Evening star., 1899-04-12

division. and they will not forgive the gov
ernment for withdrawing the measure. In
recent letter 1 drew attention to the
power railway directors had in parliament.
This is another evidence of 1t.
American Competition.
Much Comment is going the rounds of the
British press over the constant orders for
machinery and iron constructions that go
to the United States. The people in the
great industrial centers are most concerned.
Here is what a Leeds paper, the Yorkshire
Post, has to say about the orders for en-
gines for the Midland and the Great North
ern railways and for the Soudan railway
bridge:
English companies and government off,
Gals are naturally the last to send orders
out of the country, and would only do SO
under the strictest necessity. The English
engineering firms were left by the six
months strike of 1897 with such an accum-
ulation of old contracts that they could not
undertake to execute new orders within
any reasonable period If diversions Of
business distinctly British, such this,
were likely to be only momentary and iso-
lated loss there would be no great reason
for anxiety, but 1T is impossible to take that
view of the matter.
American engineers are our most power
ful competitors. Accident may give them an
Introduction, but merit may secure for them
Il permanent toothOld. Their energy, keen
ness ard neutrality-suspicious. in which
the workmen are as conspicuous as the
master-are formidable factors. If we are
to successfully resist the encroachment
there will have to be diffused among our
echanics d very different spirit from that
which ruled during the strike and prior to
1.-THE spirit which treated employer of
alert and progressive ideas an enemy of
labor and which Scoffed at foreign compe-
tftion a 'bogey' invented to ntimidate
the employees. In the United States the en-
gineering artisan enters into the rivalry
with foreign competitors with personal zest
and makes it a matter of individual pride
to lick the Britisher.'
These from Leeds and Glasgow are among
the direct fruits of the fundamental differ
ence between the two nationalities.
Many papers take up the text and lee
ture both the employer and e.nploye, the
former upon his unbending rigidity in re-
fusing to adapt himself to new needs and
conditions and the latter upon holding up
progress by strikes.
Sunday Papers in London.
London is fast getting into condition to
rival American cities in Journalism, and
now we are threatened with Sunday papers.
The transition is sudden. Religious people
are shocked, and those who demand rest on
Sunday are disgusted. The Telegraph was
the first paper to break the new ground,
and the Mail, not to be behindhand, pro-
poses to bring out a Sunday edition on the
same day that the Telegraph makes its ap-
pearance and darkly hints at April being
the day.
1t is a favorite tradition that London has
no Sunday papers. As a matter of fact.
there are eleven now published, and the two
new ones will make the number thirteen, at
which it will not long remain. Probably
the Chronicle will be the next daily to enter
the Sunday field. Its proprietors already
publish Lloyd's News, a Sunday paper, but
this is not weekday paper as well. At
present London's eleven Sunday papers
publish that day alone except for edi
tions got out on Saturday for the provinces.
Some of them have large circulation.
Lloyds News claims 100000
Years ago l remember the feelings eX
pressed when the New York Herald pub
lished seven days week. The pulpits were
loud, and now the protestors are doing the
same. But that was ten years ago, and lots
of things change in ten years.
Destroying Old Landmarks.
Improvements in Whitehall and it's vicin-
ity are playing havoc with the famous old
inns of Westminster. In King street the
Blue Boar Inn, in the yard of which once
stood the house occupied by Cromwell, be-
fore he assumed the protectorship, is un-
der sentence of demolition to complete the
clearance of the site for the new govern
ment offices. Across the way, in what
until recently was Parliament street, the
'Olde Red Lion a favorite resort of Dick
ems, is rapidly disappearing to make room
for a modern establishment. On the other
side of Westminster Abbey, in Castle lane,
the housebreakers are at work upon the
Stag Inn, hostelry which is known to
fame as of the reputed hauntS of Dick
Turpin and other picturesque criminals of
the last century. These changes snap about
the last link which remains to connect the
Westminster of today with the festive and
diSSolute Westminster of Olden times. At
one time clustering under the shadow of
the venerable abbey and at the very door
of the Palace OF Westminster were scores
of houses, some of them reputable taverns,
the resort of parliament men and law
yers and suitors at the courts OF justice,
but the majority dens of infamy of the
worst type.
SO serious was the evil created by the
multiplication of this latter type that dur
ing Elizabeth's time an order issued
limiting the number of ale houses in the
parish to sixty. This regulation seems to
have effected little permanent good, for
publication issued some years after the
Queens decease states that almost every
fourth house is an ale house, harboring all
sorts of Iewde and badde people, James
moved by this state of affairs gave per
mission to his groom porter, Clement Cot
trell, to license within the limits of London
and Westminster. the suburbs and the viii
lagos within two miles thereof, forty tav-
erns or ordinaries for the honest and rea
SOnable recreation of good and honest peo
pie, who might use the games of bowl
ing, tennis. dice and cards" &c. The limi
tation imposed, however, only operated for
a Ufne, ana tn6Fc Is evidence tnat at the
beginning of the eighteenth century the
number of licensed houses was enormous.
At this period several famous political
coteries had their meeting place in one or
other of the Westminster inns. Thus the
high church tory organization. known as
the October Club-so called because it's
members quaffed good October ale-met at
Bell Tavern, in King street. and its lineal
descendant. the March Club, also had its
trySting piace-fOr a time at least-in a
tavern in the same thoroughfare. In fact,
King street. the last vestiges of which are
now disappearing, despite its shortness and
narrowness. was in the days of Walpole
and Pitt what Pail Mall is at the present
day.
Sir Henry irving IS once more in pos
session of the Lyceum Theater, busy in his
preparations for the forthcoming perform
ance of NJ. Sardous "Robespierre." This
Seems likely to be a notable production
Irving is bestowing infinite pains upon all
the details of the piece, and the public may
look for more complete and accurate pic
ture of the great revolutionary period than
has ever been presented on the London
boards. As far as the play itself is con-
cerned, it Is certain to win the suffrages
of exacting playgoers, from whose ranks
Sir Henry Irving derives his greatest sup
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