Omaha daily bee., 1897-06-25
THEIR TRIBUTE OF TEARS
Poorest Of Londo1's Poor Pour a Libation
TO Princess Bountiful.
WALES AND WIFE RECEIVE TRUE HOMAGE
In the Banquet to the OutcnSts and
Neglected Of the Metropolis the
Jubilee Finds Its Hest
Expression,


Copyright. 1897 by Press Publishing Company |
LONDON June 2i-tNew York World |
Cablegram-Special Telegram) TUESDAY the |
queen rode in pompous state through miles /
Of packed and shouting subjects. Today the
princess Of Wales walked i'm all simplicity /
between two long tables and patted little
crppes on the head. To a contemplative |
mind it almost seems as il the princess din 1
ner to the poorest Of London's poor has been .
a more striking incident OF the jubilee than .
was the great procession. None OF the illu-
limitations night before last fla he'd as brightly |
as the eyes of the 600 tiny sufferers whom |
the princess smiled at. The lord mayor was /
not as proud when the queen touched the |
sword he bore at Temple Bar as a tiny |
hunehback was when the princess cut for |
him the roast beef which was too much for |
his weakling hands to master No episode |
OF Tuesday nights state banquet more !
impressive than that. This noon when a ,
little Briton, with clubbed feet and dirty |
hands, lifted a glass of lemonade and drank |
the health Of the prince of Wales smilingly |
the prince reached to a vacant place and !
lifting another glass, raised it 20 the cripple
as meaningy as the future king of England |
! could drink from gold cup to a continental !
| monarch
POWER OF A PRINCESS.
! And from end to end of London the mar !
! velous feasts began at noon. Almost 100000
| of the poorest OF the poor partook this
! day of the biggest dinner ever served since
! the world began. The feast was served IN
| q hundred halls. Thousands OF aged and in
| firm were bountifully fed in their own homes.
! When the princess first conceived the scheme
she wrote to the lord mayor who had charge
Of the jubilee arrangements There seems
| to me to be one class which has been over
! looked, namely, the poorest of the poor in
| the slums of London Might plead for
| these that they may have some share in the
| festivities of the day?
| She pleaded so well that London folk gave
| $250OOo to a fund she started. Today the
| fund fun nished good dinner to one-sixth as
| many people there are in New York CITY
! people who had forgotten or never knew how
it feels to have the stomach full. The poor
| eet of the poor means much in London
! where one out of every four spends part OF
| his life in a wOrkhouSe. But it also means
much to be the guest Of the princess of
! Wales. Nc jeweled lady ever more heartily
| appreciated the latter fact than the paupe s
did today, And jeweled laiies cannot know
the joy of filing empty stomachs, so pau
| peTs had the better of il.
The biggest as well as the most nternt-
| ing of many separate dinners was that given
! TO 1900 crippled children at the Peoples
| Palace. 1t was that dinner which l watched
and as l watched l marveled. The Peoples
| Palace rises fine and large in the most pow
| erty-haunted part Of the woeful East End
| which was made known by the novel "All
Sorts and Conditions of Men" but nothing
| which Walter Besant wrote in that mar
| velous book was strange as the sight
| saw today in the building it built. When
the little ones were brought up to the great
| doors-many Of them so deformed that they
must needs be carried in-I thought of
Lourdes' great shrine in the south of France
where last summer l watched such horro:s
| as Dante never dreamed Of But a brief
glance at the eyes and smiling lips of wee
| sufferers enough to dispel the compari-
son. Here childish joy; there weary sorrow
WAITING WAS WEARY.
A half hour before the feast began all were
! in their places, most of them gladly eypectant
at the greatest treat their tiny pan-wracked
lives had ever known. But in the tiresome
time of waiting some grew frightened and
set up piping walls, while others were ap-
palled by too long contemplation of the
unwonted gorgeousness. Tortured by agony,
| overcome by weakness, some tainted in their
chairs and were gently taken out. Almost
on the moment the prince and princess ac-
companied by their two daughters, entered
the hall. Britons till death, the whole com
| pany Of little cI.pples tried to rise, but alas
| there were too many shriveled legs and
| twisted spines. Their homage not less
| earnest, however, because a good part waited
! in the outward sign. Not less pitfully i'm
pressiye were the waillng notes Of the ma
tional anthem when pped out by 1000 little
voices, most of them shrilled by suffering
The beautiful. bountiful princess wept and
smiled.
When l the prince on Tuesday in the
great parade, red coated and gold laced, he
looked fat and stupid. Today when tears
rolled down his checks, in answer to the
pathetic salutation, il seemed to Eng
lands future king was not such bad fell
low after all. The princess vision OF
creamy muslin and heliotrope silk, nodded
nd lal oh oh. f,,
tween the tables, and the spirit of a mother
shOne in her kindly face when she patted
half a dozen little crlppes on the head.
Sometimes she stopped and asked about the
health OF some poor little one-a question al
ready answered by the plnched face and
crippled body. Ideally, she fulfilled the part
of the good fairy; ideally, the children played
the parts OF innocence, overwhelmed by the
sight of Wonderland marvels.
| The speeches were mercifully brief Then
came the dinner. Each child got a plate OF
hot roast beef, vegetables, puddings, oranges
and lemonade, such sumptuous fare as they
! had never known before.
! FLOWERS AND TEARS.
Not the least pathetic incident of this
unique banquet occurred just before the royal
party left the platform. few feeble cheers
showed something was happening Two tiny
! cllpples were seen carrying huge bouquets
, toward the princess. They were among the
most robust in the room, but almost UNEQUAL
to the task At the end they were lifted TO
the platform by willing hands, Four people,
the prince and princess and the little Grip
Piles were weeping when the episode ended.
AS the princess left she said sorrowfully to
Earl Compton: Poor, poor little ones II
| only could do more for them"
The princess visited three dinners in all
At CleTkenwell the crowd was a miscsllane-
Gus one Of men, women and children. There
! seemed to have been serious mistake in the
distribution OF tickets, for while a sullen
hungry looking crowd stood gloomly outside
and watched the lucky ones, the ticket bear
ers seemed well-fed, reasonably prosperous
lot, and yet the princess gave her dinner TO
the poorest Of the poor.
The other dinner which the princess per-
p sonaly visited was In Hoborn. These din
ners TO half million hungry folk are not
: the least glorious episode Of the jubilee
EDWARD MARSHALL
, AMERICAN COMPLIMENTS PLEASE