Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-07

To do night in London you must hurry
from your dinner table, take a cab and
drive straight to music hall. There, in
something which is very like a theater, ex-
cept that it has much mere stardng room,
you will see young men standing at a bar
and drinking whisky, while young ladies
stand beside them and drink port-or whis-
ky. he late agitation over what was call
ed the empire lounge has caused n seri-
Gus tonnS down of the promiscuous prom
eEor life. which must always be the real
spring of the cafe spectacle music hall
throughout the world when it has once
found a footing; but to deny that there ex-
lists today and must, a gay and pleasing
side attraction to the London music halls
would he to cut too large a slice from night
in London.
There they walk or stand and listen to
the same old tunes and see the same old
acts. and never answer back if they are
hustled Or insuted by young men or old
men, taking it all neekly. and they have
paid their admission like the others. 1t
would he an instructive sight for a damsel
of the Moulin Rouge or butterfly of the
FOlies-EerGere. But it is very typical of
London ways. II is not at all keeping tho
outside of the platter clean. That Is not
the idea. The idea is, You must not both
er us'-''us' meaning ladies who have Sc
cured well-to-do husbands. girls lucky
enough to be born comfortably off, maiden
ladies who do good these forces of society
want what is best, and what they want
they get and what they get they change
and model 10 tit their own wishes. The
music halls are good; they want them take
them, purify them. They do rot want the
streets, and the streets are free. They
do not want the bars. and SO the bars are
Sull of drunken people. The idea that The
girls who made the music halls-the crea-
lures of the promenoirs-haVe any vested
rights would not affect them even could
they grasp it. The respectable ladies OF
London wish to come to the music halls,
gs1-If n No n f
nude giants, and expose their own advan-
tages IN evening dress. They have almost
ACCOMPLISHED their desire in keeping down
the other element of feminrity The la
dies of the proIneuoir 90 housing tindiy
around. and. whom invited. stand at bars
and drink Yes, they may drink. Drink is
the ranacea for all Ills in London.
The Show is Subordinate.
Imagine, then, this theater-liEe hall with
a large standing space In corners there
are drinking bars, with neat bar-maids,
who are good servants, simply tending
to their work. In alcoyes there are
lcrnses. chairs and little tables, where men
sit together men sit with women, drink
irg talking ir low undertones paving
little heed to what goes on upon the stage.
For many the lounges of these music halls
form kinds of Clubs where they go nightly
seeking color, light, noise, motion, to es-
cape the overwhelming of the higher-class
salcouS the stencil and rows of lower-class
saloons the darkness of the streets, the
dulncss of real clubs. The cigales nat
lrdlly haunt them if only for the reason
that they are their natural parlors, giving
Il cir poor. lonely hearts a trihe of for
getfulnoss slarS of gayety, a glimmer
of possession, a. Of some place they may
call their own
Down in the stalls. around the grand
lounge in the proneuIdes, on the third
fiCCr aud in the boxes, rs in the pit and
Eigh-up amphitheater, the universal phrase
Is, row and ever. Il say, isn't it time for
one?' Then they get up, walk over to a
bar and take Il dr'u.l of Scotch cold, which
is a real killer as a steady diet to all but
bold irtoHs. BY force OF always going to
the halls. say several times a week. and
giving mp the theaters r!lsome and con-
strainiUg. they must come to have a good
knowledge Of the principal performers who
are really not so many. By force of what
appears TO be q very vicious system of al
lowing popular performers to show in half
a dozen different halls each night, the
various establishments have snowy pro-
grams, crowded with the best-known
lanes; but after going about however
little the newcomer soon makes the dis
cuVery that he is listening to the same ar
lists each night. The Londoners are used
to this and do not MIND. for half the time
they DO not listen, look or pay attention.
As 1 say. they make clubs of these music
halls, and the chief distractions seem to
be (D when to take another drink. (2) how
to stand most knowingly around the bar
In evening dress, 90 how 10 have the great
est possible number of tspcakirE) acquaint-
ances among the dalnsels Of the prone