The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-01-11

acterlStlCally derllihn conccft ShloohH nav
disappeared from New York, beer garden
and concert saloons of a somewhat differ
ent type are still found in many parts o
the city. Before beer gardens became
plentiful there were many modest sing
songs where each guest helped furnish thu
entertainment, and any stranger who tool
his drink in the back room might be callec
upon TO sing or 90 recite. The primitiy,
form OF music hall variety entertainment
has been swept away, and there are only
few survivals Of IL, 10 be encountered
chiefly along the west river front. Here
the patrons are Englishlnen and Scotch
men from the ocean liners
Another form Of entertainment seems
also TO have become extinct-the public de-
bate, where, in place of songs and recita-
tions, the discussion Of public questions
furnished the food Of the evening. The
whole went on TO the accompaniment OF
pipes and beer. The saloon in Houston
street, still called the House of Lords,
probably owes It's name TO the fact of its
having been the meeting place of debaters,
Snd il is not long since such debating
society met in Cooper Union. 1t is a little
singular that a form Of entertainment so
popular in other parts Of the English
speaking world should have been suffered
to decline in this city.
The public debate still has much popu.
larity in London. It's popularity is owing
doubtless To the interest of all sorts of
Englishmen in the house of commons de-
bates and the fact that parliament meets
in the town. Fleet street has several popu-
lar debates among them the Forum, and,
still more celebrated Coger's hall. This
last is in court leading 20 Fleet street.
The ordinary type Of public house has in
this case "a long, low room behind the bar
room. Here are long deal tables. Clay
pipes are supplied free, and the company
buys drink and tobacco. The speaker,
who once looked remarkably like Lord
Salisbury, and, according to Tumor, was
schoOlmate OF the premier's, takes the
chair at 9 O'Clock and opens the debate
The debate goes on every night and has
gone thus in the same place for nearly 200
years The speaking is sometimes excel
lent. An Englishman now living in New
York recalls having dropped into Coger's
hall on the night that Gambettas death
was announced and heard cabman from
the street describe in most interesting
fashion a visit that he once paid to Gam
BETA along with others deputed bya labor
union to go over and interview him. All
sorts of men take part in the Cogcr's hall
debates, including bohemian newspaper
men, an occasional Irish NJ. p. and politi-
cal exiles from all parts of Europe. 1t
came out in the course of the inquiry
made by the Parnell commission that No.
l, the head center of the Irish physical
force party, was occasionally debater
there.
There are 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
Tydyil, from York and Ballyhack. The
Manhattan Single Tax club of this city
was for time organized as parliament,
and its governing committee could at any
time be ousted from Office by vote Of want
OF confidence. some men make for them
selves local regulations as debaters through |
their activity in such debates, but reputa-
ton of this kind does not lead to the real |
parliament, since the house Of commons Is |
more and more inpatient of discussion |
and less and less respectful toward the Gift |
Of eloquence. All the English public |
schools have debating societies, and tho |
Union at Oxford is famous as having been |
tho scene Of youthful efforts by many |
men VINO afterward became distinguished !
10 public life. Gladstone won his first !
triumphs in the Union as Tory.
English colleges and universities do not |
have tho intercollegiate debates that cut |
80 important figure in tho western col |
Ieges OF the United States. The Greek let |
Ter fraternities of our colleges are, as a |
rule merely social organizations, but |
lew OF them are also literary societies, and |
iebate Is one OF their exercises. That New |
I ork cares less for public speaking than |
other parts of the country is proved by the |
rarity of public meetings for !
'peechmaking. New York has nothing |
hat corresponds to the sort Of open court |
sunday afternoon on Boston Common. |
Here any properly licensed person may set |
Town his little portable platform and ease |
ais mind on whatever subject interests |
lim. Every ism under heaven is discussed |
~ these orators, and there are sometimes |
dozen knots of listeners TO as many diff |
erent speakers.
The few open air speakers in New York, |
ave ut election time, usually discuss re- |
lgion or preach temperance. Tho Boston |
common orators are usually men of one |
dea. Once the listener has made the |
ound OF the various knots the Sunday aft |
irnoUn performance has nothing new for |
hin. These performances come nearer
han anything else in America to the GO
ngs on in Hyde park on Sundays, when
crowds gather to hear from cockney orators
foundations of real or fancied abuses.
nomentous announcements, tho retailed
opinions OF Erbert Spencer, the latest
whisper from the retirement Of Hold
the proper remedy for the
wrongs Of "Harmenia.
Radical circles in this city go I'm some
what for popular oratory, just as artistic
circles recently went in for studio dancing.
The house Of perhaps the most distin.
yuished radical thinker In the city has on
several occasions been the scene of gather
ngs to be addressed by refornors Of one
Kind or another. Some Of the most nota-
Die utterances given forth in New York of
ate years have been embodied i'm after
dinner speeches, or, as in ut least one CON
'picuous instance, in letters of regret.
Two or three talking and dining clubs
continue under new form the debating
idea, and the women, fashion.
able and otherwise, have taken up va
'iety Of instructive entertainments that
Involve the discussion Of one subject or
another by supposed experts.-New York
sun.