He delivered it in a place of less dignity
than the House of Commons, but one, throughout Great Britain
and her colonies, as widely known and as well supported. This was
the Empire Music Hall.
At the time Mrs. Ormiston Chant had raised objections to the
presence in the Music Hall of certain young women, and had
threatened, unless they ceased to frequent its promenade, to have
the license of the Music Hall revoked. As a compromise, the
management ceased selling liquor, and on the night Churchill
visited the place the bar in the promenade was barricaded with
scantling and linen sheets. With the thirst of tropical Cuba still
upon him, Churchill asked for a drink, which was denied him, and
the crusade, which in his absence had been progressing fiercely,
was explained. Any one else would have taken no for his answer,
and have sought elsewhere for his drink. Not so Churchill. What
he did is interesting, because it was so extremely characteristic.
Now he would not do it; then he was twenty-one.
He scrambled to the velvet-covered top of the railing which
divides the auditorium from the promenade, and made a speech. It
was a plea in behalf of his "Sisters, the Ladies of the Empire
Promenade."
"Where," he asked of the ladies themselves and of their escorts
crowded below him in the promenade, "does the Englishman in
London always find a welcome? Where does he first go when,
battle-scarred and travel-worn, he reaches home? Who is always
there to greet him with a smile, and join him in a drink? Who is
ever faithful, ever true--the Ladies of the Empire Promenade.
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