Evening Star Newspaper, November 10, 1936, Page 7

- THE EVENING STAR. WASHINGTON, D. C., Traveling Around in Europe London’s Oddest “Club”—Why Left-Hand Traffic? The Happi- : ness of Polly, the Fleet Street Newsgirl. (No. 11 of a Series.) BY I WILLIAM HILL, Btaft Correspondent of The Star. ONDON.—There are 10,000 streets in London that would require a lifetime for one per- son to traverse. It is no wone der, then, that this is a city of count- | less clubs. Loneliness is a specter that likes gray buildings and many pave- ments, and people must band to- gether against it. Besides the usual social clubs for each business, profession or nation- | ality, there are Crockford’s for lonely bridge players, the Alpine for those afflicted with a nostalgia for snowy siopes, and Boodle's, open only to “country gentlemen.” The oddest of them all, perhaps, gtands in Piccadilly, just outside Green Park. It has no name. In fact, hundreds pass it by and never see it. In appearance it resembles the wheelless caboose of a freight train, except that it is green. By | day it is deserted, for it is at night | that its habitues foregather. They consist of the men who drive taxicabs by night and also the driver of the one horse-drawn hansom that may | be seen any night on Piccadilly as it cruises about in search of some one | who wants a leisurely and picturesque ride about the city. London Contrast. Outside the “club.” which actually stands in the middle of the street, is a makeshift counter on which rest & wash basin and a cake of soap. In- side benches are lined up at a long table at which midnight lunches are served while the cabmen discuss their work, their friends and conditions of the empire. ’ | At the same time, a stone’s throw away, men in white ties and tails discuss their work, their friends and conditions of the empire at the dam- ask-covered tables of the Ritz. | L | We wandered into the cabmen’s *club” one night just to sit around and talk. They were discussing how plentiful jobs had become, how almost every department store posted “help wanted” notices outside employe en- trances each morning. Then we injected a discordant note into the lull of the conversation. “How,” we inquired, “did the Eng- lish custom of keeping to the left in traffic originate?” A Cabby’s Explanation. That started something. When the smoke of verbal battle died away it was the driver of the horse-drawn hansom who had voiced the most plausible explanation. Perhaps that was because driving a horse gives you more time to meditate such things. This was his theory: Armor-clad knights bearing lances and swords were the first revelers of the highways. Since the lance or sword was guided by the right hand, and one’s left side was comparatively defenseless despite one's shield, the knight always rode to the left of the road, thus keeping whatever adversary might come along to his right. When the first carriage took to the highway it was preceded by an armed knight and naturally followed along behind him, keeping to the left of the road. Time went by, and weapons were | discarded. but vehicles of every sort | kept to the worn tracks on the left Just the same. All of which makes us wonder how | our traffic, and that of most of the ‘world, began keeping to the right. * ok o ‘Washington's Picture in London. The original of one of America’s favorite paintings, Gilbert Stuart's head of George Washington, is ex- | hibited in the National Gallery of | Art It was presented to the Lon- | don gallery by Edward Harkness of | Soutk Carolina. | Remark of an American tourist, overheard in the National Gal- lery: “Can you imagine an English- man presenting a famous paint- ing of King George 111 to an Amer- ican gallery?” * x x x In London darkness is the signal to climb into one’s dress clothes. In no other city are there so many men | seeking after nightfall to achieve the eartorial elegance of a Lucius Beebe. | You see them walking along the streets and pushing their way into pubs as well as into the American bar at the Savoy. Our bus halted at Piccadilly Circus the other evening and an elderly cou- Pple in full evening dress climbed on | and scrunched themselves down on & | side seat between what were obviously laboring men. When the conductor came around (vou pay after you sit in London and only for as far as you are going) the elderly gentleman dug into a hidden pocket of his dress clothes for his | money. | “To the Ritz,” he said, and the bus started off. * ok k% Find the Fat People. In a strange city, we are told, there is one sure way of picking a good | place to eat. Simply select one that Is patronized by people who are fat. Such a place is the Old Cheshire Cheese, in Wine Office court, just off Fleet street. Once the center of Lon- don's coffee shop culture, the com- | bination pub and restaurant ‘still pre- serves the culinary traditions that | caused Samuel Johnson and Oliver | Goldsmith to spend long hours at its tables. Of course, the Old Cheshire Cheese one visits today is not the original. It was rebuilt in 1667, it seems. But even so, many feet have worn a deep | trough in the stone doorstep, and in- side is presered the old tavern at- mosphere of sanded floor, wooden benches and steak pudding on Wed- nesdays. A A boy about 14, dressed in waiter's white, showed us the 'antiques of the place. He displayed Samuel John- son’s favorite table, Samuel Johnson's favorite