The herald., 1893-06-05
LIFE IN OLD LONDON.
LIVELY SCENES ALONG THE HAY
MARKET FORTY YEARS AGO.

| A Respectable Street of To-day That Oncs
Glistened with Gorgeous Palaces where
Wealth and Beauty Passed Night After
Night In Dancing.
The Haymarlzet of the present seems
to me thoroughly respectable, we1l-be,
haved and prosperous business thorough
fare. And In the daytime, If / take q
walk down the we'll remembered street,
/ am never tired Of adniring the hand
so1neness 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 daysl From ii
D. m. to and a. N. all the year round.
and Sundays scarcely excepted, the Hay,
market was wild scene of howlihp.l
yelling, shrieing revelry and .deviltry.l
somewhere on the site of the present
Criterion restaurant there was succur-
sal to the Haymarket, socially speaking.
in horrible hahnt of dissipation called
'sThe Piccadilly Saloon" where rowtlv
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 adulterntcd,
but it was impossible to prevent disorder
in place the very foundations of which
were laid in defiance Of all order, and
the consequence was that the PiccadillX
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..na
Bob Somebody's, in the Haymarket it.,
self was another resort Of night BIRDS
quite as dissipated as ''The Pic, but not
half SO noisy, the proprietor being,
apart from the equivocal nature Of his
business, 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.
It was in Panton street, however
Panton street, now so thoroughly unin-
peachable from moral point of view
that the night 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 cigarSawere vile
and the company was mixed-that Is TO
say, noblerhen and guardsrnen 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.
The night thouses were not altogether
indiscriminately 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 we'll dressed, and that he
should not be either in an uproarious or
a helpless condition of intoxication.
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 Hay1narket
De- e{v.r r4ot q
thing definite as to the character of the
festivities common there = festivities
which the respectable shopkeepers of the
neighborhood had come to regard as
ecandal and nuisance.
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 revelers would be enjoying them
selves with delightful hilarity, say at $3.50
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" Admit
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 tho counter. Then. with solemA
march and stern mien, an inspector of
police, accompanied by d sergeant, made
his appearance, to find only large mum
Der of well dressed gentlemen chatting
and smoking, and an equally largenum-
Der of ladies', attired In the highest style
CO fashion, and smiling around with an
expression of innocence quite enchant-
ing to behold.
The inspector produced O notebook
from his pocket and wrote something
down. Whether it was the name of the
house OF the titles of some of the noble
lords present, or a verse of the latest
comic song, or the Slavonic alphabet, il
did not matter much, the whole pro-
4