Morning journal and courier., 1892-05-28

flute, and melody and song of the home made kind seem to break loose here rather than come st "the cue" and to order.
 Above all else there is a wonderful sort of all around housekeeping in these joyous little homes from participation in which no friend or guest is altogether debarred, and occasionally under no circumstances absolved. It is as though the effort, as. sumption and repression of the stage world found its exsct antithesis in this most pre- cious of haunts; and that all those things in home making and keeping which are re- garded as irksome by ordinary folk, were to these people the acme of pleasure and delight
 "A perennial lark" one ftly described it to me. And SO 1t is. With mingled feelings of smazement and delight, while enjoying the most genial entertainment l have ever elsewhere known, I have assist ed Lady Teazle at dusting; 6 Juliet at digging in the garden; a Lear at leap-frog with his not ungrateful children; Portis st shelling peas; an Othello at mending kites; a Mrs. Malsprop in washing the lunch dishes; Grave Digger st mending his range; a Cleopatra at pairing potatoes; Falstaff at making gooseberry and dam son jam; Bob Acres st grilling chops CT Surface at preparing sAlsds-for English actors are peerless ss cooke; a Bill Sykes at prayers; and a Richelieu at brewing such punches as, have been told by those who slipped them, left. by comparison, the nectar of the gods" mere eight-penny treacle.
 The whole Covent Garden region, that Joyous region" ss Thackersy called it, while not exactly 6 haunt of actors, has been a sort of actor-lsnd for more than two hundred and fifty years. It is now as of old region of fine old inns, coffee houses, theaters, clubs, printers and pub- fishers, booksellers and costumers In these precints, between Covent Garden and the Strand, that greatest roaring tide of humanity in all the world, and upon the Strand itself, more actors will be seen coming, going or lettering than in any oth- CT district of the great city.
 After his profession and his jolly little home, the strongest attachment of the London actor is given to his club Every one is a member of from one to s half dozen clubs; and these actors, as & class, more than all others of the liberal profes- sions and arts, have inspired, developed and sustained that spirit of genial associa- ton of men of talent which has given London its vast numbers of most splendid clubs, around which cluster the most pre- cious of historic and literary associations It may be truly said that, from Shakes peare to Dickens, not only the greatest &C., tors who ever lived, but most of the great est writers, have been spurred and promp- ted into the effort and activities which gave themselves fame and the world its cleanest drama and grandest literature. from this source and out of this fruitful and fecund association.
 Since wills" Buttons" 'Toms" and other famous coffee-houses and clubs of the Queen Anne period, & history of the changes and habitues of famous London clubs to which actors have given the chief support, would almost be a history of English men of letters and literature The actors club haunts of today chiefly comprise the Gsrrick, Green Room, Say age, Arundel, Ly-ic and Beefsteak clubs.
 The latter unique little club, which has it's home over Toole's Theater, sprang out of the Honorable Society of Beefsteaks, in the old Beefsteak room of the Lyceum Theater, which still exists, and is used by Irving for his exquisite private dinner parties. The Beefstesk over Toole's is dis tinctive in being a Gone groom" club. and admitting no guests whatever.
 The Arundel has three hundred and if ty to four hundred members. It was once exclusively literary and artistic. Ambi- tious solicitors and amateurs of all sorts are now admitted, and its percentage of legitimate actors is growing smaller.
 The Lyric has & magnificent clubhouse in Picadilly, and with its entire appoint ments, including large theater and con- cert hall, is among the finest buildings for this purpose in the world. It also has an annex called the Lyric club at Barnes-on- Thames, from which boat racing and other river fetss can be witnessed. The Lyric is dramatic and musical club with nearly three thousand members. Perhaps ten per cent. of these are actors Lord Londesborough, Sir Morell Mackenzie, Fred Cowen and Sir Arthur Sullivan are members.
 The well-known Savage club, literary and artistic. which interchsnges privileges with the Lotus club of New York, has about seven hundred members. It had its origin twenty four years ago in a public house near Drury Lane theater. Since then it has wandered to Haxel's Hotel. thence to the Savoy, and finally to the Adelphi Terrace, overlooking the Thames. About eighty of its members, who are also members of the Green Room club, are &C., tors.
 The Garrick, in Gsrrick street, Covent Garden, venerable, rich, stately, mellow and grand, has no membership limitation as to profession. While perhaps no more than twenty-five actors are at present among its members, although all London managers of any prominence are upon its rolls, it undoubtedly possesses the most valuable collection of souvenirs and paint ings relating to the stage and its most fs- nous representatives of any association or institution in the world.
 But the Green Room club, in Bedford street, which had its origin about fourteen years ago from dissgreements in the Jun for Garrick and the Arundel clubs, is by all odds the real actors club of London. It is already one of the weslthiest of its small clubs and owes its great success to the administration of its honorary secre- tsry. George Dsnscher, a gentleman of ample means, a genuine art lover with boundless sympathies for actors and their profession. Persons in all the liberal arts are admitted to membership; but no active manager can become 8 member unless he was formerly an actor of good standing. Pinero and Lord Carton, drsmstists, Far icon, the author, and Charles Dickens, ed itor an d author and son of the great nov elist, are among its members.
 Saturday Nights" and Saturday House Dinners" the latter. splendidly served at but three shillings and six-pence, are the kindliest, brightest, mellowest and most genial occasions of our time among men of heart and brains. Gathered here will be found such men as Pinero, Sant Mat thews, Irving, John Hare, Royce Carleton, Kendall, Paul Merritt, Wyndhsm, Charles Hartbury, Bancroft, Fernandez. Beerbohn Tree, Ted Gardiner, and Henry Howe, the oldest actor on the English stage.
 In thousands of books are preserved the true or apochryphsl sayings of Garrick, Sheridan, Hood, Thackeray, Dickens and men of their kidney, who gave the wine of life to literary London in the past. believe that within this very Green Room actors haunt of the London of to-day wit and repartee as spontaneous, unctious and true find as constant expression. Out of countless instances that could be cited here are two examples:
 Charles Wyndham, whom every Ameri- can theatergoer pleasantly remembers, called at the Green Room, and on entering sank languidly into its famous Garrick chair. Desiring to be genial, Secretary LeClerq blandly remarked:
 "Ah, Mir. Wyndhsm, you are growing more and more like MT. Garrick every day of your life"
 ''Yes," instantly retorted 8 fellow actor standing near, land less and less like him every nightl" A certain Gwylln Grove, musical com poser, and conductor at the Covent Gar den Thester, is terrible atheist, and nev- CT loses opportunity to vent his spleen against sacred things and beliefs. Not long ago at Green Room Saturday after noon dinner he had no more than finished | a particularly vehement diatribe against | the genuineness of Christ, when Henry S. Leigh, @ brilliant London hack, after . moments scribbling sent to the table