Evening star., 1908-01-18
LONDON WAS EMPT|ED
Most Silent Christmas Town
Had Ever Known.
PASSING OF "BOxING DAY.
System of Petty BlackmaA Prohibit
ed by Law.
FINE NEW CLUB FOR "JEAMEs'
Changes Wrought in the Holiday
Pantomimes-Titles for the
Judges-other Gossip.
FINE NEW CLUB FOR "JEAMEsv
,ecial Correspondence Of The Star.


Christmas day passed in London more
quietly than ever In the forenoon there
was great assembly at ST. Paul's and
the Temple and at Holborn. but after
the congregations had gone home the city
relapsed into silence. / passed from the
temple to Bishopsgate street and met less
than two dozen people in the afternoon. 1t
was an extraordinary spectacle-rows and
rows of tall stone buildings without even
a charwoman on guard. The omnibuses,
which had passed eastward at long inter-
walls, withdrew at o'clock. Possibly the
drivers or chauffeurs and guards then
enjoyed the pheasants provided by Mr..
Rothschild, whose blue and gold coiors
they had been wearing in ribbons on their
whips and engines all week. At night
there was a foot ball match in Fleet
street between five news messenger boys,
The oldest policeman cannot remember
a precedent.
If there is a feature which distinguishes
this Christmas from it's predecessors it is
the increased tendency on the part of
LondOners to celebrate 1t In some place
other than London. The exodus has been
without precedent Switzerland has ad-
vertised it's winter attractions with phe-
nomenal results. Where the travelling in
stinct has been curbed Brighton East
sea places have benefited. week ago
1t was practically impossible to secure
family accommodations in hotel or board
ing house down there.
Year by year the Christmas pantomime
Is being shorn of much of it's old-fash
ioned glories. The hideous masks. enough
to frighten children out of their senses,
though not yet entirely dispensed with
have become almost refined. while they
are much fewer In number. The long
DrOcoSCionS have haan Shnrfaned and
less attention is being paid to what may
be termed Overelaboration of mechanical
and scenic effects. "The Babes in the
Wood" produced at Drury Lane Theater,
affords proof Of this. 1t is gigantic mu-
sic hall entertainment. into which are set
endless comic incidents, more or less re-
lating to the misfortunes of The legendary
babes who died in the wood and were COW
cred with leaves by the birds. Mr.. Arthur
Collins is wise in his generation. While
by no means neglecting scenic accesso
ries. some of which are masterpieces of
stage art he has got together band of
comedians of the first rank, able to keep
the house in continuous merrfment from
beginning to end of long evening. MIR.
Walter Passmore and Miss Marie George
were ''the babes"
A dozen or so other pantomimes occu
pied stages on boxing night, and will run
for some weeks to come. but Drury Lane
Is the old standby and will see US we'll on
to Easter. as usual, judging from the
success already attained.
This Christmas, for the first time. the
law against tips came into effect and
there has been woeful falling off in the
Boxing day practice of tipping" every
body who has performed even the slight
est service for you during the year
The newsboy, the postman, the
dustman the man who takes
the meter and all the tradesmen's
assistants expect their tip on Box
ing day, but this year the worried house.
holder is less bothered than before
though it is hard to get out of old ruts.
The new act hurts tradespeople perhaps
more than the consumer and the world at
large.
People who formerly received presents
and do not receive them now are rather
sore about the change. They ought to be
glad with the rest of the business world
that the relationship of parties is purer
than 1t was; but, to be perfectly frank
they are not, and the fear is that they
will show their displeasure in a variety
of little ways. The effect of this may be
that the employers of disanected servants
will lose a lot of business in the new
year. because. as customers are the nom
inaI withholders Of the gratuities. custom
ers are being made to suffer. The custom
ers' rejonder will In all likelihood be to
take their patronage elsewhere, SO that
without getting a chance to put them
selves right manufacturers and their
agents may be severely penalized
OF course the servant who retaliates in
the kind of way indicated richly deserves
to be discharged. but there would obvi-
ously be extreme difficulty in pressing
home charges of making customers ''suf-
fer for conforming to the law. There are
many little ways of making things un-
pleasant. and where staffs are large the
movement is apparently organized. What
the cure of the new evil will be is difficult
to say, but there seems to be pretty
general feeling that some distinction ought
to be made between ordinary Christmas
boxes and other kinds of gifts"
A prominent provision dealer who has
been very hard hit by his losses on tur-
keys and poultry lays the blame for this
upon the new act I'VE were assured,
he said, that many forms of Christmas
boxes were still quite legal. but the timid
and the mean have pleaded the act the
former because they did not know how far
they might give with safety, and the lat
ter because IT provides them with an ex-
cellent excuse for giving nothing at ALL
But quite apart from these two classes
the law in forbidding gifts from trades
men to servants of the butler and cook
type has brought great reduction in the
Christmas turnover of the wholesale firms.
"Of course" he admitted. 'the smaller
tradesmen benefits from his relief from a
very real blackmail by the servants of his
customers. but we. who once received his
orders, have been surprised by the re-
markably effective way in which he has
taken advantage of the act as an escape
from his annual burden" In consequence
many big firms of poultry dealers have
suffered heavy losses this season. Hun
|dreds Of pounds worth of foreign turkeys
were destroyed as unfit for food,' he de-
clared, land a personal friend of mine
has dropped E6OO through the stocks re-
naming on his hands to become putrid."
The honor of knighthood which the
king conferred on Mr.. Justice Eve the
other day, was not conferred on Mr.. JUS
tice Coleridge when he was elevated to
the bench This omission was in no wise
d.srespectful to Mr.. Justice Coleridge.
who, being a peer. would not have had
his status enhanced by being made a
knight.
The explanation for the knighting of
judges is really case of ''chercheZ la
femme" A judgeship is an office. and 1t
is the rule at court that the holder of
an Office however exalted. does not confer
on his wife a corresponding rank to that
which he enjoys as the holder of the Of
flee. The Archbishop of Canterbury. for
instance is the front row royal subject
Of the king, but as the archbishopric is
only an office. 1t confers no rank on Mrs.
Randall Davidson. The same thing ap-
plies to Lord Crewe. who, as lord presi-
| throne, yet the Countess of Crewe ranks
op1y as a countess A knighthOod. how