The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1897-08-04
PLEASURE IN LONDON
sARL'S COURT is THE SUCCESSOR OF
VAUxHALL GARDENS.

]
Its Various Expeditions. Credited to DIFF
f'rent Countries, Are Only Pretenses
The Great Thing, tho Only Thing. Is
the Place itself
Mrs Elizabeth Robins Pennell con.
tributes to Tho Century nh article ON
Play In London" After speaking of
! Nauxhall Gardens and Cremorne Mrs.
Pennell says:
Everybody knows what the old gar.
den was liko-Thaekeray has seen to
that-with the hundred thousand lamps
always lighted, tho flddlers who made
ravishing melodies. tho singers, the
dancers, the Mime. Snquis on the slack
rope ascending TO tho stars tho hermit
in tho illuminated hermitage, tho dark
walks SO favorable to lovers the pots of
stout. the dinners and suppers--in
word, tho sort of combination of cafe,
music hall. restaurant and Fourth of
July that nowhere else has been brought
to such perfoction that to Sir Roger
had seemed long before Thnckcray's
day IA kind of Mohammedan paradise "
But what everybody docs not know so
we'll is that London still has its garden,
called by another name, to be sure ig
nored by Murray and Baedokor and offer
ing another programme Mime. Saquis
and hermits gone from it apparently
forevermore, but precisely the same In
principle and practice.
NauXhnll has vanished; Crrmorne
sends up no moro rockets skyward to
fill the night with beauty; tho Crystal
palace is only for the suburb and the
country cousin. but every summer
Earl court has its oxhibition-nn OK
hihition only by courtesy, only out of
Difference to tho present fashion of gath
oring our knowledge or pretending to
while we play. Ono year II was called
Italian, and thoro were macaroni and
ohianti in tho restaurants, and nice
new pnstobonrd forum. Another year
IL WIS German, and tho mir WIS heavy
with tho fragrance of schnitzel and
wurst. Then 1t was American, for
change, and cowboys and red Indians
staggered across tho scene, and soda
water and maple sugar figured ON the
menu. Now it happens to be Indian,
with fine oriental flavor, but by the
time this is published il will be some
thing else and IL really matters very
little. Tho exhibition, attributed to any
nation, would be as gay. Nobody cares
save. perhaps, few tradesmen aud
mummers, who smell tho commercial
battle from affair 1t is an open secret
| that tho somblanco of IL show IL there
merely to court avoidance. Tho years
in passing hayo turned it into big
bazaar, but not oven in this guise can il
prove the chief attraction.
No. tho great thing, tho only thing,
that counts is tho garden, where one
may walk under pleasant trees; where
ono may apo the continental and drink
tea or coffee at little tables-hut most.
ly tea, III capaoious pots--to tho accom-
panimont nf thick slabs nf onLa. where
one may DO still moro I'M English and
eat ono'a dinner outdoors--not like a
wild beast in n cage, M in the old
"box' Mt Vauxhall. but IN company,
on IA low, broad voranda, where there
arc sido shows more diyorting than
Popys ever dreamed of; where ono may
loaf away tho summer evening, listen
ing to music which is at least M good
as the honest Briton likes il. For the
truth is tho garden furnishes just that
form Of amusement which Mr.. Henry
james has lamentod was not to DO
found in London, and so long M IL Is
open ono need not, M no thought, give
up tho idea of going to sit somewhere in
tho open air, to eat an leo and listen 10
a band of music. " Only tho amusement
must DO shared with so big crowd
that ono will have to scramble for a
chair, engage II dinner table full ~
hours beforehand, and struggle to get
homo by underground or bus MS furi-
ously AZ the mob fights to push into the
pit of u popular theater.
To provide tho Englishman with a
crowd. to give him the chance to use
his elbows, is to convince him that no
den's questionable features, its jewellers,
its Jockeys and courtesans and GAM
blors-where arc they? Where are tho
SHOWS Of yesteryoar? All Como with
other Times and other morals The
world of Earl's court and Konsington
has taken tho exhibition under its pro-
lection, and there sits III stately SPLEEN
dor magnificent example Of respccta-
bility. within an inclosuro humorously
called tho Welcome club, because adj
mission il refused to all but tho elect
| Where the west end condesoends to
spend It's afternoons and evenings there
surely every ono may venture III safety
by night as by day Indeed there Is Il
strong domestic element about the ex-
hibition. 1t is place for the family, a
playground for the deeorous
NO DANGER OF CIVIL WAR.