The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-24
MOCK PARLIAMENTS.
PUBLIC RESORTS WHERE FORMAL DE-
BATES ARE CARRIED ON.

An Old Custom That Still Obtains In Eng
In Public Houses-Not Praoticed Much
In This Country.
Although some of tho small and char
acteristically German concert saloons have
disappeared from New York, beer gardens
ana concert saloons Of a somewhat differ
emu typo are still found in many parts of
the CITY. Before beer gardens became
pientiful there were many modest sing
songs where cach guest helped furnish the
entertainment, and any stranger who took
MS drink In tho back room might be called
upon to sing or to reoite. The primitive
form OF music hall variety entertainments
mas been swept away, and there are only
lew survivals of 1t, to be encountered
chiefly along the west rivor front. Here
tho patrons arc Englishnen and Scotch
men from tho ocean liners.
Another form Of entertainments seems
also to have become extinct-the public do
bate, where, In place Of songs and reoitn-
lions, tho discussion Of public questions
furnished tho food of the evening. The
whole went on to the accompaniment of
| pipes and beer The saloon in Houston
street, still called tho House of Lords
probably owes its name to tho fact of it's
having been tho meeting place of dobaters
and 1t Is not long since such q debating
society met in Cooper Union. 1t is little
singular that n form of entertainment so
popular In other parts of tho English
speaking world should have been suffered
to decline in this city.
The public debate still has much popu-
larity i'll London. Its popularity Is owing
doubtless to tho interest of all sorts of
Englishmen in tho house Of commons de-
bates and tho fact that parliament meets
In the town. Fleet street has several popu-
lar debates, among them the Forum, and
still moro celebrated, Coger's hall This
last is In court leading to Fleet street
The ordinary typo of public house has in
this case long, low room behind tho bar
room. Horo are long deal tables. Clay
pipes are supplied free, and tho company
buys drink and tobacco. The speaker,
who once looked remarkably like Lord
Salisbury, and, according to rumor was q
schoolmato of tho premier's, takes the
chair ut O'Clock and opens tho debate
Iho dobato goes on every night and has
gone thus In tho samo place for nearly 200
years. Tho speaking is sometimes excel
lent. An Englishnan now living In New
York recalls having dropped into Coger's
nail on tho night that Gambetta's death
was announced and heard oabman from
4
fashion visit that ho onco paid to Gam
BETA along with Others dcputed by "a labor
union to go over and interview him. All
sorts of mon take part in the Coger's hall
debates, including bohemian newspaper
men, an occasional Irish NJ. =. and politi-
cal exiles from all parts of Europe. 1t
camo out in tho course of the inquiry
made by the Parnell commission that No
l. the head center of tho Irish physical
force party, was occasionally a debatcr
there
There arc in various parts of England,
notably in the suburbs of London, local
parliaments modelled on that which sits at
Westminster. These debating associations
have ministry and opposition, the treasury
bench and the woolsack and honorable
members from Glasgow, from Merthyr
Tydvil, from York and Ballyhack. Tho
Manhattan Single Tax club of this city
was for time organized rs u parliament,
and its governing committee could at any
time be ousted from Office by n vote of want
OF confidence. Some men make for them
selves local regulations rs debaters through
their activity in such debates, but reputa-
ton of this kind docs not lead to the real
parliament, since tho house of commons is
more and moro inpatient of discussion
and less and less respectful toward tho gift
schools have debating societies, and tho
Union ut Oxford is famous as having been
tho sceno of youthful efforts by many
men who aftcrward became distinguished
in public life Gladstone won his first
triumphs in tho Union as Tory
English colleges and universities do not
have tho Intercollegiate debates that cut
so important n figure in tho western col
legos of the United States. Tho Greek let
ter fratcrnitics of our colleges arc, rs
rule, merely social organizations, but q
few of them arc also literary societies, and
debate is ono of their exercises. That New
York cares less for public speaking than
other parts of the country is proved by the
comparative rarity of public meetings for
spoechmaking. New York has nothing
that corresponds to the sort of open court
Sunday afternoon on Boston Common.
Here any properly licensed person may set
down his little portable platform and ease
his mind on whatever subject interests
him. Every ism under heaven Is discussed
by these orators, and there are sometimes
dozen knots of listeners to as many diff
ferent speakers.
Tho few open Dir Speakers in New York.
save mt election time, usually discuss re-
ligion or preach temperance. The Boston
Common orators are usually men of one
idea. Once the listener has made tho
round of tho various knots the Sunday oft
ernoon performance has nothing new for
him. These performances come nearer
than anything else in America to tho 10.
ings on in Hyde park on Sundays, when
crowds gather to hear from cockney orators
denunciations of real or fancied abuses,
momentous announcements, the retailed
opinions of " 'Erbert Spencer" the latest
whisper from tho retirement Of Hold
Gladstone" the proper remedy for the
wrongs of "Harmenia
Radical circles In this city on In eor,a