The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-11-01
From, the Christian Science Monitor.

AZ NJ r. WILLIAM POEL famous
JM( amongst sntrsDrsnsurs, after
S"S spending an hour, of a close
August night, in the gallery queue of
the Haymarket theatre, in London, is
moved to take up his pen, and write
swiftly to the papers to protest against
this survival Of barbarism. and to de-
mand, with all the inflexibility of the
Queen of Hearts, that it's head instantly
be taken off Mr.. Peel approaches the
subject hygienically and economically
there are the damp clothes if the night
be a wet one, and there is the prodigious
loss of time be it wet or fine. Two
hundred hours by the clock, did Hay
market queue waste, by fair computa-
ton, with nothing to show for it but
the advertisement to the management
of the theatre; and this was more than
doubled, so Mr. Peel counts, just across
the street, at the doors Of His Majesty S
theatre; five hundred hours were trod-
den into the pavement there, and tram
pied on, by the queues competing for
a sight of THE Most Wonderful Enter
tainment London Has Ever Seen" The
advertisements avouch it, and who shall
dispute it?
Trustful Mr. Peel troubled over the
lost time and damp clothes of the
thousands of Stepney and Peckham,
vending their regretful ways to the
tube station and the motor bus with
heads turned over shoulders in the di-
rection of allotment gardens, or minds
fixed on the Shakespeare on the par
Tor table The self-sacrifice of the
world in the interests of amusement
has always been Overwhelming. Mol
iere, no doubt, felt something of it
When he wrote, "C'est une etrange que
celle de faire rire les honnetes gems
| Decidedly it is curious trade this
making of laughter for virtuous
world of would be time savers Those
| interested in the theatre know exactly
what happened when Sir Henry Irving
conceived the idea of booking the
| Lycetsm pit, and so of keeping dry the
clothes and saving the time of the
patrons of that institution. Sir Henry
| had to face a mild repetition of the
| famous 30. Pr riots, nor was there
peace in the land till the great actor
conceded to the queue the right to get
wet and wait
The fact is that there exists strange
as it may seem to- some people, what
might not improperly be termed the
queue temperament. Mr. Peel does not
possess it, "Hinc ilae lachrymae," but
it exists in abundance all the same. 1t
enjoys every moment of the wait en-
queue with all the humors of the pave
ment and does not give thought to the
dampness of its coat or sligts it adores
the settling down in the pit or gal
lery, the turning up of the lights, and
the coming in of the stalls and
"boxes," and wastes never a regret on
the time wasted herein. 1t sweeps
| every tier for celebrity and, having
| found one, imparts the information to
its neighbors with the satisfaction OF
an astronomer who has discovered a
new star, and refuses to believe that
] Ii has been tried by the wait after the
days work. Above all it delights in
the most unrestrained criticism of the
clothes, figures, and faces of those who
| have foolishly lost their opportunities
! by paying more to come later, whilst
all the time, if Mr. Peel had his way
| 1T might have been sitting at home
formulating suggestions for the min
! istry of health. CT reading that wonder
4 full Fourteenth ode, which begins "Eheu
fagaces, ALIAS the fleeting years"
| You might, of course, if it come tc
| that read your Horace in the queue
Mr. Peel found there was not lighi
: enough, but he speaks only of~a certain
day and place. Before a matinee or or
a summer evening, it would be quite
possible. Citoyen Brotteaux, 1t Will be
! remembered, always carried his 'Ilu-
/ cretius," In its red morocco binding. In
the pocket of his plum-colored coat, to
1 while away the time. as he waited, ii
the queue. for the baker to open his
door. But then this standing in queue
had become almost a part of the life OF
revolutionary Paris. in time.,' write:
lCarlyle, of those desperate days. 1--WE
shall see it perfected by practice tt
the rank almost of an art: and the art