Morning journal and courier., 1892-09-17

| foote, Murphy, Macklin. Fawcett Charles
 and John Philip Kemble will be the best | remembered. And the 'tShakespear," the
 first tavern set up in the garden, stood at
 the corner of the Piazza and Russell street. | It was here the famous 'Jion's Head let
 ter box" wasPlaced to receive extrsordi
 nary inquiries, lampoons, prophecies.
 scandals and all the odd pasquinades of
 that time of free thinking and writing.
 or the more noted Covent Garden re-
 sorts of the present time perhaps the most
 unique, something like old time 'Cobyeb
 Hall, in New York, is "Jack Hart's," g Russell street. It is practically an all
 night house for printers, reporters, night editors and men of the town who drop in
 before daylight for a parting glass or cup of coffee. The costers and market
 porters resort here later in the day
 Around in Maiden Lane is the 'sWelsh | House" former haunt of Dickens and the
 wits and epicures of his time. I have al ready mentioned fsRule's,n just of South ampton street. It is the most famous oys-
 ter house of London, and the occasional | presence of the Prince of Wales brings to the place every swell and nobleman of the | great metropolis, while on the eastern side | of the market is the National Sporting club and the Pelican club. The former | was the notorious "Evans Rooms" of an earlier date. In these two club houses oc- cur the greatest glove fights of Britain. Of all the intellectual giants who knew and loved the Covent Garden region, | Thackersy has left by far the most charm | ing picture. "A pleasant land, {" he says, "not fenced with drab stucco like Tybur- mia or Belgravia; not guarded by a large army of footmen; not echoing with noble chariots; not replete with chintz drawing rooms and neat tea tables; land over which hangs an endless fog, occssioned by much tobacco; land of chambers, bill Hard rooms, supper rooms, oysters; 8 land of cong; a land where soda water flows freely in the morning; land of tin dish covers from taverns and frothing porter; @ land of lotus eating (with lots of pepper); "a land where men call each other by their Christian names; where many are poor, where almost all are young, and where if few oldsters do enter, it is be- cause they have preserved more carefully and tenderly than other folk their youth full spirits, and the delightful capacity to be idle"
 It is also the land of Covent Garden market, if not the largest known market in area, certainly that market through which daily passes from grower to buyer greater amounts of fruits, flowers and veg etsbles than st any other market in the world. The constant production of more than eighty thousand acres contiguous to London. much of which Is forced garden ing under glass, Is required for its con- stant replenishing. There are yearly sold at this one market more than sixty million cabbages, five million caulifowers, eleven hundred and twenty-five thousand bottles of strawberries, about the same number ot lettuce heads, six hundred thousand bush- els of shelled peas and about six hundred and fifty thousand bushels of onions.
 If you are stopping st one end of the old inns overlooking the market you are certain to be awakened by the steadily in- creasing hum of the place, which begins shortly after midnight with the first arri- vals of the carts of produce from the country. This has grown into & subdued roar, though there is never any yelling or hallooing permitted If the sun is up and throwing its ssffrony light through the hazy atmosphere you will see as pretty a sight down here as eyes may look upon. ! Every cross street leading 10 the market, from Long Acre, from Drury Lane and from the Strand, which by regulation is completely given up to this traffic until nine o'clock, is jammed and packed to house doors with four, five and sometimes six lines of carts, wagons and bsrrows, headed in or out, each vehicle in process of loading or unloading with every man ner of fruit, flower and vegetable known to London markets, while the seven acres of the market itself, most of which is un- covered space, is apparently solid mass of donkeya, carts, hampers, stacks of veg eiables and writhing, wriggling human be- ings-
 The rays of the morning sun bring out the vivid colors of the fruit and vegets- bles wonderfully. You descend to the market and risk your temper, if not your life, in forcing your way through the ob- stinate masses to the booths and stalls. In this effort you get somewhat acquainted with Covent Garden porters. They are & huge, hairy, rum breaihed lot. Every thing is carried from market to waiting wagons on their bea1s-from one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds being considered sn ordinary load. Their head gear is padded yoke encircling the fore head and resting upon the shoulders. Carrying the pad" !" which was once the occupation of Sims Reeves, the famous tenor, is portering Doing a turn" is making one trip laden, from market stall to wagon, often as far ss the strand. Each porter Is licensed, receives twopence per turn" and usually does from eight to if teen "turns" of n morning.
 Another interesting class which is often overlooked by visitors is the Covent Gar den "whip minders." These are usually women, who for a halfpenny a wagon take CuaIko Ol tuc uIlfcfs Nulps, rugs huu luc like. They also keep teams in line, lift at wheels, yank refractory horses about like trainers and adjudicate all differences re- gardlng street rights of teamsters. I saw one soundly trounce a teamster twice her | size for disobediencs. At the corner of Southampton street and Strand there is one tha. is of Amszonisn size, and with & voice easily heard at Charing Cross.
 Another, named ''Jenny Williams" has | the west half of Southampton street in charge. I became quite her fsvorite, and she told me in confidence that she was really not "Jenny" any longer, but genu- finely Mrs. Genevieve Brown, though the marketmen must not know of it for the world, "for." said she with knowing look, 'they 'as no pashuns along O mis-
 suses." Her father, Joseph Williams,
 "minded tn w'ips" for more than forty | years. Her mother took his place when | the 'old man" gave out, and "Jenny the hinder" is still hers by the right of heri- tsge.
 | An hour or so among the porters, cos | ters and country men will provide some ex-
 traordinsry studies, and most interesting
 place is reached on the northern side of
 the market. where, at the foot of noun
 tains of csbbsges and precipices of wag- ons and hampers, you will find several hundred "psas shelters" sQustting among
 bags of peas and working away with mar
 vicious dexterity. They are usually old
 women, fat and blow-y, or scragsy and
 lean As the peas rattle into baskets or
 pans the shelters keep up fusilade of
 banter among each other and upon all
 psssers, their sides shaking with laughter
 as some well directed sslly calls forth
 querulous retort. They receive one penny