The times., 1897-04-25
VICTORIAN JUBILEE PARADE.
Extortionate Charges for Places
Along the Line of March.

Along the Line or March.
London, April cit IS a little difficult
even for me in the midst OF the excite
ment 10 believe the stories that pourin every
day about the prepoSterous sums OF money
SPECTATORS are paying for places along
the route of the queens procession on
Jubilee Day, June 22. l Will set down
few Of the transactions | heard OF yes
terday. A building on Fleet street with
twenty-eight windows on two sides OF 1t
has been rented for that afternoon for $780,
600 A chemist on Fleet street with two
windows above his shop has rented the two
for SIPS A tobacconist on the corner OF
Fleet street and Ludgate circus, who has
sixteen feet frontage and is obliged to pull
his building down for street improvements,
has signed an agreement To take S2,525 for
the bare site for Jubilee afternoon. AT
another place along the route, where it is
proposed to tear down sixteen-foot build
ing, a specuiator has leased the site and is
to put up his own stand for sightseers.
AT another place along the route where
firm is about to tear down an OLD building
and put up a new one jubilee Spectator
has agreed to pull down the old house and
build q cut-stone front for the new one If he
may have the ground on jubilee day A
tradesman with whom deal who has five
windows from which he thinks thirty 10
thirty-five people may view the procession
along Fleet street has had an offer of $500,
hut saws he is certain of getting $500. on
the same block is fish and oyster dealer
who sell cold Iuncheons, and because he has
n license to sell drinks as well as food, the
speculators yesterday made him al offer OF
| So 900 for his building for the AFTERNOON.
For all bare accommodations on pi.e
| boards or on woudenChairsb behind windows
thelowestpriCe quoted for a Seatis 500, but
already one begins to hear offs o and S1Oo
seatsinmore favored buildings where lunch
cons and drinks may be served or where
hotelkeepers are putting up stands around
their hotels Several of the best hotels
freouen ed by Americans are to have stands
| erected in front of them, but these are not
| for Americans They are for the regular
| English customers of the houses, whose pa
| tronage is more frequent, and who are
| therefore more worthy of consideration
For my part l don't know how the
Americans are going to see the show.
| I don't even know how I'm going to, for
there are to be no press accommodations,
| and the spectacle is certainly not going
to be worth $50 to see. No king or en-
| peror will take part in it, except possibly
| the King Of Siam. aud 1t will consist simply
of the Queen and an encourage of few
| regiments, only few of whom will be pic
| turesuue ones from the colonies. AS a
spectacle it will be nothing like so fine
| as that which attended the Duke of York S
| wedding.
Whenever talk to the seat spectators,
who are now buying up every coign OF van
| tage along the extended route, maintain
that there are not going to be In England
| enough men and women with f1O to spare
| to pay for all the tens and hundreds or thou
| sands of seats there will be- But the seat
gamblers only laugh and assure me l am
| wrong. They actually declare that there
are going to be ., 200, 900 extra people here
| and that there will be in this multitude
| enough Americans, Canadians, Australial
and South Africans who have no regard fol-
money to buy up all the seats. l predict
that there will be a great slump in prices
| but the SPECTATORS say that, on the con
trary, seats will probably sell at 920.
They argue from the fact that seats
offered at 91 on the Duke of York's wed,
ding procession were bought up by specu'
lators and sold for 915 and EGO before
| the procession came along. And this was
for an event that had not been much
advertised and had brought no strangers
TO England.
know a noblewoman who collects every
thing everywhere and all the time, and
says she never throws away anything she
gets hold OF. She is even collecting the
advertisements in the magazines and week
lies, because she says this era of eiviliza
tion is chiefly distinguished for its beauti
full advertisements. She has jubilee mug
made in 1887, and sold for a few pence
1t is worth two guineas now, because th'
others seem to have been destroyed.
consequence of this and other triumphs o
collecting, she tells me that she Will bav'
three men on the streets on Jubilee day
buying everything that is to be sold. Nj.
| own idea is that her collectors had bette