Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-06
Special Correspondence of The star.

Special Correspondence of The star.
LONDON, March %, 1918.
TN few weeks now a modern Rip Van
Wrinkle, who for the past thirty-seven
years has been living in the middle
ages, will have. to his immense disgust
to emerge into the twentieth century, OF
which he declares with something like
pride he knows nothing whatever. This
badly-behind-the-ti times person is DR.. Regi
Maid r. Sharpe, d. C. L., who for the
period of time mentioned has been rec
ords clerk at the Guildhall. which is the
headquarters Of the queer official ma
chinery which runs the so-called city
of London. the historic square mile ir
the heart of the metropolis which is ruled
over by the lord mayor with remem'
brancer a "prothonotary'' and many
other queer officials to help him.
It was at the Guildhall. Of course, thai
ex-President Roosevelt made his bomb
she'll Of a speech on England's duty in
Egypt Down in the bowels of this an
cient home Of Cog and Magog is the
room in which. as clerk of the city s
records. DR.. Sharpe has had his being
since 1876. but which. after the 18th of
next month will know him no more. 1t
is a sunless room. where a fire is kept
burning the whole year, and on all sides
are dingy books from which the dust OF
seven centuries has been wiped, and
which are crammed with records in Latin.
Norman, French and old English of the
doings of the city fathers as far back as
1875. Some of these tones are so big
that they can be moved conveniently only
in a wheelbarrow. and all of them are
such dull reading that one would think
that no human being could live among
them for nigh on forty years and have
any humanity left in him.
But DR.. Sharpe, short man with
whitening beard. and kindly eyes that
twinkle behind gold spectacles, has lots
of humanity left in him, and fun, too
He was a humorist. apparently, when he
entered the Guildhall. in 1875, after hav-
ing been first a law student. then senior
assistant in the manuscript department
Of the British Museum. and then bar
rister of law of the inner temple, and
been able to find food for mirth even in
the dull chronicles of endless lord mayors,
sheriffs. remembrancers, prothonotaries,
and the rest.
ment in the city archives. apparently, is
interest in the affairs of today.
II know nothing whatever, he said.
yesterday. 'of anything that has hap
pened after the fifteenth century. People
are often sent down here from the Offices
above and ask me questions about some
thing that happened in the nineteenth
century. AS if l knew what happened
yesterday! l stop at about 1909"
He is emphatically not looking for
ward" to his retirement. he said, and to
having to discover what king is ruling
over England and who is President Of the
United States. Even after he leaves the
Guildhall. in fact. he means to spend as
much OF his time as possible in the past,
and will begin by condensing a big book
called London and the Kingdom" which
he has compiled from the city's archives
some eighteen years ago. into a form
suitable for schools.
OF course. he has the details of the
city's unique administration at his fin
gers ends, and there happened to be one
feature thereof about which the present
writer particularly desired information
Who are the city's "ale-conners" and
what do they do? In the annual budget
Of the city corporation mention Is made
yearly of four official ''ale-conners," who
draw a salary of Flo, or $50, per annum,
but up to this time no one ever has been
discovered who knew who the said con
ners" were or where they carried on
their industry of coming
So the writer put the question to DR.
Sharpe. and hardly had he finished speak
L. L IT,