The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-06-22
Random Notes of
Life i'm London.
Miss Kaiser Describes an Exciting Military
Tournament i'm Royal Agricultural Hall.

blossoming out into almost bewiloer-
Ing beauty, One would not know 1t Tor
the same London that, in the winter
months. Is dark, dull and dreary. We
are having q most beautiful spring
after winter. which, compared to our
winters at home, was mild In the eN-
treme, although the people here diu
make a great fuss over some rather
snappy weather, which we had Tor u
week or so once. do not think that
their usual winter here can be very Sc
we're, on the whole. because they be-
came positively frightened when the
Thames froze over here this last season.
One thing / notice very much In
deed Is the birds that they have over
in London. One would not think that
an Audubon society was at all neces-
eity in England, for the feathered song
sters are most numerous. and their
songs and twitterngs all the day long
make everything seem sort OF light and
pretty and happy. We do not live Far
from the heart of London-only penny
or tuppence fare from the Bank OF
England, and over here these birds
wake me In the morning. singing away
as early as 4 and o'clock. They make
me feel quite as II l were way out In
the country. There are hosts of them,
thrushes, robins che-winks and Others.
] have not heard a nightingale yet.
however, and am anxiously awaiting
that pleasure.
Some Human Song Birds.
But there is almost quite as much
pleasure to be had nowadays In listen
ing to the human song birds who are
now singing at the Royal Italian Opera
here, too, and go to enjoy myself there
as often az possible. We heard Melba
in Faust" last week, and in Romeo
and Juliet" one evening this week,
where she was simply charming.
liked her even more than l did In
Faust" and tonight We are to hear
her again in "Rigoletto." We enjoyed
the second Richter concert this Mon
day also. 1t was magnificent, and /
am even more devoted to dear old Herr
Richter than I was before. There was
a Phil harmonic performance this week,
and heard Mrs. Henschel again, like
wise new violinist, a Hungarian, with
an impossible name. and nice Mr.. Bor-
wick again at the plano in a time-worn
concerto of Beethovens. Mrs. Hen
schel had on a perfectly irresistible
gown. all white satin and gold, looked
very lovely indeed, and sang better
than she had when l heard her before.
The treat of the evening. however. was
a symphony by DR.. Hubert Parry.
which he conducted himself. 1t was
all very clever and very fine. suppose,
but so long that We did not enjoy it.
Nasrullah Khan.
The little yellow prince Is with us at
last, having arrived some days ago, and
the English, headed by their royal fam
fly and nobility, are making very much
ameer OF Afghanistan, as / think l
I told you before, and rejoices
in the black-coffee sounding name of
Nasrullah Khan. plus some more un-
spellable names and titles. Dorchester
house In Park Lane, which they have
taken for him, Is now converted into
a veritable little eastern city, and
shelters a suite Of no less than ninety
persons, all attached to this little Mo-
hammedan. Arrangements had to be
made for the killing Of all their own
meat by themselves, and on the prem
fses, and several other odd Eastern
tocratic mansion in which he 10 housed,
and for which the nation pays a rental
of over 5000 a month, while he Is on
his visit here. All the royalties are en-
tertaining him in turns, and he has
already visited the queen, the prince
and Princess Of Wales, and most Of the
rest Of 'em.
But we have had enough Of him,
think, and will tell you about the
military tournament, to which 1 went
the other day with Miss Radical and a
Few others. 1t is held every year by
the army people. in the Royal Agricul-
tural hall, the largest place under roof
In London, and Is a most exciting affair.
We went early and succeeded In getting
into the shilling seats, which are the
cheapest there, and we saw most easily
from our places. too.
Exciting Military Tournament.
The affair commenced with a contest
In sword cutting. and four members Of
four different crack mounted regiments
gallopsd In on their handsome charg-
ers and rode round the ring in quite old
time style, then charged down the
hall at q whzzing pace. cutting off the
heads Of dummy enemies as they flew
Fast. Some of them missed of course
as u Ia q very difficult feat, but some
Hlashed right and left as they rode by
cutting Off the heads Of all the dummy
enemies. Their horses were magnifi-
cent creatures, and seemed quite as
proud Of q difficult feat performed as
their soldier riders.
The next thing was a lemon cutting
contest, IN which row Of lemons, five
or Elk feet apart, were hung up in a
straight line, and the mounted soldiers
rode through the arena again and at a
break-neck pace, trying to cut the lem
ons In two as they passed. One SOL
der did succeed in cutting each lemon
nicely in halves as he skirmished past
them on his snorting horse, and, of
course, ne received the prize.
Then there was a contest in tent-peg-
ging, in which a mounted soldier rode
full tilt through the place, picking out
from the ground. where they were firm
ly imbedded, two tent pegs, with a long
lance held in his hand. After that there
came an exhibition of military tactics
by company of the Queens Egyptian
soldiery, brought over from Cairo to
take part In the tournament. They
were very fine, handsome black fell
lows. looking very cool and supple in
their pure white uniforms and red
fexzes. This feature was great sue
cess, and was indeed so interesting that
the duke and duchess of York, who.
with nearly all of the rest of the Royal
family, were present, insisted on its
repetition, for the sake OF the duke of
a ko xryh tn, 1saf e.t.