The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-02-02

ira concerts again, and, by the way,
heard yet another new pianist, a NJ.
Diemer, French, / think. He plays
very well, but liked the orchestral
things the best. We had Beethoven,
Mozart, Saint-Saens, and of course,
Wagner.
Beside London Fireplace.
1t has grown quite cold for London
this month, and we have cute little
fires lighted in our rooms, and / love
to sitby my fire, when practice is done,
and watch it burn. The soft coal they
use over here is very full of gas, and
it burns with great deal of flame, al
most like wood. 1t is very odd, think,
to ring and ask the maid for more
Goals" when the scuttle is empty. They
never call it coal over here; 1T is al
ways "coals," and by the way, costs
four pence a scuttle full. 1 remember,
when in Wales this summer, going into
raptures over. the picturesque old
fashioned fire places, as contrasted
with our hot air registers and steam
heat radiators. But that was in the
summer, when we really did not need
a fire, but had one just to take the chill
off the air. l have since returned to
my old love, however, since actual cold
weather has come upon us, and now
declare most emphatically in favor of
our more advanced system of 'heating
our houses. These London houses
have been built for centuries, most of
them, and are provided with a most
wonderful number of fiues and Chin
ney pots, down which the sweeps really
do come, once or twice year, but their
rooms are so big and high and chilly
that one little fire in q fire place is not
at all enough to make an American
warm. These English say we overhead
our houses, anyway, and they like
chill, fresh air, / nuice. As matter
of fact, though, l like the climate here
exceedingly. 1t is never hot, and never
very, very cold, either, but always
sort of fresh and damp from the sur
-. --.ng waters, / suppose. Rain may
fall at any minute, Notwithstanding,
SO l carry my umbrella religiously
wherever L go.
Pleasant Winter I q ,tlrne.
The other day / went with one Of
| the girls to see some skating in St.
James park. The ice is not very good
| here, as the weather has not been cold
| enough to freeze hard; nevertheless
there have been many impetuous
youths and madens evidently seeking
a watery grave. There have been
some disappointments in the matter,
luckily, but in all of the parks
where the artificial lakes froze over a
bit, have been regularly wholesome i'm
mersions and some fatalities. In one
park / saw the ice give way and let
from thirty to fifty people down in the
water up to their shoulders and chins.
They had to be fished out, all wet and
sticking together generally, and be sent
home, cold and cross, in cabs. l don't
go on, and really went with my friend
to keep her off, too. We passed across
the front of buckingham palace. a
great big, gloomy building with i'm
posing looking lions on the top of it.
1t is here that the queen comes and
| lives for about three or four days per-
haps, in every year, spending the rest
of the time at Windsor, or in Balmoral
in Scotland. My Miss Radical says,
What is the use of an English queen
to us way up there in Scotland?" She
| is terrible radical, and admires our
| government very much. She does not
admire the queen at all, and whenever
the other girls say anything compli-
mentary to her majesty she grumbles
out. 1.-The queen is an old trump! She
doesn't even know enough to get new
bonnet" and so on. The queens pre-
dilection for bonnets on which time
1 -, l,rt 4 al to, III
known, and my friend also laughs de-
risively at the poor waiting women to
| the queen, who get nearly frozen to
death every year on account of her ma
jestys decided preference for cold and
biting air, while our conservative
| friends speak so admiringly on the
other hand of her sound British con-
| stitution," and so on. Miss Radical
very much admires John Burns, who
has just returned from America, and
who is now undergoing newspaper in
terviews In one of his talks he said
he supposed he committed an offense in
not allowing himself to be dined and
wined, and if he had done so he sup
posed he would have throttled the
hydra of much press fiction about him.
| Stll. II 10 IL Iustolll, say WIN
some people to be dined and wined
and then, returning home, write a book
ridiculing their entertainers and de-
nouncing the things they had glorified.' "
l wonder if Max O'Rell saw that.
hope he did.
| Coming Amuscmcnts.
I have been to a great deal this week,
but I cannot remember it all. l have
had the pleasure of seeing Rold Arditi
conduct an opera, as we'll as Henschel
with his orchestra at the symphony
concert. Next week l am to hear Alice
Gomez sing and n number of other
people. too-Ben Davies, Foil, Antoin-
cite Sterling and some more. On an
other night my Scotch lassie and l will
take in Henry James Guy Domville''
from the dress circle in st. James thea
ter, where it is on. This Saturday
night there is a concert, too, at the
Royal Academy, where my Scotch girl
Is to have two of her songs performed
and, Of course. we shall all go and APP
plaud vociferously when they are done
for the honor of our house. l am well
and happy and more in love with Lon
don than ever. Sadie +. Kaiser.
| ERRORS OF MEMORY.