The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-13
ENGLANDS JUBILEE WEEK.
PEOPLE AVOIDING LONDON AND
ITS GREED AND CROWDS.

In0er y Ntouu- eAhN DSNSf
LONDON, June 5.-Nothing that can possibly
happen in the outside world will DO important
.nonvh to distract John Bulls attention from
tbs family party which he is to give in London
an June -. The Turks may slaughter q few
,bousand .Armcn!ans or Cretans, the Kaiser
NAV send a dozen insulting kilograms. Kruger
NAV defy the London con vention, Mckinley
NAV rcpudiatc the Behring Sea award -nothing
will disturb the English people in their deter
uination to make merry on the occasion of the
,ixtieth anniversary of Queen Victoria's corona
ton. There are exceptions. Of course. Some
there are who look forward TO the approaching
Jubilee celebrations with dread. Many OF these.
and they include a numerous representation Of
Americans resident in London, will put as wide
,distance as the railways permit between them
,.lyes and this metropolis during jubilee week.
lido not question their prudence and good sense. |
for the very idea OF London en- Jate has sone-
thing homogeneous about It
lint London is going to do her very best to be
nav and to entertain her visitors--provided they
have rlenty OF money in their pockets. The
preparations are well advanced and the town Is
already transformed hideously transformed.
A mask OF white pine has destroyed all the
architectural beauty tho city possessed. and
from Piccadilly TO London Bridge there stretches
long panorama OF timber barricades and gro
ThhNA $3.50
o., a new mining town in Colorado. OF course
when the great day arrives much of this ugli-
ness will be hidden behind the greatest blanket
o, humanity ever woven by the loom of civiliZa-
ton; but at present London is an offence to all
ewes except her own, and those are blinded by
greed.
Slowly and reluctantly there 10 beginning to
appear some manifestations OF a decent and
patriotic spirit in connection with the approach
" a.
pelhshness which was everywhere shown in the
Jubilee preparations is now complete and sub
~s;antial. The colonials. provincials and Ameri.
cans who were to have been the prey of London
greed have all revolted. They have refused to
be robbed, and tho sordid metropolitans are be-
ginning 10 take the salutary lesson to heart.
Many thousands Of seats. including the best,
along the six-mile route OF the jubilee process
Eion remain unsold. and the demand for them
has ceased. Ten dollars to-day will buy a
really good place from which to watch
the Queen pass by. and a month ago $50 would
have been refused for the same accommodation.
Only in the semi-circle of buildings facing the
steps OF st. Paul's Cathedral is the scale OF
prices still maintained. As for furnished fats
and apartments. the rates have suddenly fallen
to less than the figures for an ordinary London
season. Ali this, OF course, is directly due to the
outrageous rapacity Of London's demands dur
ing the winter and spring. There is no falling
OF in the number Of official visitors. but the
great army Of private sishtseers which was ex-
pected has been frightened away and will come
In far less numbers than had been anticipated.
Whatever else may be the result of the late
Greco-Turkish campaign. it is responsible for
the very successful first appearance OF the
bicycle on the stage Of war. Wilfred Pollock.
Who acted as special correspondent for the Lon
don Morning Post, has just returned to London.
claiming to have established a new wheeling
record. He passed through the campaign. prac-
tically from first to last, on a bicycle. He did not
take a machine ont with him, as every one who
had been in Greece assured him that 1t would be
useless. But when, on his arrival in Thessaly.
he saw the level roads between volo and Larissa,
and made up his mind that the Greeks would
soon be driven back from the mountainous
frontier, he telegraphed to Athens for a bicycle.
On the first day Of the affair at Matt, a second
hand. second-grade machine duly turned UP in
LArissa." In spite of this description it carried
him safely through the campaign. without even
IN approach 10 a breakdown. The roads were
pretty bad. but. as Nr. Pollock says. to the
bicycle no carriage roads are impossible. A t
times he had to walk a mile or two, and some
times he had to carry the machine. But this was
seldom, and never for any great distance.
Many Of the mountain passes even were nego-
liable, the Zigzag cuttings being well graded.
As his bicycle was not furnished with q brake,
he had to remember when riding down q pass
that the corners OF the twists were not banked.
Bat as he got safely through without accident,
Il 10 certain that in future wars the CORE
spondent will be more frequently seen awheel
Than on horseback II the country Ia at all prac-
ucable.
Mr.. Pollock points out it's manifold advan.
tAges. Even on the Greek roads the bicycle
proved itself much faster than either horse or
carriage, and IL was entirely due to this fact
That on three most important occasions his
dispatches reached England Il whole day sooner
than those OF any other correspondent. Then,
again. TO sling a bicycle onto a train or steamer
hthe work OF A moment. while a horse Is fire.
quent!y hard to manage. Pollock's success in
eutstrtppiug his rivals in several races TO the
telegraph offices soon became notorious. and, -
he says, bicycles grew quite common orna'
ments OF the carriages in which my colleagues
travelled" Asked il the Greeks never stole his
machine, he gave a piece OF information which
ehterprising agents would do well to note. He
declared that the bicycle is still almost unknown
mdreece, and to this circumstance he attributed
MS good fortune in keeping 1t safely. His tool
bag was stolen on no fewer than three occasions
out a piece Of rubber strap and some naphths
solution given him by u naval Lieutenant en-
-"eu nim 10 get through all right.
There are few institutions on which English
men pride themselves more than the system o
public school education. With all its undoubt
edy great advantages, however. 1t leaves tn
ooor open to dangers and abuses OF the wors
Alha' A painful example OF this has been on
u Inc topics OF the week. Haileybury Colleg'
none OF the best known OF the great Englisl
puzzle schools. Canon Lyttelton. famous alik'
- cricketer and scholar. is the headmaster, an'
ee has more than 800 boys in his charge. On
%these committed suicide on the Great Eastern
N1L"ay on Monday last. An inquest was hell
VI tuesday. All the evidence forthcoming wa
uAt OF a passenger on the train. who. Will
cooking out OF the window. saw "a lad standing
gya gate. As the train approached the bo
IGsh'd TO the rails, and deliberately lay dow
WIN his head on the metals. The TRAIN wa
Immediately pulled up, but not before the bo
u~o been practically cut TO pieces. On tn
grass close by Law two letters nna Addressed 4