The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1883-08-31
The Foreign Office Reception.

London Letter in New York Tribune.
The official reception at the foreign Of
fee on the evening of the queens birth
day has long been considered the most
beautiful of the large parties given in
London. When the building was erected
suite of rooms was designed for the
purpose of such festival as this. There
ar fine approaches through Downing
street, and beneath the archway and
through the great court. The entrance
hall is spacious; the grand staircase is
one of the grandest in Europe, and al
ways decorated with masses of flowers.
The galleries surrounding it give per.
feet view of the ascending professions
of guests. In the succession of gayly
painted and gilded saloons which inclose
the four sides of the quadrangle, there
is room for 200 persons, or, perhaps,
wi h much crowding, 5000. Royalties
are ways present; generally good
many of them. Republican notions OF
equality may suffer violence by the
social homage paid to princes, but it
mus be conceded that the state which
su rounds them adds much to the splen-
dor of a great entertainment. On Satu.-
day the. prince of Wales had
been dining with the prime
minister; min in T.. Downing street,
up about II, and the two arrived togeth.
er. Their approach is announced, Lord
and Lady Granville, who have been
landing of the staircase, descend to the
lowact aton RI roooiva tho ~,r;p,o o,I
princess. The band plays ''God Save
the Queen" The guests, clustering in
the hall. on the staircase, in the CALLER
les above, and in the drawing-roolns,
range themselves in long avenue
through which the royalists pass. The
men bow low; the women courtesy;
situations which prince and princesses
alike return with general distribution
Of smiles and inclinations of the head.
The prince is in full uniform-tield mar
shaPs uniform, as guess, with the gar
ter over his shoulder. The princess is
all silk and lace and diamonds. OF the
guests, the men who have been at any
of the numerous official dinners given
the same evening. are in uniform OF
some kind, or in levee dress. The wo.
men are gorgeous; diamonds enough TO
ransom half u dozen kings cleaning OH
the stately pillars of fair, white throats
and white necks and shoulders. Lady
Granville wears tiara which am told
is most wonderful product of Brazilian
mines and the jewelers. cunning. There
are, to say the least, some hundreds of
women in these rooms whose Jewels are
each in their kind costly and splendid.
If you have heard that English women
dress badly you may well wonder
who all these divinely clothed
creatures are. I will not swear
that their dressmakers are English, but
the Wearers of the gowns are, in the pro-
portion of 10 out of 20, as you NAV see
by their pure skins and shapely figures,
not less plainly than by the English
stamp on their features. I dare say the
good American would declare they had
an English accent also. It is mixed as
semblaee, no doubt. Political reasons
have something to do with the making
up of Lady Granville's list, and many
reasons besides those of ia purely social
kind: I heard one Englishman, presum-
ably himself composed ofthe most super
fine porcelain, declare audibly in the
middle of large room that he never be-
fore saw such "beastly crowd" If it
many men as vulgar as the
author OF that speech, it certainly
deserved the epithet. This specimen Of
ill-breeding on the part of chance
guest might better be passed over in
silence, but it expresses in coarse way
the secret, unuttered scorn of the more
select and elegant society of London for
these great crushers. The more select
ind elegant are none The less here in
Force, and the best Of them may take
note of the perfect good-breeding and
thoughtful courtesy with which their
lost and hostess receive their guests OF
every degree. No use in giving Your
lames-the better known Of them fill
NO columns Of small print in the &C
.redited organ of the fashionable world.
t is long past 2 of Sunday morning be-
ore the hist of them have got their car
iages and driven away.