Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-01-11
HALL OF ROYAL COURTS
D0RM|T0Ry FOR YANKs
Football Team OF American Battle
ship Forced TO Walk London
Streets All Night.
SAILORS SLEEP ON FLOOR
Building Where Many Cases Arc
Tried During Day Rcsoumds With
Shores OF 1000 Jack Tars at
Night.
BY HAYDEN CHURCH,.

10y HAYDEN CHURCH,.
PEklNG, January lo.-(Spccial)--
bic busts OF famous legal summarizes
OF tho past looking solemnly down
upon them. 1000 American sailors are
sleeping every night in tho great hall
o: the Royal Courts of Justice in Lon
don's Strand. Probably no such scene
history Of .hese famous courts as is
now. to be witnessed there when the
shades OF night nave fallen.
From the recesses which line the
great hall, our saiiormcn fetch the
blankets which the American Red Cross
Maitresses and blan ns 10 are s'es aid ON IN
long rows along the 24o feet length
Of the great hall. The floor is OF
stateiicst in tho metropolis. is well
heated: and is thoroughly comfortable
Policcd all night by. American blue
snoring OF 1000 sailors. sounds at night
like a fog over a channel crowded with
shipping.
been turned into n dormitory for Amer
leans because London hotels, huts and
hostels have been completely swamped
ors who now pour into this metropolis
by every train. There were none too
many hotels in London to begin with.
anu by tho time the government had
commandecred literally hundreds of
them for office purposes. London be
cams cam, the 1n,n scene Of an acute faapins in
shift 1t could until the end OF hos
t!lities released thousands OF Colonial
and American sailors and soldiers who
wanted TO give the metropolis hasty
look-sce before they went home. Under
the influx Of these thousands, Lon.
don has had to do anything il could
do to relieve the situation.
FOOTBALL PLAYERS WALK
STREETS ALL EIGHT
So crowded have its accomm odations
become that even on Thanksgiving
football team down from Edinburgh
to play a Thanksgiving game here
somebody was guilty OF an oversight
the. streets all night because they
couldn't find place to sleep. That
however has never happened a second
time.
1t was Campbell Lee, barrister. and
secretary of the American Navy League
in London, who, almost in desperation
Courts Of Justice 10 let American sail
ors sleep in their great hall. He took
this daring step when 1t was decided
that between six and seven thousand
that between 5000 and 1000 sailor
men OF the American fleet should be
brought TO London TO sec the sights.
stroyeT. submarines and mine-layers,
and they are doing" old London in
true Yankee style.
GREAT HALL MAKES
Where on earth they would have
hunked had not the Law Courts uu-
thorities fastened to say yes to Camp
bell Lees proposition. which at first
jar. goodness only knows. But the
Great Hall really makes a fine dormi-
tory. In the morning long. before
trcsses and blankets. and the sailors
troop out to begin another days sight
seeing. Later. between 10 and II. the
k Esw Courts begin .E to wake into life.
where SO many thousands of Ameri-
cans have sought tabled millions. For
the Chancery Division holds in trust
heirs are dead. Thousands OF Ameri-
cans in times past, most of them urged
on by grating lawyers. have spent
ti'nG and money attempting. to es-
estates. Hundreds of Americans have
personally come to London to estab-
lish the claims they fancied we're
theirs: To-day in the Great Hall which
they tramped. are rows of mattresses
piied neatly during the day and broken
out At night to provide beds for Aemri-
writing OF our sailormen in London
reminds one OF n pleasant and char
actteristic little story that was told the
other day in the Manchester Guardian
It's correspondent described how he h..
took some United States Jack tars 10
the Tower Of London and other places
rihaiiS' ne wwrites, Il took them
20 20 my rooms and gave them coffee and
foSnr , Three days afterwards ]
nackage. Sir the letter ran. We
WOULD have liked to have bought you
q souvenir. but our money is ali gone,
pit we noticed that while YOU helned
us generously 10 sugar with the coffec
you used very little yourself. The en-
oto seu package contains the balance
OF our sugar ration for the week -
Copyright, 1918
SAYS EAGIIC ne MATIoue,