LIFE AT THE EAST AND WEST END.

Evening Star, Issue 3872, 22 July 1875, Page 3

LIFE AT THE EAST AND WEST END.

Our continental neighbors are ford of saying that we English take cur pleasures very sadly. And, in truth, the casual ob server of the upper ton thousand taking their daily exercise in the Park (where languid swells lazily lounge about, and highborn maidens and downg-rs lie back in their carriages as if the exertion of taking an interest in anything woull be too much for them), or at the opera, staring indifferently when a Patti or NiiUon is singing so divinely, that the emotion;* of delight in the breast of an Italian o: Frcuchm:u would ciusehirato go almost wild with excitement, might well think that \vc have a strange way of showing our enjoyment. But England, and especially Loudon, has another aspect not so frequently scanned by f meigners, or certainly not by those of thorn who would be likely to put their ideas of us into print. While the West-bnd hello is holding her court in Belgravia, the East-End damsel is taking her pleasure in a very different way. Perhaps some account of her may interest cur readers. We made a pilgrimage one evening to Shoreditch in ques: of adventure, and on our way dropped into one or t'.vo places of amusement, where the natives were enjoying themselves. It was a web Saturday n ght, but still tho streo’a were crowded with their busy throng. The oo tormnngers were apparently doing a roaring trade in spite of the weather. Wc ac ■ .ed a pol ccman, and asked him if he could tell us where to find a “ penny gaff the vu’g.ir name for mu?io-hall. “A penny gaff,” ciicl he, in a tone of the deepest coiTempt. Wo assured him humbly that it was a penny g .ff wc wiuted, if he uould direct us !o one, which be accordingly did. t f course the penuy seats were crammed, ai d so wore the twopenny ones; but, by payment of sixpence, we were accommodated In the boxes, aud thus were eyed as representative-, of a bloated aristocracy by the pit. The ball was small, theatre shaped, the p : t or penny s)ats (N.B. —No one admitted without shoes or stockings) was full of dirty.faccd b ys, who seemed cordially to appreciate the entertainment, and recognised tin ie favorite performers with such facotioiu erecting as “What cheer, ’Arry?” “So you've Tome, are you?’ &c., much to the annoyance of the chairman, a most serious-looking person who must have had a hard task i :i deed to keep order among such an “unruly set.” Though wo did not see a single female in the pit, there were plenty in the first circle or twopenny seats, mostly quite young girls, some pretty, who, joining cheerfully in the choruses, or quietly munching oranges or nuts, seemed quite at homo° The entertainment was of the usual musichall typo. None of thi performers used the letter H, but some of them wero decidedly funny. One gentle nan, who seemed a great favorite, appeared in a long coat down to his boots, and, to a cheerfhrtune, though with a very lugubrious counterance’, explained that “he had lent, and lost his trousers, his trousers, his trousers,” to the intense delight of the audience, whose hearty singing of the chorus made the refrain “ I’ve lent and lost my trousers” to ring in my ears ever since. At eleven o’clock the entertainment was ever ,and the audience literally rushed out. It was amsing to see the floor of the pit; it was literally covered with orange peel and nut shells.

Our next visit was to the “Grecian,” in the City road. This is a place of considerable size, and consists of a theatre, an open-air platform for summer dancing, and a large hall for the same amusement in the winter. Every seat in the theatre was full, so we could not get in ; but we arc informed that one of the best pantomimes is being performed there. Having paid our sixpence we made our way to tho dancing-hall, and taking possession of one of tho seats which adorn its sides, watched the East End belles taking their enjoyment. The East ender danefs very differently from tho We:t-ender. The latter waltzes madly ro-ni and round, seldom reversing the motion, and in the quadrille quietly and languidly romd, backwards and forwards, a:a c ly (<n hing hii par'ner with the tips of his fingers. But the East-ender does c-xv-tly the" revers ; ; he whirls Lis partner mad’y round in f m quadrille, and nanves slowly aud to lately in the valsp, taking two or three limn one way, and then two or three tu asthe other, tt was surprising to see how woll nearly all of them danced. All seined to enjoy themselves thoroughly, and in tho same innocent manner. There was non? of that flaunting vice you see in tl.e WeM-End dancing saloon, and we did not hear a bad word ; and if some of the compliments paid by love sick swains to ladies fair wore crouched in tho broadtsb cockney dialect, we have no doubt that they were just a' nich apprcciatr d as if they had been framed in the striotist accordance with f indl-y Murray. Of course th'TO was ‘a good deal of horse-play, but all seemed good .humored and forbearing, Altogeth r, wo wcut away much impressed, pondering sadly whether, wi'.Ji rd! our education and refinement, the VVeat-enders are math belter than their East-end nei-hbors. - • British Mail.’