing or recite. Then came "volun teeringn at these assemblsges. Publican
 saw their advantage and gradually en lsrged their premises, building a raise dais or platform to accommodate ambi tious spirits, in time added a piano an . aecompsnist and bery of barmaids am
 female beer servers to ogle and wheedl among the crowds, and another "Britis
 institution" was established among tn people who never, never will be slaves.
 To-day, just as an hundred or nor
 years ago, you cannot pass the distance o
 fifty yards in certain localities of all lsrg
 English cities without hearing a psnde monium of song behind some door whicl
 bears the legend,
 Free Smoking Concert Within.
 On Saturday afternoons and evening
 every one of these places is thronged t