The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-05
WAKEMAN'S WANDERINGS
SOME OF THE NOTED HAUNgs OF
LONDON ACTORS.

A Picturesque Weekly Assemblage.
(Copyriohtf
LONDON, May 2l.-It is impossible to
f,aqine a greater contrast than exists be-
+y,een London actors and London variety
actors: between the legitimate London stage
and that vast and various collection of
amusement establishments known as music
halls in which music has never entered
and between the audiences at London
,basters and the throngs which gather at
"the halls"
The London actor, as sho wn in my last
latter, is a man Of good birth and breeding.
He has had the advantage of the best Of
early training and environment. His voca-
ZION is one which requires manful effort.
intense application, many years of eppren-
ticeship aud study, and oonduces to hjyh
moral and intellectual ambitions. He is a
home lover, builder ana keeper. His social
status is the BEST HIS associations are with
men and woven of talent and achieve
ment. sssArd, IN most cases, he passes from
his days OF activity into long and mellow
evening Of life in which he is still often q
public favorite and is always sought after
"A A companion and reminiscentiaist; and
at asst when the dark cur tain is rung down
upon him, he enters a we'll merited repose.
in the loving memory of men, if not craven
or painted i'll the inches of renown
The London dramatic stage and its
audiences are credit to any nation. As
whole the morale, atmosphere and results
are good. / believe that, as a rule, En-
gllsh 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
he
drama and tragedy, upon the stage of Lon
don and has met with public satisfaction
has been the product of dramatic authors
having no superiors, has been given inter
probation by the ablest and most conscien-
tious Of actors, and has reached the magic
realm of success through as cautious and
severe criticism and purgingly healthful
laggard approval as are necessary 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 inexpli-
cable national taste which not only makes
possible but stuobornly clings to and con-
tnues to develop with giant strides that
incomparably greater and inexpressibly
inane and beastly form of amusement found
In the London music halis2
A reputable English writer once gave
from the English standpoint, pleasant cue
to the secret in the proposition that 1.-THE
greater hight a people touch IN their de-
veopment the lower mostly are the depths
of their recoiL Unhappily, then, the nation
that has no appreciation OF hopeless vul-
garityw
There are at present in London score or
more Of great music halls into each of which
nightly crowd from 1000 to 5000 people
There are 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 audi
ences of from 100 to 500 persons may be
found. Besides these, | would almost
venture the assertion, there are thousands
Of pubs" or public houses. drinking places
with assembly rooms behind the bar, where
free smoking concerts" attract perma-
Lent audience of from a score to q hundred
workingmen, and the foul rabble that subs
sists upon their generosity and weakness.
Indeed any one who knows this great city
at all In that wandering, vagrant, observant
way which leads thought into grave con-
illusions, would have no hesitancy in saying
that quarter OF a million human beings
may be found any weekday night in these
places CHEEKY" or more so, from liquor,
and from these sources securing their odd
ideas Of international contrasts; feeling
their berry patriotism as the bravest of
Brtons deliriously prompted; gathering
from vild-mouthed performers quips the
news and scandals of the day; in
creasing their contempt Of order
and law from their endless
satire and ridcule; gaining in general and
particular deeper hatred of English society
above them; and hearing, often with their
wives and daughters be slde them, the most
sacred relations Of men and women never
spoken or sung of save as perennial play
ground for cunning an intdelity; until the
heartiest British laugh is in response to the
broadcast British entender, and the loudest
British roar rises from these great seas of
uDturn faces when the vilest music hall in
decency is perpetrated.
OF all these places the "penuy-gaff, )" or
outrageously ridiculous pantomime, or voice
less melodrama, or wordless tragedy, in
which there is indeScribable murder, high
way robbery and other lurid crime, but all
enacted without spoken word to evade the
law governing dramatic representations, is
the least harmful, for it has no bar; and to
get his penny 'orth" of play, the White
chapel barbarian is kept for at least two
hours away from public houee. Drink is
the real attraction of all the others.
The wise lawmakers Of Tendon will not
permit any dramatic representation at any
place where liquor is sold. Something
which would appeal TO the intellect might
lessen the demand for drink. So they make
1t easy to debauch the masses with combi-
nation or sensationalism, sensualism ana
drink; and from the lowest free smoking
concert" to such music hall palaces as the
london pavilion, Alhambra, Tivoli, Royal,
oxford and Trocadero not one in 100 could
exist fortnight on the merit Of It's per-
torrance alone.
The vast and debasing system has grown
without let or hindrance of law, or effort
az redemption by religionists, out OF the
ancient British custom, for which right the
brlVlsh classes and masses would any time
nave fought parliament and king, of sing
ing and roaring when at drink. By and by
II became the custom of putting those of
tnelr companions with the best voices upon
toeir feet, and, willy nilly, making them
slhR or recite. Then came volunteering"
az these asSemblages Publicans saw
1uelr advantage and gradually en-
taI geo their premises. building a raised
uals or platform to accommodate ambitious
spirits, In time added a piano and accom-
PIANIST and bevy of barmaids and female
Ueer-servers to ogle and wheedle among the
CroWds, and another British institution"
was established among the people who
never never will be slaves.
Today, just as hundred or more years
aso' you cannot pass the distance Of fifty
yaras In certain localities OF all large Eu-
s.tsn cities without hearing pandemonium
III song behind some door which bears the
legend,
Free Smoking Concert Within.
on Saturday afternoons and evenings
very one of these places Is thronged TO
vpsN TsNI. a.