The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-12-17
Festivities Which Usually Mark the
Holiday Season
Have Never Been So Few and Far Between
As They Are This Year.
Gloom Overhangs All Circles, It
Being Power1ess to Allay the
Feeling Of Bitter Grief and Dis
appointment That Pervades the
Length and Breadth Of the
Land Over the Reverses In
South Africa.

South Africa.
copyrighted, 1899, by Associated Press)
LONDON, Dec. 16.-The social festi-
vities which usually mark this season
of the year in London have never been
so few and far between, and they are
quite unable to dispel the gloom over
hanging all classes. The brave show
kept up by the majority of the organs
voicing public opinion is merely an in
stance of the grit of the British race.
But it is powerless to allay the feeling
of bitter grief and disappointment that
pervades the length and breadth of the
land. Nor is this confined to the re-
grets, pent-up criticism of the military
authorities in finding vent in quarters
that heretofore have studiously avoid
ed as premature any structures on
either the War Office or the Generals in
the field. Unless some striking change
for the better soon marks the course
of the British arms, there bids fair to
break over the head of the Govern
| ment a storm of Indignation such as
has not been seen since the Crimea.
That such movement is not without
cause is evidenced by information
CLEANED by representative of the AS
| ISOLATED Press that the authorities have
already decided that the reorganization
of the War Office is absolutely neces-
sary, and that it will not be delayed
day longer that can be helped, though
ii can scarcely be done until hostilities
cease.
The est. James Gazette" this week,
commenting on the Canadian con-
tingent, says: ''They have shown that
their long home training and colonial
campaigning experience has not been
lost on them, and they are now getting
their reward for being pushed to the
front. We should like to see little
more notice of this taken in the London
press. The colonists are intensely loyal,
but they are a little sensitive, and ap-
preciative notice of the work they are
doing would be good imperial cement"
General Montgomery Moore. former
ly in command in Canada, has been Sc
lected to succeed General Kelly
at Aldershot, where the latter has been
in charge of the mobilization.
England, with the rest Of Europe, has
been suddenly plunged into intensely
cold weather, accompanied in London
by dense fogs, the mercury in the coun-
try falling to below zero. Skating has
begun and hunting has been suspended.
With the inspection of the American
hospital ship Maine to-day and the
farewell dinner Sunday the work of the
ladies who have been so active in col
lecting funds ends. Curiously enough,
their efforts have not always been APP
preciated in England The members of
the committee have been told on more
than one occasion that England did
not want foreign charity, and some of
the papers have said many ill-natured
things. Vanity Fair" following thin
ly-veiled allusion to one of the COM
mittee. who was received by the Queen,
remarked: so she has been received at
last She must have been surprised and
gratified by the unexpected honor.
Charity does so much
Lord Salisbury was no sooner recov-
ering from the blow caused by the
death of his wife than he was afflicted
by another personal sorrow in the Sc
we're illness of his favorite daughter-in-
law Lady Cranborne. At one time this
week her life was despaired of, but it is
now hoped she will recover from her
sickness, which started with a severe
attack of influenza.
The cold weather, with the first snow
of the year, is responsible for long
list of prominent invalids, among them
being the Duke Of Westminster, who is
now recovering from laryngitis.
According to Vanity Fair" Mr.. and
Mrs W. K. Vanderbilt found Nice so
dull that they went for a ramble in an
automobile, and were last heard from
at Marseilles, which they reached in
record time.
Several new publications are on the
eve of birth. Eyre & Spottiswoode are
bringing out an illustrated weekly on
the lines of the illustrated London
News" Sir George Newnes, proprietor
of the Westminster Gazette" and other
papers, is responsible for another six
penny illustrated weekly, entitled 1.-THE
King" A still more ambitious project
under consideration is the starting. of a
Radical daily in London. Since the
anti-war editors were removed from the
Chronicle and Echo" no paper I'm
London has opposed the Governments
policy in and out. Radicalism, as rep
resented by the weekly Speaker" is
not representative of the metropolitan
press.
and Wringe, will take an active part in
next seasons yacht racing, the former
in sailing sixty-five-footer now build
ing for Peter Donaldson and the latter
in sailing a sixty-five-footer building
for John Gretton. 1t is said they have
refused much larger American offers,
and are determined to stick to England.
The American liner ST Louis, which
sails for New York from Southampton
tomorrow, will have among her pas
sengers Henry Savage Landor, the
Thibetan explorer, who will lecture for
several months in America. Mr. Land
or has just returned from a second ex-
petition to Thibet and Nepaul, where
he broke the worlds record in noun
taineering, reaching, at the summit of
one of the Lumpa peaks, an altitude OF
q, 500 feet.
In spite of the war the theaters are
generally prospecting. William Archer
has received the final proof sheets of
Ibsen's new play. on a translation OF
which he is busily engaged.
Marie Tempest has left Days be-
cause George Edwards objected to her