The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-07-29

tie easier might always take good care
of themselves. 1t is upon the latter of
these principles that Sir Thomas Upton
has acted, and it is In what he is do
ing along this line that we find his
name linked in such interesting COM
radeship with that Of Queen Alexan-
dra.
Closely adjacent to the headquarters
of "Lipton, Limited" in City Road,
London, in the midst of one Of the pop
ulous working class districts, Is pre-
tentious building of four stories. COW
ering an area of siXty-four hundred
feet, the front being Of Bath stone, the
spacious entrance of polished Aberdeen
granite, and over the portals of this
inviting mansion, cut deeply into the
stone work. Is an inscription which pro-
claims it to be THE Alexandra Trust
Building" Ones first impression
would be that this commanding ediflce
was a public library or the home of
some school of art. But you are soon
undeceived upon that point by the
boards displayed in front, and these, in
the advertising faculty they reveal, in
dictate almost as surely the Upton end
Of the partnership as the indented mot
to over the doors shows that her Ma
jesty the Queen is a partner in this en-
terprise. These sign boards also pro-
claim that the place Is a mammoth res
taurant. They give you in fact, over
and over again, the full bill of fare, the
items of which, no less than the aston
ishingly low prices, further inform you
that it is distinctively a working-class
restaurant; for the staples are meat
pudding and fried fish. two dishes
which seem as indispensable to Eng
lish working class life as water Is to the
good cheer of ducks.
From these noon-tinle bills of fare,
destined to become shortly a table OF
contents for from two to four thousand
people, an Englishman can easily figure
out that for an expenditure Of four and
one-half pence (nine cents) he can get
a good, filling dinner Of three courses
One enters the place In wonderment and
not without fear. What will it be like
inside? Will it resemble the other
cheap restaurants of London malodor-
GUS with the smell Of the inevitable
English rasher and divided into stuffy
little compartments after the manner of
the poorest Of the underground railway
carriages? Such is ones feeling upon
mounting the steps, but you are no
sooner we'll started on your visit of IN
spection than you could imagine, from
the palms which adorn spacious tessel-
ated halls and stairways, from the
marble top tables in the large, we'll
lighted rooms, from the beautiful effect
of white glazed brick walls, from the
tidiness of the Mattresses, from the
neat check rooms on each floor, and
from the utter absence everywhere of
the odor of cooking, that you were back
at the West End, with everything at
the top-notch of both cleanliness and
cost. The work of the chef is all per-
formed on the fourth floor. In the
basement are large lavatores, where
the hungry toiler, male or female, may
pause before eating to get a free
wash up" and for one cent you can
get "shine."
Such, in brief outline, Is the man.
moth clearinghouse CONFORMITY carried on
under board of directors by ueen AL
exandra as the inspiring patron and
i
hacker and philanthropic contriver of
the scheme, and 1t speaks volumes for
the pure diainterestedness of the man
who gave five hundred thousand dollars
to start this enterprise and holds HIM
self ready to give that much more IL
necessary, that at the very beginning
he disarmed criticism toward himself
by announcing that he would not allow
one penny's worth Of the supplies to be
bought from any food depot In which
he had a personal interest.
This is not strictly a charitable enter
prise; in small way it IS paying for
itself as 1t goes along. No one who pa
tronizes 1t need feel that he is In the
slightest degree pauperized. He pays
fully the cost of what he gets and lit
tie more, which, to me, Is feature that
strongly commends this movement. 1t
is strictly in harmony with the old and
wise principle of helping those who
show that they are worthy Of help by
what they are doing to help them
selves. 1t is an effort to supplement
and piece out the poor wages OF the
factory girl, the shop assistant. the day
laborer, the five dollar week clerk and
some classes of mechanics, by making
the little money! they get 50 as far as
possible in providing them with whole
some, we'll cooked food
The story of how Sir Thomas Upton
became associated In philanthropies Of
this kind with the charming wife of
King Edward VII. is one of great in
terest. Arrangements were under way
for Queen victoria's diamond jubilee.
In one heart the question early arose,
what can we do to make the jubilee
memorable occasion for the thousands
Of London's poor?' 1t was the Jrin-
cess of Wales who asked this question,
and she answered 1t by starting a
Mansion House fund which she hoped
would reach two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars and by means Of
which all the very Poor in this worlds
metropoliswere to be treated to BAN
quet. This fund dragged; it needed o
big lift One day Mr.. Upton, slipping
tea with the Lord Mayor and Lady
Mayoress, inquired casually how sub
scriptions were coming in, and heard
in reply such a doleful story of back
wardness and of how blue Alexandra,
was In consequence, that he took out
his check book on the spot and drew
an order to the credit of this fund for
one hundred and twenty-five thousand
dollars, saying as he handed it to to the
see the thing through, let me know"
1t was only a few months after this
that "Mr." Thomas Upton became