The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-07-06
PLAY IN LONDON.
Earl's Court is the Successor of Vaux-
hall Garden.

udil
Mrs Elizabeth Robins Pennell con.
tributes to the July Century an article on
play in London for which Joseph
Pepnell has made many drawings. After
speaking Of Vauxnall Gardens and Gre
mornc, Mrs. Penne!l says
Every body knows what the old garden
was iike-lhackeray has seen To that
with the hundred thousand lamps always
lighted, the fiddlers who made ravishing
melodies the singers. the dancers, the
Mime. Saquis on the slack rope ascending
to the stars, the hermit in the illuminated
hermitage, the dark walks so favorable TO
lovers the pots OF stout the dinners and
suppers-in word. the sort of combina-
tion Of cafe. musc-hall, restaurant, the
Fourth July that nowhere else has been
brought To such perfection; that To Sir
Roger had seemed, long before Ihaok-
eray's day. "a kind of Mahometan para
disc" But what everybody does not
know so well Is tnat London still has It's
garden, called by another name, TO be
sure, ignored by Murray and Bacdeker,
and offering another program-Mme.
Saquis and hermits gone from IL appar-
emily forevermore-but precisely the
same in principle and practice.
Nauxhall has vanished; Cremorne sends
up no moro rockets skyward TO fill the
night with beauty; the Crystal Palace Is
only for the suburb and the country
has its eAhibition--an exhibition only by
courtesy, only out of Differences To the
present fashion of gathering our knowl-
edge, or pretending To, while we play. One
year IL was called Italian. and there were
macaroni and Chianti In tho restaurants
and u nice new pasteboard Forum. An
other year IL was German, and the air
was heavy with the fragrance of Schnit-
zel and Wurst. Then 1t was American,
for change, and cowboys and Red
Indians staggered across the scene, ana
soda water and maple sugar figured on
the monu. Now IL happens to be Indian,
with n fine Oriental flavor; but by the
time this Is published It, will to something
else and 10 really matters very little. The
exhibition, attributed TO any nation, would
be as gay. Nobody cares. save, perhaps,
fow tradesmen and mummers. who smell
the commercial battle from afar. 1t issan
oIen secret that the sem blance of a show
Is there merely To- court avoidance; the
years. In passing, have turned II into big
bazaar, but not even In this guise can IL
prove tho chief attraction,
No the great thing. the only thing that
counts, is the garden. where one may
walk under pleasant trees. where ono may
ape the continental, ana drink tea or
coffee at little tables-but mostly tea in
capacious pots--to the accompaniment of
thick slabs of cake; where one may be
still more un English, and eat ones din
ner outdoors--not like wild beast in u
cage, ns In the old box" Mt Vauxhall,
but in company, on low. broad vsranda,
where there ure side shows more divert
ng than Pepys ever dreamed of; where
one may loaf away the summer evening
listening To music which Is at least as
good as the honest Briton likes it. For
the truth Is, the garden furnishes just
that form of amusement which Mr.
Henry James has lamonted was not to
be found in London; and SO long as it is
open one need not, as he thought, "give
up tho idea of.going to sit somewhere in
the open air, TO eat an ice. and listen to
the band of music. Only the amuse.
ment must be sbared with so big n crowd
that one will have TO scramble for n
chair, engage dinner table full IL hours
beforehand, and struggle to get homo
by underground or bus rs furiously as the
mob fights to push into the pit of pop
ular theater.
10 provide the EnglIsnman with
crowd, to give him tho chance to use his
elbows is To convince him that he IL en-
toying him self. And the old gardens
questionable features, its rovelers, its
Jockeys and courtesans and gam blers.
whore arc they? Where are the SHOWS OF
yester-yearY All gone. with other times
and other morals The world of Earl's
court and Kensington has taken the ex-
hibition under its projection, and there
sits In stately splendor. a magnificent
example of respectability. within an en-.
closure humorously called the Welcome
Club. because admission refused To all
but the elect. Whore the West End con-
descends TO spend its afternoons and even
ings. thore surely every one may venture
In safety by night rs by day. Indeed.
there Is a strong domestic element about
the exhibition; 10 is n place for the
family, playground for tho acoorous.