The record-union., 1892-06-04

1t is impossible TO imagine greater
contrast than exists between London act
ors and London variety actors; between
the legitimate London stage and that vast
and various collection of amusement es-
adjustments known as music halls, in
which music has never entered, and be-
tween the audiences at London theaters
and the throngs which gather at ''the
halls"
The London actor, as shown in my last
letter, is a 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 man
ful effort, intense application, many years
of apprenticeship and study, and con-
duces to high moral and intellectual am
bitions. 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 mellow evening Of life,
in which he is still often a public favor
tie and IS always sought after as a COM
panion and a reminiscentialist; and at
last, when the dark curtain is rung down
upon him, he enters well-merited re-
pose, embalmed il the loving memory of
men, If not craven or painted in the
inches of renoWn.
The London dramatic stage and its au-
diences are credit TO any nation. AS a
whole the morale, atmosphere and results
are good. L believe that, as a rule, Eng
hShplayers. plays and audiences together
represent the best expression and recep-
tlvity 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 pre-
sented-cOmedy, drama or tragedy-upon
the stage OF London and has met with
public satisfaction, has been the product
of dramatic authors having no superiors,
has been given Interpretation by the
ablest and most conscientious of actors,
and has reached the magic realm of sue
cess through as cautious and severe criti-
ciSm and purgingly healthful laggard ap-
proval 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 mex
plicable national taste which not only
makes possible but stubbornly clings to
and continues to develop with giant
strides that incomparably greater and
1neXpressibly inane and beastly form OF
amusement found in the London music
halls?
A reputable English writer once gave,
from the English standpoint, pleasant
cue to the secret in the proposition that
''the greater hight people touch in their
development the lower mostly are the
depths of their recoil. Unhappy, then,
the nation that has no appreciation of
hopeless vulgarity."
There are at present in London score
or more of great music halls, into each of
which nightly crowd from two to five
thousand 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 gatfs," where audiences OF
from one to five hundred persons may be
found. Besides these, l would almost
venture the assertion there are thousands
OF "puDS,' or public houses, drinking
places with assembly-rooms behind the
bar, where free smoking concerts at
tract permanent nightly audience oI
from score to a hundred workingmen
and the foul rabble that subsists upon
their generosity and weakness.
Indeed, anyone who knows this great
city at all in that wandering, vagrant, OBJ
servant way which leads thought into
grave conclusions, would have no hesi-
fancy in saying that quarter of mill
ION 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 inter-
national contrasts; feeling their beery
patriotism as the braVest OF Britons delir-
iously prompted; gathered from vile
mouthed performers quips the news and
scandals OF the day; increasing their con-
tempt of order and law from their end
less satire and ridicule; gaining III gen
eral and particular deeper hatred oi
English society above them; and hear
ing, often with their wives and daughters
beside them, the most sacred relations ol
men and women never spoken or sung OF
save as perennial playground tor cum
a Iac-
British laugh is in response to the broad.
est British entendre, and the loudest
British roar rises from these great seas
OF upturned faces when the viIest music
hall indecency is perpetrated.
OF all these places the "penny-gaffD OIL
outrageously ridiculous pantomIme, OF
voiceless nelodrama, or worldless tragedy
in which there is iudeScribable murder,
highway robbery and other lurid crime
but all enacted without spoken word tC
evade the law governing dramatic repre-
SentationS. is the least harmful, for it has
no bar; and to get his penny 'orth'' o
play the Whitechapel barbarian is KEEP
Tor at least two hours away from pup
lie house. Drink is the real attraction O.
all the others.
The wise lawmakers of London will
not permit any dramatic representation
at any place where liquor is sold. Some
thing which would appeal to the intellect
might lessen the demand for drink. 81
they make ii easy to debauch the masses
with a combination of senSationalism
sensualism and drink; and from the low.
est free smoking concert TO such music.
hall palaces as the London Pavilion, Al.
hambra, Tivoli, Royal, oxford and Tro.
cadero, not one in one hundred could ex.
ist a fortnight on the merit of its per.
fOrmance alone.
The vast and debasing system has
grown without let or hindrauce of the
law, or effort at redemption by religion
lists, out OF the ancient British custom
for which right the British classes anc
masses would any time have fought Par.
lament and King, of singing and roaring
when at drink. BY and by it became the
custom OF putting those of their conpan
ions with the best voices upon their feet
and, willy nilly, making them sing OF
recite. Then came ''volunteerinr'' a
these assemblages. Publicans saw theil
advantage and gradually enlarged then
premises, building a large dais or plat.
form to accommodate ambitious spirits
In time added piano and accompanies
and beyy of barmaids and female beer.
servers TO ogle and wheedle amonp the
crowds, aud another British institution,
was established among the people who
never, never will be slaves.
To-day, just as a hundred or more vear.
ago, you cannot pass the distance OF fifty
yards in certain localities of all LARGE
English cities without hearing a pande.
monium of song behind some door which
bears the legend,
Free Smoking Concert Within.r
On Saturday afternoons and evening.
every one of these places is thronged Il
suffocation with worklngmen.. With thei
fen to fifteen bob" (shillings) in theii
wallet. empty dinner pals in hand, hal
of them unwashed of the CRIME of homes
labor by scores of thousands, they stream