Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1897-06-25
GREATEST OF PAeEANTs.
The Queens Jubilee Procession Unsur-
passed In the Worlds History.

London, June 23.-The wonderful Vic
torian jubilee procession Of 1897, about
which the whole woBld has been talk
Ing for many weeks past, is now only
memory, but a memory that will never
fade from the minds Of the privileged
thousands that witnessed IT.
No state function on such a scale has
ever taken place before in any capital
in the world; never has there been such
a gathering Of princes and ENJOYS, rep
resenting every state under the sun;
never before has a living sovereign been
the recipient Of such unanimous and
cordial expressions Of good will.
1t is estimated that 100000 people
witnessed the great pageant.
The procession was a success In every
way. Not a single mishap or hitch oc-
CURED to impede the carrying out OF
the programme, and glorious weather
prevailed.
The start was made from BuclSing-
ham palace at an early hour, and the
queen was visible to her subjects along
the entire route of eight miles. The
chief stop was made at st. Paul's ca
thedral, where an impressive "Te De-
um" service was performed by the arch
bishop of Canterbury.
The lord mayor, armed with Queen
Elizabeth's famous sword. met her
majesty at the city limits, and the lady
mayoress, at the Mansion House, after
presenting the queen with a floral offer
ing, was permitted to kiss the royal
hand. The lady mayoress, however,
perturbed at the unwonted prominence
of her situation, took the proffered hand
and shook 1t.
Mr.. Whitelaw Reid, the United States
special envoy, received a most flatter-
ing reception from her majesty, and
Mrs. Reid kissed the queens hand as a
greeting from across the Atlantic.
All England Ablaze.
With the coming of night the crowds
which had filtered out of the process
sonal streets after the great show
wedged back again to view London
a-light. The sight was worth the trou-
BILE and risk, both considered. The
llluminations were achieved more ar
tistically than the decorations of the
day Those of the metropolis were, like
everything that had previously trans
pired during the morning hours, great
er and more resplendent than anything
in her history. The symbols of loyalty
and affection of imperial grandeur and
the growth of empire that had met the
eye in painted and gilded notices de-
vices of paper and bunting and spangled
cloth were now reflected for miles in
lines of flaring gas, glowworm oil
lamps, opal globes, paper lanterns and
! transparencies, incandescent lamps,
celluloid flowers and hundreds of de-
vices in thousands of colored crystals,
| Everything was brilliancy, sparkle and
| color.
With illuminatlons, which are uni
versal In every city, town and hamlet
of England, Wales and Scotland and in
some parts of Ireland, with fireworks
in countless places, with illuminations
| following the fall Of night In every part
Of that empire where the queen has
sway there yet remains to be mention
/ ed the final touch-the lighting of the
empires torch, the ancient form of CIV
ing warning or sending joy-the beacon
/ fires. AS 10 o'clock struck at the Green
wich observatory a tongue Of flame shot
upward from Great Malvern, "the back
bone Of the Midlands." 1t was the jubi-
lee beacon fire.
Hardly had the spectator time to look
on II before another flared in the dis
tanee on the right, then again on the
left, on the north, south. east and west.
Peak answered to peak until from Ber-
wick-on- Tweed to Rough Tor and
Brown While in Cornwall, from the ca
thedral towers of Lltchheld, Worcester,
Ripon, Lincoln and Durham, from Skid
daw to st. Heliers, from Hastings to
Cader Iris and across the water to
Donegal and Dublin thousand beacon
fires blazed up their message Of loyalty
to the sovereign. Half an hour later
the lowands, the highlands, the Wild
Hebrides, even to Ultima Thule, sent
answering signals to the sky. And then
slowly, as the light failed from day 70
evening, round the world the empires
torch was lit. From St. Heliers the
signal leaped to Gibraltar, to Malta.
to cyprus. to CeyBn, to India, where 1t
blazed triumphant on the Himalayas;
to China, to Australia, to Canada, to
the West Indies-the empires torch
shed its radiance over the universe.