The record-union., 1897-06-23

devices, ending upon Ludgate Hill in
the massive dome of st. PaulS, bril-
liantly lit by searchlights, standing
with it's huge golden cross beacon to
greater London and beyond.
Nothing in all London or elsewhere
exceeds in artistic beauty and bril-
liancy of display the scene from the
Wellington statue, with the Bank of
England on one side and the Mansion
House on the other. The official home
of the Lord Mayor was bathed in SO
much light that all the beauties of the
day seemed to fit in and charmingly
mingle with that of the night.
The Bank of England, that hotbed Of
old-fashioned loyalty, had a super
structure of frame of amber lights
along the Thread Needle facade, within
which hung festoons of white little
globes, fastened at short intervals with
Illuminated deep red bows Here and
there set pieces of cut crystals broke
the frame and added their multi-col-
ored CLEANS in loyal devices. The cor
ner at Princess street and the corner at
Bartholomew lane supported a crystal
device, THE Grecian Honeysuckle, .
sixteen feet wide. Right across the
front of the ugly building, significant
of so much of the empire, were the
we'll chosen words of England's last
poet laureate, burning in undisturbable
glare as if forever, she wrought her
people lasting good"
Old sightseers pronounced the scene
one of artistic brilliancy in illumina-
ton, unsurpassed even by the fetes for
the Czar in Paris and for him at Mos
COW.
Father Thames tonight furnished an
impressionist color scene. The myriads
of lights here and there, just touching
into ghostly form the shipping, the
heavy lines beyond on the long neck
lace of shimmering hens, toward
Westminster, with ST. Paul's shadows
of the silent waters, the small string
of colored lamps on some wandering
tug or sumbrous barge, lines of color
on nearby bridges, the streaming rays
darting skyward from the dazzling
streets, made more marked the gloomy
warehouses, dark patches of almost
impenetrable shadow that on the rivers
edge seemed to fringe the glory of it
ALL
Out of the professional streets there
through greater London of every kind
and description, from the gorgeous
electric and gas glories in cut crystal
of West End Equare to a row of tallow
dips in Deptford street slums or the
laundry colonies or Acton
Victoria street was notable for the
illumination of the United States en-
'bassy and the offices of the colonial
agents generally. The most prominent
and successful of these was that erect
ed by Sir Donald Smith at the Canada
office, in which the shield and arrnoriaI
bearings of the Dominion were sur
rounded by the names of the provinces
painted on white glass and Illuminated
SO as to show a bouquet of color.
All the stately houses in Carlton
House Terrace, including Mrs. Mac
kays and William Waldorf Astor's.
are a blaze of light, but the two splen-
did mansions occupied by Americas
two ambassadors, Colonel Hays house
on one side and Mr. Reid's on tbe
other, We're especially brilliant and
called forth many approving comments
With illuminations universal in every
town and hamlet of England. Wales
ana Scotland, and in some parts of
ireland, with fireworks in countless
places, with illuminations following the
ran OF night in every part of the empire
where the Queen has sway, there still
remains to be mentioned the final touch
the lighting of the empires torch
the ancient form of giving warning or
sending joy, the beacon fires. AS 10