The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-24
JUBILEE REFLECTIONS.

Mr. Depew summarized the significance
of the London jubilee very well when he
said: Pride, power and alteration were its
characteristics-pride in the imperial posi-
ton of Great Britain in the world, and ex-
hibition of power which inspires this ma
tional exaltation and fervid loyalty in ac-
ton, expression and thought for the
Queen" These sentiments embrace fairly
well the entire scope of the occasion,
which, as a spectacular exhibition of i'm
perial power, has probably never been
equaled in the world before. Other dis
plays may have been as great in COMPARE
son with the power and resources behind
them. but in this case the power and re-
sources are practically unlimited and the
display is on the same scale. The wealth
of London is beyond computation, and
when to the resources of the British treas
ury are added the wealth of the nobility and
of the guilds and corporations and people
of London, all of whom have poured it
forth literally on this occasion, it is easy
to understand that no event in history has
been backed up by such unlimited means
of spectacular display as this. 1t Is such
an event as Maculay would have loved to
describe. The emblems and insignia of inn
perial power drawn from all quarters of
the globe, the various nationalties and
types of humanity, the blended arms and
uniforms of Britain with those of half saw
age but loyal colonies the flashing
weapons, the glittering jewels, the brilliant
orders of nobility and the competing trib-
utes of peers and princes. of kings and
commons, mngling in one picture of pro-
cessional display, would have furnished a
congenial theme for the greatest of Eng
fish word painters. Among the various
features of the celebration, which, by the
way, seems to have been planned by mas
ter hands and carried out with rare ex-
ecutive ability, mono seems to have been
more characteristic or suggestive of past
times and methods than the beacon fires
which famed from every hilltop in the
kingdom and flashed their message of Brit
ish loyalty across the sea and from one
distant land to another. The Photograph,
the signal service, and especially the tele-
graph, have quite supplanted this old-time
method of conveying intelligence or warn
Ing, out II was a nappy thought TO utilize
it in contributing to the imaginative side of
a modern jubilee. 1t has been long since
the beacon fires blazed last, and will prob
ably be long time before they are lighted
again, but as a feature of Victoria's cele-
bration they serve to recall the reign of an
other queen, when
Southwark from Surveys pleasant hills
flew those bright couriers FORTH
High on bleak Hampstead's swarthy moor
they started for the north;
And on, and on, without a pause, untired
they bounded still;
All night from tower to tower they sprang,
they sprang from hill to HILL
Till the proud peak unturled the flag Ger
Darwin S rocky daleS
Till like volcanoes fiared to heaven the
stormy hills of Wales,
Till twelve fair counties saw the blaze on
Malyerns lonely height
I'LL Streamed in crimson on the wind the
Wrekin.s crest of light,
Till Skiddaw saw the fire that burned on
Gaunt's embattled pile.
And the red glare on Skiddaw reused the
burghers of Carlisle.
In those days the fires were used only to
warn and alarm the people, while now they
bore message of peace and rejoicing The
progress Of science has made them useless
for any other purpose, and it may be many
generations before another occasion will
arise justifying their introduction as a fea-
ture of a national celebration.