The New York herald., 1922-10-22

streets, you stop, for here was the Mer
maid Tavern, where Shakespeare made
his breakfast of a huge tankard of ale
Then, not by the direct route but by
devious lanes, you proceed to London
Bridge, and, crossing it, turn westward il
quest of the brewery that covers the
ground of the old Globe.
cd OMANCE is dead. There are ne
1t more Sinister Streets said the
American. Then in the face of somewhat
startled protest he went on: Thinking
cymbals! Whited sepulchres! There are
no more Sinister Streets. They went out
with Fielding's Jonathan Wild the Great
and Hogarth's Gin Lane and Beer Alley
Were they here in Dickens's time or die
he invent them? An American reads
Dickens in boyhood and thrills to the
mystery and sinister suggestion of Sever
DialS. He comes to London to End a
Seven Dials that is neither mysterious
nor sinister; only stupidity common
place. | have ferreted out your Hangins
Sword alley and your Bleeding Heart
yard and your Crooked Usage in Chelsea
and your Pennyfelds and Limehouse
Causeway, where Burke pictures the
colored darkness, and the 'pallid blue
light that is the symbol of China through
out the world, and your Petticoat lane
Names, mere names. The real Sinister
Street exists only in the imagination OF
the writer of sensational fiction" But
yesterday protested the Englishman.
I" t is always that yesterday" the
L American countered. "One must
have the riotous imagination of a Tar
tarin, wandering by night through the
little streets of Tarascon, at the end OF
which the Rhone glittered, to conjure uI
They Here in London only the com
monplace in streets remains. East Emo
or West End, there is no spot that is moi
as safe as Hyde Park corner at noon
That is to London's credit but, as l said
romance is dead" Have you ever heard
of Noting Dale?" asked the Englishman
mo. What is it?" "It is a street in the
far western part of London, beyond Bays
water. 1t is so dangerous that no police
man dares~to pass through it alone" AT
this point the discussion ended. But the
following evening the American had
occasion to write: 81 have just been
through your Noting Dale, which they
now call Sirdar road, from end to end
In doing so / have detected what l be-
lieve to be slight inaccuracy in English
literary history. 1 found Noting Dale SC
bucolically peaceful that | feel that it
must have been there, and not at Stoke
Pogis, that Gray was moved to write his
'Elegy in Country Churchyard.'
II OW Disraeli, inordinately vain Of
IL what he supposed to be his perfect
command of the French language, was
wheedled out of employing it in address
ing the Berlin Congress is told in the
course of "Sir Edward Cook, X. B. E.,
published by the e. P. DuttQn Company
To Lord Odo Russell came Sir Philip
Currie and said: "The chief has prepared
French speech for tomorrow and we
shall be the laughing stock of Europe
Can't you stop him?" Russell felt that il
was delicate operation, but promised he
would try. Going to Disraeli's room he
said: ''My dear lord, hear you propose
to speak in French tomorrow" Such is
my intention" "But this will be ter
rible disappointment Your French is
perfect, but everybody can talk French
What the Ambassadors are expecting is a
speech in English from the greatest living