Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-10-20
BEGOwNED AND BEw1GGED.
Comic Aspect of the Lord Mayors Show
in the Great English Metropolis.
From the Ne,o York Tels0rans.

From the Neao York Tele0rana.
LONDON, Oct. 2.-In or out of season
London teens with oomicalities. Its best
ones are off the boards of the comic thea
tres and music halls. They can be seen
without pay. He is comical and yet
have an awe of him-that chap at the
Bank of England gate in an old court
RODE of brown, embroidered with red, and
wearing cooked hat duly gilded. He is
the most cOmical when the mercury is at
80 and his unctious face is oily with the
drops of persptration. Comical also are
his neighbors, the various messengers of
financial cOmpanies-sOme In gray and
some in violet cloth, and all with banded
hats.
Equally comical are the gutter vendors
along the four sides of the bank who
with sad faces and mournful tone, fling
at you as you pass a long line OF ele-
phaDtine pictures-"Only a penny-a
memorial of pur ohld Jumbeau." But
the most comfcal proceeding, with funnily
participating ceremonial, is a municipal
procession and legislative event such as
witnessed yesterday when the ''liveries"
and Aldermen chose a Lord Mayor. We
stand, let US say, at the Lothbury
street monument, fronting the prison-like
bank, our backs turned on the build
ing in which the Freshfelds, solicitors,
do a law business worth $500, 900 an
nually, and we are looking towards
Founders Court, in which Baron Grant
has an office, as for a sixth time he essays
to mend his broken fortunes. There is
around us an immense crowd, gaping and
laughing. Yes, my merry masters and
masses, you are awaiting the municipal
show that is turning from the Mansion
House en- route for the Guildhall, where
a Lord Mayor will be elected soon.
What is this? Is it a rehearsal of the
spectacle of ''Cinderellaw Clearly so.
Here are the fairy steeds caparisoned in
gilt and ribbons and bright steel chains,
just as he used to see them in pantomime
days. They draw a coach of Middle Ages
pattern, likewise gilded. Outside the
carriage window sticks a mace looking
like the club OF Fejee chief. Beside it
sits the mace bearer, in stuff gown and
cooked nat, and next him the Lord Mayor
in a scarlet robe, covered with fur and
chains and medals, as if he were
Cinderella's Prince. Behind the coach
stand two lackeys more gorgeous than
the coach inmates. They are statuesque,
with pin cushion calves. Every spectator
feels like sticking a pin into these to
realize the maxim. BLOOD will tell" All
VI buGS6 SHONlnEu tHAhh t4Sy o4C FoSNl1
fine But the street audience is grinning
and chatting them. Next came the liv-
erymen in queer gowns, marching. And
the common councilmen and aldermen, in
all varieties of cOlored gowns, looking
like the Peers chorus In ''lOlanthe." The
hedizened sherIffs are in other Cinderella
coaches.
or course it is sin to laugh at Sheriff
or to wish to steal pin to stick in the
calves Of their flunkies, but nevertheless
every one around has that jocular wish.
SO they pass up Gresham street (named
after as honest ana unpretentious a mer-
chant as ever liyed), and 80 into King
street to the front Of Guildhall, where
they Brighten the feeding pigeons, who
straightway hy up upon housetops
with cacchinating ''coos." The old
Mayor, when inside the council room,
takes of his medal and for moment
hangs it around the new one, who cannot
wear 1t until November comes
to install him. There are kotoos
and bowings and rustling Of gowns,
until the spectator expects to see Richard
Ill. coming in the person OF Edwin Booth
or Barry Sullivan to refuse the crown at
the hands of ''the Mayor and Recorder"
Like the ancient soothsayers, who were
only serious when ii was ''not form" to
smile, ali the begOwned andbewigged &C
tors looked as II they believed in this nom
sense. Not so the lockers on, who laugh
and laugh and laugh. And when get
into the outsider laughter ask one Of the
new voters what he thinks Of it all.
''Oh, it's old-fashiOned stuff" says he;
s'but the new elections will sooD get rid OF
it and reduce the rates."
Perhaps that would sound comical to
the new Lord Mayor-a worthy leather
merchant.