The San Francisco call., 1905-01-01
Inquiries Prove.
.Th6y Are Not
i: Genuine.
::RUSE DRAWS COIN
.t:.:. --
*AmeriGanS Good
!: s. Customers of.
!. Places,
HISTORY DETAINED
YDEFAMED

LONDON, Dec. 31.-Not long ago a
more or less official investigation was
made into the history of the pictur-
esque Flaet-street barber-shop that
for years has been described by its
proprietor as. formerly the palace of
Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey."
The investigation committees findings
have just been made public, and they
prove: conclusively that the place was
4: never a palace at all, and that neither
the much married sovereign. nor his
much tried prelate ever lived there.
This means that of the three London
establishments that Americans practi-
. cally. support because they believe
them to. be interesting links with the.
past two are absolute fakes. It has
been. pointed out in the London press
only recently that while the third of
these places: has real claims to historic
Interest, its rights to the distinction on
the strength of which it has been gold
mine to. its OWNER is open to doubt.
l.: OLD. TRADITION UPSET.
+. To the thousands of Americans who
have. visited and patronized the quaint
little waste-paDer establishment in
:. Portsmouth street, Lincoln's Inn
;. Fields, that calls itself THE Old Curl
(: Dsity Shop Immortalized by Charles
: Dickens. it may be rather a shock to
hear that, it's prcprietor's assurances
:. to- the contrary Notwithstanding, the
building is no more the one where Little
Nell and her grandfather lived than the
.FIeet-street barber shop is former
residence of Bluff King HAL
Though it seems pity to upset a
pleasing tradition, investigation proves
]. that :while THE Old Cheshire Cheese"
. IN Fleet street may have been visited
/. by DIR. Samuel Johnson, 1t almost cer-
taiply was not. one of his favorite
haunts and not the scene of his famous
.symposia with Boswell and Oliver
: Goldsmith. Yet probably nine out Of
every ten Americans who visit London
make.a point of either lunchfng or din
ing at the Cheese" in order to see
:. "Johiison's seat there, just as nine
out of. every ten pay visits to and in
crease the revenues of The Old Curl
osity Shop" and the Palace Of Henry
VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey"'
=: NOT LITTLE NELL's HOME.
The so-called palace is a tolerably
good hair-dressing establishment; the
."Old Curiosity Shop" carries on a fair
trade in waste paper, and the Che
shire Cheese" really is over 300 years
.old and first-rate place to go to inn
agine oneself back in the London OF
Queen Anne and to get real English
chop, a mug of bitter" and some OF
!. the pudding which is the places spec
ialty. Probably all three of these es-
Establishments would be prosperous in
any event, but it is simply and solely
because Of the Americans, who pat
ronize them under the fond delusion
that they are what they pretend to be.
that each is little Klondilxe to its
.owners.
Only the shops proprietor. Carter.
knows how many American men have
been shaved and how many more
American women had things done to
their hair at IL Fleet street Just be-
cause they believed the immense sign
which tops the place. This distinctly
states that the place was formerly the
palace of Henry VIII and Cardinal
Wolsey."
Probably, however, the number of
people who have been duped by the
claims of the palace" is nothing to
that of those whom the "Old Curiosity
Shop" has deceived. On the strength
OF its claim, also made in big letters on
its outer walls. that 1t is the one inn