The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-06-07
A DAY AT CRYSTAL PALACE.
Some of the Wonders a Little Washing
ton Girl Saw in London.
BY ETHEL NJ. ARMIES.

- hiSiS We AhahisS.
Our party consisted of six-my mother, sis
ter, and myself, Mrs. s., her boy Charlie,
and his aunt. At ~ o'clock we took the train
for Sydenham, a suburb of London, and where
this wonderful palace is situated. We arrived
there at ! O'Clock. When we stepped out of
the palace station fairyland greeted our eyes
That is the place for the children and is almost
worthy enough to take trip across the "mill-
pond" to see it alone. The grounds around
this wonderful fairy palace are beautiful
fountains, miniature lakes with bridges over
them, switchback, maze and toboggan
slide.
1.-THE switchback first !" was the cry of the
younger members Of our party as they ran
toward that imposing structure. "Tuppence
ride; quick, before the car starts ~ sang out
the man who was ringing the bell We ran
up the steps, each with two large English PEN
MES In our hands. "Ready ~ cried the man.
We hastily dropped our pennies in the ticket
Office, opened the gate and seated ourselves
In the car. push, start, and our breath
was taken away by the rapidity of the motion.
Down again "Now let's go to the maze"
said Ceeily, and off we ran, leaving our mothers
to walk on behind. Oh, the mistakes we made,
but what fun, running in and out of the wind
ing paths, meeting many bewildered people
and now and then getting pricked with the
hawthorn hedge. 1--WE ought to have one in
Washington," said 1. eff we have park
large enough we must have one," said Cecily.
We found our way to the centre, and after
resting bit and watching the people looking
longingly and wondering how ever we got in
we started to find our way out, which is al
most as mystifying as trying to hunt for the
centre If one does not know the way. We
then started for lunch at the palace.
"Have you any ice cream?' we asked the
waiter. eyes, we ave some," and he brings
us the most horrid stuff we ever tasted, but you
may be sure we did not take much of it, and
were soon off on a hunt for soda-water. We
got it ! But we don't want it again AS we
had had something substantial before we
asked for ice cream, we roved through the in
terror of this great palace. 1t would take a
book to describe the wonders we saw, and |
will only ''pass on'' through the Egyptian
Court, the beautiful picture gallery, the lovely
fountains and palm trees, the elephants per-
formance, the ponies and clowns, the attract
I've booths, the penny fortune tellers, and all
the old curiosites and initiative rooms, on to
the open air. The fireworks will begin at
eight. 1t is now half-past seven, and Charlie,
us girls to the toboggan slide while his mother
secures the seats for the fireworks. The seats
are siXpence each.
The entrance to the toboggan slide is ''tup-
pence" There are beautiful colored lights
everywhere, which make it almost as light as
as wink" 60 down the long wooden slide,
bump in at the end and nearly tumble off, but
we are up again ready for another ride. We
meet Mr. Gibbs, friend, who offers to take
US down, but it is too late, for off we go!
"How lovely! Oh ! how do they make it like
that - we and many others exclaim, when
seated looking at those wonderful fireworks.
"Oh, there are all the scenes from Jack the
Giant Killer" said l. "Yes, but see the
snake chasing the butterfly" We find our
selves breathlessly interested to see if that ter
rible fiery snake catches the pretty butterfly,
but they all die out in minute.
Then follow the whistlng rockets, Niagara
Falls living fireworks by the half dozen and
firecrackers. 1t took over an hour for this
magnificent display of fireworks
Then we went to see pretty little pantomime
entitled 'The Witches Haunt" That lasted
about two hours and half, during which l
witnessed the most beautiful dancing have yet
seen.
Oh how nice 1t was after the sights we had
seen to be in little compartment all to our
selves in the train. We played all the
English and American games we could, and
reached London happy with the conviction
that we had seen one of her grandest sights.