The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-05-19
OLD WORLD SKETCHES.

the royal palace. When one wanders To-
months among people with whom they
can exchange scarcely word of CONVEX
sation, and particularly when he is wan
dering for the express and definite pur
pose of seeing all that he can see, hi
soon learns to take advantage of the
faculty of observation, to put two anC
| two together, as it were, and always am
| forever to fall in with the crowd.
Therefore, reasoning that the crowC
must be assembled to "see something, >
l resolved to stand by and see something
myself, albeit | had not the remotestides
| whether the spectacle was to prove
temperance revival or prize fight.
| The royal palace at Amsterdam does
not, it must be confessed, present an i'm
posing exterior, and. as it was upon this
occasion altogether unadorned by deco
rations of any description, l could moi
| imagine the event was about to witness
could be in any wise connected with a
| fete, or occurrence of unusual preten.
sions. Nevertheless, had hitherto oh.
served that, throughout the entire city
innumerable Dutch flags had been
thrown to the breeze, and had been quite
| at loss to account for it. A vague idea
that it might be the Queens birthday, OIL
something of that sort, had possessed
my mind, but found no corroboration in
any proceedings had thus far observed
as indicating public festival. But the
assembling of the populace in front of
the palace might, possibly, be clue to
the situation, or, at least, form the pre-
liminary to some spectacle of interest,
and, so edged into the crowd, worked
my way, in true American fashion, into
the reserved seats, and awaited further
developments.
Now, if you can, imagine yourself
joining with an excited, enthusiastic
crowd, waiting to witness some event of
popular interest, and mingling with
those people, with all their vivacious,
talkative anticipation, and, at the same
time, be utterly ignorant of the charac-
ter and purpose of the assemblage, and
absolutely incapable of deriving the
slightest information from your neigh
bors, as to its purport. You must stand
ard wait, while every one about you
talks it over and discusses this thing and
that thing connected with it, and fancy
that you are real excited and anxious
over it. At such time, you can only
use your eyes, for you might as well be
in mid-Africa for all the good your
tongue or ears Will do you.
First, noticed a detail of police stroll
ing up and down in the space reserved
between the crowd and the palace; then
the pres ence of small company of sol
diers, evidently the palace guard, and,
evidently, awaiting summons to ''fall
IN" lastly, there was a carpet spread
over the steps to the principal entrance
to the palace. All these would seem to
indicate tile expected arrival of some
distinguished parsonage. Could it be
the Queen, and had it any reference to
the display of flags? 1 would wait and
see.
1t was cold, raw, chilly, disagreeable
day, as sudden a reverse of the very
pleasant weather we have lately been en-
joying over here, and even the enthusi-
asm of the crowd was tempered by the
atmosphere. The police kept walking
up and down, beating their arms upon
their breasts, rubbing their hands, and
striking their toes againgt the paving
1t was cold. The crowd, too, soon be-
gan to beat its arms, and clasp it's fin
gers, and kick its toes, and found no
more convenient way of keeping COM
Portable, or rather of continuing the en-
durance of comfort myself. Thus we
waited an hour. My idiocy began to
sprout. What l was waiting for, l had
never the faintest idea, but there stood
and shivered-and all because somebody
else did. Pretty soon gnal passed
among the police, and they fell into a
guard line to keep back the crowd from
the reserved space in the front of the
palace. Everybody about me evidently
murmured the Dutch for They're com
ing" but it was false alarm, and no
body came. Then another half hour
was shivered away, during which my
idiocy budded. By and by the soldiers
strutted out and fell into line, and six
of them were detailed to form double
line facing and guarding the aforesaid
carpeted steps. Something was now
surely going to happen and 1 took fresh
courage. Another hour was frozen in
the cold storage of unpleasant expires.
sion, during which nothing occurred, ex-
cept the crowd several times revived un-
Ger the erroneous impression that some
body was coming, and as many times re-
lasped again into icy stupidity upon dis
covering that somebody was not.
Officers of the police, military officials,
and distinguished looking civilians
strolled leisurely arm-in-arm in pairs or
trios up and down in the reserved space,
visiting away with that exasperating self
possession and cool air of indifference
that such functionaries always assume
on such occasions. They knew all about
it, they did; they were in no hurry, and
anticipated nothing; they were accus-
toned to that sort of thing, they were,
and they could appear perfectly at ease
and careless of time, and smile, and even
jest with one another, because they knew
just what was going to happen and when
1T was going to happen, and they would
be hanged if they ever breathed word
of it beforehand to anybody.
Have you ever noticed that? Did you
ever observe the delicious unconscious
ness of those who represent the stero-
typed "among the distinguished guests
present werc' in the newspaper reports,
as they sit upon the platform or grand
stand and await the arrival of the orator
of the day? Everybody is looking at
them and they know it, because there is
nothing else to do until the principal OBJ
ject of attraction arrives. Or, again,
have you ever noticed at union religious
meetings, which are to be participated in
by several clergymen, the same old for
mula that is enacted over and over again
in the pulpit? How the Rev.-trips
meekly up to his place and is welcomed
by the "home" pastor and handed to his
seat And then how the home pastor
suddenly starts up and beckons one of
the deacons to the pulpit, and they have
a low whispered consultation which
eventually results in the closing of the
Il I'D