The Portland daily press., 1893-05-19


Night In Dancing.
The Haymarket of the present seems
to me thoroughly respectable, well be-
haved and prosperous business thorough!
fare. And in the daytime, if I take al
walk down the well remembered street,;
I am never tired of admiring the hand,
Eomeness of the buildings and the dis,
play of articles of all kinds in the spa;
cious and well appointed shops. But,
the Haymarket Of other days! From III
p. m. to and a. m. all the year round,
and Sundays scarcely excepted, the Hay
market was wild scene of bowling,
yelling, shrieking revelry and deviltry.i
Somewhere on the site of the present.
Criterion restaurant there was a succur-
sal to the Haymarlzet, socially speaking,
in a horrible haunt of dissipation called
"The Piccadilly Saloon" where rowdy
people Of both sexes danced, drank
smoked and fought to their own content
and to the delight, should say, Of the.
devil who was watching them from the
gallery above. {
The place was rather handsomely dec
GRATED, nor were the liquors adulterated,
but it was impossible toprevent disorder
in place the very foundations of which
were laid in defiance of all order, and
the consequence was that the Piccadillyi
saloon became convertible term for
permanent row and riot, the results of
which went occasionally far beyond the
punching Of heads and the backing Of
eyes. More than one Of the fatal duels
which began to shock society at the be-.
ginning Of her majesty's reign were the
direct outcome Of row at "The Pic"
Bob Somebody's, in the Haymaxket it,
self, was another resort of night BIRDS,
quite as dissipated as s'The Pic" but not
half SO noisy, the proprietor being,
apart from the equivocal nature Of his
business, a really worthy fellow, who
exercised some kind of selection and
control with respect to the guests, male
or female, whom he admitted to his es-
tablishment.
1t was in Panton street, however,
Panton, street, now so thoroughly unim-I
peachable from a moral point of view
that thenight houses did most thickly
congregate. They might be covered in
horse racing phrase by pocket hand
kerchief. SO closely did they pollulate to-,
gether. The champagne was bad, the
spirits were worse, the cigars were vile
and the company was 1nixed-that is to
say, noblemen and guardsmen rubbed
shoulders with rackety clerks and busi-
ness men and young men from the coun-
try burning to gain an insight into Lon
don street life. The ladies were splen-
didly dressed, and until they had taken
too much of the bad champagne they
usually behaved themselves. i,
The night houses were not altogether
Unfortunately opened to the public.
You had to knock for admission, and be-
fore ingress was conceded to you Judas
wicket or trap was opened in the portal,
and you were scrutinized by janitor
inside-the normal qualifications which,
in his eyes entitled candidate to be in
Quoted into the gay scene being that he
should be well dressed, and that he
should not be either in an uproarious or
a helpless condition of intexication.
These night houses had been in existence
for some years, with the full cognizance
of the police, but without suffering any
interference from the, authorities, when
public opinion having begun, through
the agency Of the press, to wake up in
the matter, steps were taken to overhaul
the licensed houses Of the Haymarket
and Panton street and ascertain, some-
thing definite as to the character of the
festivities common there - festivities
which the respectable shopkeepers Of the
neighborhood had come to regard as a
scandal and anuisance.
A system was introduced of paying
police visits at irregular intervals during
the night to the more notorious places
of nightly resort. The lady and gentle
men jewellers would be enjoying them
selves with delightful hilarity, say at $50
in the morning, when a knock Of author
ity would be heard at the outer portal
and the janitor would enter the room
with well affected CONSERVATION and in,
form the beauteous "dame de compton,
that the "bobbies was come" '.Admiti
them at once" was the stereotyped an
swer OF the lovely and for the nonce law
abiding female.
The janitor took minute or so to open
the heavy door, and meanwhile the wait
ers, who were in the joke, carefully re-
moved every lady and gentleman's glass:
of champagne or tumbler of erated wa
ter with something in it, and concealed
these Bacchanalian ''piece de Conviction
behind the counter. Then, with solemn
march and stern mien, an inspector of!
police, accompanied by a sergeant, made
his appearance, to find only large num-
Der of well dressed gentlemen chatting
and smoking, and an equally large num-
Der of ladies, attired in the highest style!
of fashion, and smiling around with an,
expression Of innocence quite enchant-'
ing to behold.
The inspector produced notebook,
from his pocket and wrote something
down. Whether it was the name Of the
house or the titles of some of the noble
lords present, or verse of the latest
comic song, or the Slavenic alphabet, it.