The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-11


with chintz drawing rooms and neat tea
tables; a land over which hangs an end
less fog, occasioned by much tobacco; a
land of chambers, billiard room, supper
rooms, oysters; a land of song; a land
where soda water flows freely in the morn.
ing; a land of tin dish covers from
taverns, and frothing porter; land OF
lotus-eating with lots of pepper "a
land where men call each other by their
Christian names where many are poor,
where almost all are young, and where if
few oldsters do enter, it is because they
have preserved more carefully and ten
Derby than other folk their youthful
spirits, and the delightful capacity to be
idle"
This was 1.-THE joyous neighborhood OF
Covent Garden" London, as Thackeray
knew it and wrote Of it in his time.
1t is a pleasant land to-day, somewhat
fenced roundabout with mighty pillars
and Doric entablatures; rather stately
from venerable footmen; when the din of
the market and its clamorous costermon-
gers is hushed, it is now often startled
from its drowsiness by the rolling of
princely carriages; a land still mist-hung
with the wreaJhs of much tobacco smoke ;
still a land of cham bers, billiard rooms,
supper rooms, oysters, y OF "reminiscences,
of tale and of song; land now Of ancient
silver covers from ancient taverns. but
still land of humble ale and frothing
porter; a land where men still call ach
other by their Christian names; where
few are poor, where almost all are old,
and where if a few youngsters do enter,
it is reverentially and because they have
learned TO love the olden spot for what 1t
gave to Pepys and Evelyn, to Dryden,
Addison and Steele, to Thackeray and to
Dickens and all that noble and inspired
host who gave the world the best and
mellowest literature in our tongne, since
the time of royal Anne.
But the Covent Garden region now is
chiefly land of olden inns; of inns in
which the fireplaces are huge, ca vernOus
and get-at-able; the chambers warm and
coy; the halls lowceilinged but broad
and full of fine old settles and sofas;
whose smoking rooms are snug and warm
and cheerful with papers and books;
whose pictures are yellow, old and dim
and hang in great broad, odd frames,
showing they were where they are long
before the century came in, whose
dining rooms are ample and quiet
and richly Drowned with com
Portable age; whose ports clarets,
and sherries have the cobwebs of the
food is wholesome, fine and good whose
servants are friendly and 'talky" when
you wish TO get down from your own
pedestal of reserve or austerity for
little humaniZlng patter; and even whose
misses in the Office and bar and whose
rosy faced chambermaids are not averse
on occasion to bit of innocent banter,
which after all anybody but prude, a
hermit or hypocrite at times truly en-
Joys.
One of the Oldest and stateliest Of these
ancient inns, built many years ago by the
famous lingo Jones, is the Slavis tork. 1t
preserved in its polished mahoganies, its
curious old plate, its heavy cut glass de-
canters and glasses the mellow heritage
of Renaissance of the days of the three
bottle men of England. There is a port
wine flavor, an aroma Of juicy launches.
a suggestion of olden cheer, a hushed and
restful amplitude, from its brown old
breakfast rooms, its wide paneled din
ing room, its snug little supper rooms,
where Prince George used TO meet the
wits of the town, through all its spacious,
shining, lowceilinged halls, its curious
and intricate passages, past its large and
restful chambers. to its very top-most
dormitores, from which the Surrey hills
can be seen, and where the late ST.
Michael Cass always preferred to lodge;
for the windows open upon the leads of a
roof most convenient for a stroll and
smoke, a roof which is still as sturdy and
strong as when LAID aud loaded in Charles
the Seconds reign.
Here came of old and still come the Sir
Rogers de Coverly of countryside Eng
land. Here the great tragedians of both
continents aired their fine manners before
adoring and convivial friends Here it
was that Boxing night festivities were
kept up for generations with such olden
fun and frolic as must have made the very
bones of the ancient burial place of the
Abbots of Westminster, below the cellars,
rattle and Clatter in protest at the
sacrilege. Diplomats have here held
secret meetings of import to half a dozen
European powers. All the Arctic and
African explorers are found registered
upon his books. Crews of the universe
ties, the great ironmasters, mill-owners
and architects. the scientists, the ma
turalists and the archRologists for more
than a century have gathered beneath its
hospitable roof
Provosts, baillies. prelates, mayors and
lord mayors, and big men with big schemes
TO put through parliament, are among The
wrait his of its olden guests. Stout squires
and far descended country noblemen came
here TO 90 it a bit in LOndonlowu Lords
of the beach at Westminster adjourned to
the Slavistork for Kissing steaks and mel
low port. AND most OF all came, and still
come, little stately men of mysterious,
silent lives, plethoric of pocket and
meager Of anatomy, garrulous and Groom
ing in their second childhood, loving the
CHEEKY old place and dwelling in it until
death steals in upon them as peacefully as
the moonlight into the chambers; and all,
old or young, titled or unknown, loving
the quaint old hostelry with deeper aud
more passionate attachment for its strange
century old record that no guest has ever
seen the CLINT or heard the rustic of skirts
within its gray and moss grown walls.
In an old lnu so curious and strange
that the flutter and rustic of skirts are
not within it, it was not a matter for con-
lecture OF concern when old Mr. Piper
chirp walked into the office, followed by
a ships steward of Malayan face with an
odor of the East Indian docks about MIN,
laden like a dromedary with oriental
rugs. cages and baskets, and carrying
with great effort a strong oaken box
which suggested at first glance both a
munimenG chest and mummy.
MIR. Pipperchirp held a gaudy Indian
silk handkerchief in one hand, and a
snuff-box in the other He was a prim,
neat looking old gentleman of three score
and tea, or thereabout, with an exceed
ingly red face, an abundance of white
hair seemingly the whittier for the color
Of his countenance, immense grizzled gray
eyebrows, and he was pertly clad in a
black dress coat black waistcoat and
trousers. while wonderful Gladstonian
81. a.