St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-09-28
SPECTACLE OF THE HOUSE OF
LORDS.

Harold Frederic, in his London
letter to the New York Times, says
Gilbert and Sullivan began this week
directing rehearsals of their new
comic opera at the Savoy. Interest
in this event, which gives welcome
new lease of life and phase OF human
hniovment which had seemed dead
and buried, has been much dampeodi'
however, by the superior opera bouhe
attractions at Westminster. The
show at the House of Lords has
proved much funnier than the most
confident of advance agents nad
promised. Everybody has laughed
so steadily, in fact, that there is dan,
ger of the underlying gravity and
Importance of the thing being some
what lost sight of. Whatever pit
terness and sternness may be import
ed into the struggle later on, 1t must
be admitted that John Bull enters
upon this great advertised liie-and,
death contest with the bogeyman OF
hereditary privilege with broad
grin on his well-known rubicund VS.
age.
1t really has been extraordinary
funny. Something like fifth OF the
whole number performers had new
er been inside the chamber OF peers
till last Tuesday. To fully one-half
the remainder it was almost as un-
familiar. These titled strangers,
whipped up to London from their
grouse and partridge, and denied
even the sacred solace of the st. Leg
err swarmed into the corridors OF the
House of Lords on Tuesday in droves
like rustics on personally conduct
ed tour through the sights OF the
metropolis. Policemen had to oe
stationed at every turn in the pas
saees to show them the way to the
scene of their deliberations. AS tor
identifying them-that was quite be
yond the powers of the servants O
the House. Apparently any elderl,,
farmer wearing cover coat Will
side pockets could pass freely in ant
> take his seat without a question
This bucolic effect colored the Who'll
q assemblage. In Difference to the oc
q casion, all wore black coats, bu
their sunburnt, heavy faces, hug
q red hands, and awkward postur
q kept suggesting that they Dug hit II
;, stead to be dressed in tweeds an
y CATERS. Here in London we thin
!, of peers, mostly as carefully dressed
" even dapper, habitues of Piccadill
: and the Row. But in the grea
T. formal muster of the peerage tn
h handful of well-tailored men OF II
" world was fairly showed under L
y, serred masses of countrihed squire
-, This effect of hayseed was by I
n. means confined to appearances. \
,e tub-thumping demagogue could
n e wished for more artless, unsoph
I'D ticated audience. They laugh
he wildly at bold elementary Jok
an which even the drivers of fourwhe
;s ers wearied of decade ago, In
81; stared at such speakers as strove
j. discuss the home rule bill on t
,le grounds of logic, law and constr
- tional precedent. But when che;
.'ds er sort, like Cranbrook, rose a
no simply went for Gladstone as kna
.ed liar, traitor and lunatic, and spat
rlv the Irish, trampled them under tt
t;Il as scoundrels, murderers, alien SC
"a. and filth, then they beloved
,us great volleys of "Hear, hear"
in. the roar of their own prize bulls
, a home. They listened with obvi
l;rt amazement to warnings such
less Spencer gently limited and Roseo
bluntly thrust at them, that t
and order itself was on trial and st
d;f- in jeopardy. 1t seemed to them
and surd. They know, of course,
in. there are some low fellows IN
nj. towns who talk like that, but
h ;s there are unruly poachers at nc
,rf,l They cannot see that there is n
,uld in it than that, and so they stol1
ence cheeriuly trooped out last night
n f]y hind Salisbury-4O0 of them
ard the lobby against home rule.
is was nearly a hundred more thar
tia, House of Lords voting list has
SIM recorded before. 1t took them
vate a half-hour to pass in single I'll
+ to fore the throne. On the way
f the they made mild rural jokes as
Dis Of edged along, taking it all as a
inter-. mendous lark
"a the AS it has been said, the +
ipht themselves, for the moment
and only the ridiculous side of the
in the spectacle of these hundre
middle headed beefy rustics drt
up to town from their pre-oe
ton over game preserves ant