The San Francisco call., 1904-07-10
Duke and Duchess Of Marlborough the First
TO Build a Palace on the Thoroughfare
and Americans Follow Example.

folk have been willing to follow so
illustrious q lead by Locating in the
street where Thackeray's heroine
queened it and where D1sraeli died.
Were it not fc its reputation as one
Of the most stylish streets in London.
the future Fifth avenue Of Mayfair
might be described as quite "impossi-
b-e"-at any rate as a place OF resi-
dence for the exclusive. Besides being
crooked and narrow, It IS awkward to
get at. To enter it from Berkeley
Square you would have to dive down
a flight Of steps and then thread a
narrow ageway-Lansdowne Pas
sage. il is called-with brick walls on
either side and so gloomy that on dark
days il has to be lighted with big gas
lamps And the shortest way into Cur
zon street from Park lane is up fight
Of steps and through e. her rather
forbidding passageway that is marked
at the Curzon-street end-"To Park
Lane and Pitts Head News; news"
Of course, being nothing more aristo-
cratic than stables.
CABBAGES AND KINGS.
The principal drawback to Curzon
street as a place Of residence for the
aristocratic. however. is the fact that
it is sprin--ed with stables and uninn-
posing little shops, and that one side Of
1t Is cheek by-jOw h an out-and-
out slum The number Of these small
business premises strikes one as soon
as he gets into Curzon street. Where
fashionable Charges street crosses it.
there are four of them-a cheese deal
er's, small livery stable, a grocer's
shop and saloon. the York Arms"
Result - when. the other day. the
Dowager Duchess Of Marlborough
brought a party of American friends
in motor cars to go over Sunderland
House. the whole street was crowded
with gaping grocers' clerks and other
shop assistants. whose idea IL was that
Mr. Vanderbilt" had come to take
possession Of his house, the name of
Consuelo's father, oddly enough, being
much more familiarly identified with
the mansion in the neighborhood than
that Of the Duke himself.
And, sad to say, Sunderland House
backs directly upon Curzon streets
slum- Just before one gets to the MarI-
borough palace, going up the street.
there is sort Of dingy archway. and
passing through this one finds himself
in dirty little square which calls itself
Shepherds Market and which is
filed with small shops and dwellings
that, from the look Of them, might be
in the center Of Whitechapel or Bethnal
but just off the street
where reside the Earl Of Crewe; Kath-
arine, Lady Letchmere, who is known
as the most exclusive Of London
hostesses; the Earl and Dowager
Countess Howe, Lady Mary Foley and
goodness knows how many other titled
tolk- 1t seems that this section of the
neiShborhood was leased long ago for
a hundred years or more, and that is
why it will be impossible for long
time 10 come to get rid Of all the little
rookeries-a goodly number of which
are pubs" as they call the cheaner
sort of saloon over here.
DUKES HUMBLE NEIGHRORS
Behind Shepherds Market there are
news and more shops and ii is on
following the small street which SEN
arates them that one discovers how the
place completely surrounds Sunderland
House on every side but one. and what
"A democratic lot of neighbors the ex-
elusive Duke and Duchess have. on
one side Of the aristocratic mansion are
the shops of a boot-mender. a green
grocer and a clockmakar: an the other