Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-11-24
THE PEOPLES PALACE,


Ine Remarkable London Institution Which
Was Suggested by . Novel.
All the good people who are interest
ed in modern forms Of philanthropy and
the progress of the universal brother
hood idea point to the Peoples palace
IN London as the great work accom-
Plished through nineteenth century re-
form 1t is situated on the Mile End
road in London. The people of the
neighborhood bore a striking resem-
biance to the mass of working people
everywhere. They were not vile and
degraded. but their lives were hopeless
1y dull, without mental or spiritual in
terests. excitements and pleasures.
Walter Besant looked upon this
state of the working people
where restitution of all human
enjoyments exists together with
some degree of prosperity. He
thought the matter over and wrote a
novel. This book, ''All Sorts and Con-
ditions of Men," advanced the idea of a
peoples palace of innocent amusement
and social recreation for the poor. The
tale made a deep and lasting impress
sion, and the peoples palace of Lon
don is the result of it. 1t is called the
RASoS~ot atLCAuPt CNCE III IhB AoAo
to elevate the taste, promote the
amusement and raise the social, scien-
tific and aesthetic tastes of the work
ing people. At present the palace is
in full swing. Nearly three thousand
students work daily in the schools and
lecture rooms. Great concerts are
given, sometimes as many as four thou
sand men and women of the so-called
lower orders listening to a high order
of music. There are swimming baths
for men and boys, gymnasium. skat-
ing rink, magnificent winter garden
of tropical plants, library and read
ing-room.
They have all sorts of good times
there-the Mile End road people. Not
only do the men and women develop
their muscles and expand their chests
with the apparatus provided for those
purposes: not only do lecturers. classes.
laboratories and all sorts of compli-
Gated mental machinery do as much
for the minds as the gymnastic appli-
ances for the bodies, but amusement,
pure and simple. fourishes also Amuse-
ment that has no hidden improvement
in it-sugar that does not coat a pill.
of course, the improving amusements
are many. Music delights the Mile
End ear and elevates the Mile End mu-
Steal taste. High art pleases the Mile
End ear and cultivates the artistic ma
ture of the Mile Ender. But there are
amusements beneath whose smiling ex-
terror no lesson is hidden.
There are balls. A ball in the peo-
Piles palace is a thing to remember 1t
doesn't differ SO very much from balls
elsewhere, except that the floor is bet
ter, the ballroom larger and lighter
and the music more inspiring The
young men do not all wear dress suits.
Indeed, dress suits are SO few that the
unhappy wearer of one is apt to feel
himself rather too conspicuous. The
young women's gowns are not all
decollete, but they futter with ribbon
and gauze in the approved style of
other bathrooms. The black-cOated
SWANS fill up their programmes of
dances with the same easy air that pre-
walls elsewhere. They circle about
with no more humping and no more
collisions than other dancers. And
their supper is good, substantial one
of sandwiches, pastry puffs, lemonade,
tea, coffee and ices. Mild fiirtations
are INDUCED in at peoples palace
ball, and are reported to be as whole
some an educational influence as lee
lures and gymnasium appliances.-N.
y. World.