The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-27 00:00:00

CRYSTAL PALACE.

A very varied programme of Christmas entertain-
ments was honestly worked through yesterday at the Crys-
tal Palace, and it would, so doubt, have very mach amused
the thirty or forty thousand permits who had started in the
morning from home with the intention of eouscientiously
doing a day at hinge, had the latter, or one-tenth of them,
been able to get within reasonable seeing distance of the per
There was quite a brigade of gymnasts of
various kiods, and we occasionally caught a glimpse of a
pair of scarlet heels quivering in the air, but se a gourd
rule we were principally indebted to youthful visitors, who
were perched on the shoulders of eclat relatives, for any
'weenie notion of wha was going on. Mr. Jean Bond,
the Antipode's star, performed wonder with the assistance
of a well-trained dog ; the brothers Nemo introduced the
Japanese style of tumbling ; not to mark of Sinister, the
Chmaisil Boaster. and the grand pantomime with which
the varied 'attainments of the day terminated. What we
could see of the above enumeration was well and succemfully
done, and elicited successive rounds of applause ; but that
portion of the day. incidents which deserves the most de-
tailed description includes the perils and mishap. of the jour-
ney could frona,the Palau. Visitors who arrived at London-
bridge at half-put one o'clock were delighted to find them-
selves safely landed on the Palace platform at ten minutes
past four, baring in the interim suffered every imaginable
horror of a railway journey short of actual collision. First,
there was an hour of semi.suffooetion in the pen at London-
bridge, then the race, with nobody to keep the course clear,
down the platform. and tioally the terrific series of single
combats which the determined passenger had to fight Won
obtaining any seat in any sort of carriage. At this point,
foolish people imagined that all their troubles were over, but
they were, in fact, only beginning. In coosequeaos of the
number of trains which had been going down all the morn.
log, and which of course Lai to come back again, the
whistle was kept constantly going, and the trains nearly as
permanently at a standstill. We made New-emes in about
40 minutes, and did the remaining distatioe to Sydenham In
about 30 more, but on arriving there were thunderstruck to
Had the platform kept in possession by a perfect army of
most suspicious looking " roughs," who pretended they
were waiting to return to town, and made regular assaults
on the passengers by first-class carriages who had jest ar-
rived. Our strong suspicion was that they had got in
there by some aide entrance, and that the said side en-
trances will require in future to be a little more vigilantly
watched by the police. These fellows caused much alarm
toaeveral ladies, and it requ4nd all the exertions of the few
railway porters to prevent them forcing their way into the
still unemptied carriages, most probably with the view of
pluaderiog the passengers.
The fact is that there being now three method, of access
to the Palace—Lonclon•bridge, Victoria, and the London,
Chatham, and Dover—it will soon become necessary, both
for railway and Palace authorities, to look ;Ito their means
of managing such a crowd as congregated yesterday at
Sydenham. Numbers alone, even if all were peaceable and
well conducted, require careful management ; but when, es
was obvious yesterday, crowds of bad characters congre-
gated on the platform, with every suspicion about them of
equivocal designs, it becomes obvious that there must be
more police and stronger staffs ori the various platforms.
In France the three classes of passengers enter by three
different doors, and remain separated until they an placed
in their proper carriages ; but on the Crystal Palace lines
they all rush indiscriminately on to the same platform,
when the third class passengers take posessaion of the first
class carriages, and there is sot sufficient time or force to
eject them. Ladies, elderly people, and °Ultimo, who
have quite as good a right to their holiday as the more
I robust members of the community, ate thus constantly
left behind, and the railway authorities get blamed for in-
' lu,tice which they had never intended, but which in our
opinion might be easily guarded &genet. Probably one of
c the most imposing sights in the world is the Boxing-day
I crowd at the Crystal Palace, but to give it its full effect it
ought to have its fair admixture of all classes. A few
roughs" here and there may give life sad motion to the
picture, but it is hardly fair to the other classes of society
to give them entire poesession of the field. We must not
forget the snore docile animals who were to be seen in the
tropical department in Mr. Edmoud's (formerly Worubwell's)
menagerie. There are no lees than twenty performing
i lions, leopards, and tigers, and they is their conduct to
I Sandallah, the renowned lion hunter, exhibited a politeness
iend courte-y that formed a pleasing contrast to some of the
' 1 previous ischlents of travel. The show, which is all under
. cover, was attractive enough to produce between three sod
1 four hundred pounds—a sum which being all in sixpences.
I represent' a succession of tolerably numerous audieuoes.