chair and everything else that was a favorite with Samuel Johnson. But the rack of pipes, smoked and autographed by such modern celebrities as Gilbert K. coLDs : FEVER Headache, 30 LIQUID, TABLE' s SALVE, NOSE BROF: M Try My-Tism”-World's Best Linament DANDRUFF AND HAIR LOSS CHECKED ITCHING RELIEVED BY USING Chesterton and Jack Dempsey, we had | to find for ourselves. | For American Eyes. The boy. it seemed, had his own | ideas of what Americans should see, | for whatever he showed us. there was an epithetical indictment in words with which he ended each sen- tence: | “Very old! Very famous!" * %ok x Signs in London: i Hailt. Major Road. (Located at all boulevards.) Dead Slow. (Police warning in Westminster Hall driveway.) Car Park. Draw in. (Parking lot sign.) s No Parking Here, Please. (Of- ficial police notice.) * x x X “What I like about the British,” said a little old lady, trying to clarify her confusing impressions of a for- eign land by pigeonholing them in | a phrase, “is their ‘just so-ishness.’” | The studios of the British Broad- | casting Co, illustrate this. They're not like those in America. At Broad- | casting House there is a library studio from which authors may broadcast and a chapel from which religious services are put on the air. The for- mer is walled with books and fur- nished so much like a library in any sumptuous home that the lone micro- phone on the table seems out of place. The chapel is a shrine in itself, and if the officiating minister so desires there is a button to press that turns on a lighted cross on the wall behind the altar. British Wireless Trouble. | But with all, the British are rather upset over their wireless. They still call it that, although King Edward prefers the word “radio.” | British broadcasting is financed ene tirely by a 10-shilling annual tax on There still each radio set. But it isn't the tax that disturbs the Britisher, He wants better programs. s “We wouldn’t have to tune In on a continental station to get good pro- grams,” one hears them say, “if they'd | only allow advertising on the radio | here.” LI B Polly stands and sells her papers | on Fleet street at the intersection that the lawyers pass on their way | to the Temple. No one knows how long she has | stood there with the inevitable poster that gives you just enough of the news to want a newspaper. It's been years and years, Wanted Evening Dress. For a long time Polly was unhappy as she stood at her corner. It seemed she had seen ladies pass in evening dresses, and she had seen evening dresses in store windows, and out of what she saw she formed the idea that what she wanted most in all the world was an evening dress, “But how,” she confided once to an old barrister who was a daily cus- tomer, “can one save enough for an evening dress out of the pennies one takes in for papers?” But Polly is happy today. That same old ‘barrister died not long ago. In his witl he expressly provided that Polly should receive an evening dress. She wears it around the house sometimes in the evening. Next: Channel crossing, DISTILLERY ATTACKS MARYLAND LIQUOR TAX BY the Assoclated Press. BALTIMORE, November, 10.—A New Jersey corporation operating a distil- lery in Westminster, Md., yesterday at- tacked Maryland's liquor tax on grounds it was “arbitrary and unrea- | sonable.” | The Old Tyme Distillers, Inc.. filed ‘the suit agalnst William 8. Gordy, jr., State controller, in Federal court. The court ordered the distillery to con- tinue to pay the tax to the clerk of the court. The disposition of this rev- enue will be settled when the case is decided. The distillery attacked the law on the ground that it violated the Federal Constitution. The suit pointed out that the tax is lighter on whisky sold in Maryland than on whisky made in this State and sold outside it. It also claimed that the law made no pro- vision for the evaporation of whisky | as it.aged and that the tax was paid | on the amount distilled. ____ ADVERTISEMENT. WOMAN, 87, NEVER TIRED —TAKES IRON DAILY “I am R7. go to ehurch and attend parties and ‘do not get a bit tired. 1 eat and sieep well. thanks to Vinel iron tonic "—Mrs. M. Batdorf. Vinol tastes finel At all leading drugsists. Brighten up your home for Winter enjoyment with the durable luster and smooth texture finish of VITRALITE, the long-life ENAMEL. Easy to apply, flows freely, covers rer ectly with extraordinary self- eveling qualities and comes in sev- en pleasing shades. Ideal for indoor and outdoor use, furniture, toys, refrigerators, ete. Splendid for commercial use, as well as home uses. Phone your order—it will be deliv- ered by our ““Speed-E” Service. BUTLER-FLYNN| C St. NW. et o are some ladies who’ll put in a day Crowding to counters and turning away: Looking at stockings and trying on hats, Shopping for curtains, for sheets, or for mats— Gazing at manikins, propped in the aisles, Standing for hours and walking for miles; Watching the weather for fear of the wet, Dreading the dinner they still have to get! You don’t have to do all these things any more— That’s what the stores ‘print advertisements for! You sit down at home in your favorite chair, Lok through this paper—the bargains are there. Buy what you need, with the ads as your guides: Save yourself trouble and money besides! Iq TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1936. 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