The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-05-19
LONDON WENT WILD.
How the News of the Relief of Mafe-
king Was Received.

ing, singing and cheering, and there are
crowds in front of the Mansion house,
Marlborough house, the clubs on Pail
Mal and the war Office and in Parlia-
ment square waving flags and joining
in the national airs.
This sustained believing and uproar
of hundreds of thousands amazes the
EngliShman who ceases for a moment
to be an actor and becomes merely an
observer. Sober, ~phlegmatic London is
beside itself with emotion. Gusts of pa
triotism have set the town duivering
twice or thrice before during the war,
but nothing has quite equalled tonight's
hundred square miles of almost furious
demonstrations. 1t vas a curious
thing for the onlooker to see solemn,
gray-haired men toss their opera hats
into the air and join in the hurricane
of cheers when a wreath-crowned ban
ner with the portrait of Colonel Baden
Powell on it was borne along P~iccadilly
Smart women in broughamS waved union
jacks out of the windows. Conventional
family parties stopped at street corners
to take part in singing God save the
Queen" and Soldiers of the Queen"
Everywhere were abandon, good feeling
and astonishing oar of human voices.
It was all brought about by a twenty
word telegram from Pretoria that
Mafeking had been relieved. Although
the government has not a word, and
although nothing confrnatory has been
received from any African source ex-
cept Pretoria, nobody apparently ques-
tions the news. The performers in Lon
don music halls and theaters last even
ing had little use for stage business or
for the lines of their pieces The audi
ences which crowded the Alhambra, the
Empire, Covent Garden or the theate1S
had no desire to attend to stage per-
formanceS. The first sight of a bio
graph scene in the or the
first glimpse of a military or a naval
costume on the stage was sufficient to
create an uproar. A leading actor IN
one of the Strand theaters said:
IT did not attempt to read my lines
last evening. 1t was of no use. The
public a no interest in me beyond
the fact that 1 wore a military uni
form"
At Her Majesty's theater, at the Gar
rick. where ''Zaza' is being played, and
at the other houses where legitimate
holds the boards, the OF
stalls. boxes and galleries sang IN
chorus sThe Absent Minded Beggar,"
and Soldiers of the Queen W.
acts in order to give vent to their en-
thusiaSm, although they settled Gown
to the programme afterwards. At the
music halls. however, no one pretended
to AXE interest in anything not having
military color.
The Princess of Wales, the Duke and
Duchess of York and the Portuguese
minister. senior Pinto Do Several, occu-
pied a box at Covent a where
'Lohengren" was being presented, and
when the relief of Mafeking was an
nounced they joined heartily in the ap-
plause.
The London fire insurance laws makes
fireworks impossible, and the city
lacked the blaze of illumination charac-
~teristic of American cities during SIM
liar r~ejoicings.
The Britisher therefore, relies upon
lung power, and from St. PaU1's cathe-
dral to Westminster Abbey and up
through Piccadilly to Hyde Park there
was a Niagara-1ike roar. incessant r1s-
ing and falling hour after hour as the
surging masses poured through Lon
don's th~oroughfares. There was a lack
of pyrotechnic glitter, but every cabDy
and every business man in London had
q union jack huttering from his whip;
and the stars and stripes were by no
means lacking. Patrons of four wheel
ers were not content to ride inside the
vehicles and tops were crowded with
hag-waving, cheering, sprawling en-
t~husiastics.
At Carlton hotel which is filled with
Americans the bands played Marching
Through Georgia." which has been re-
Gently adapted to an English song en-
titled Marching to PRETORIA Dixie"
and other American airs were played.
Ten thousand people stood in front of
Mrs. Baden-PowelPs house in st.
Georges place, cheering and singing,
and a score of a b brought congratula-
tons. Miss Baden-Powell, the colonel
sister said:
9TH same tale has been brought US
many times during the last anxious
Month The war office has promised
us the earliest information. We only
hope it is true"
Later in the evening Col. Baden-Pow-
ellis mother sent word that she had re-
tired and that if any kilograms came
she was not to be disturbed until morn
ing.
The boys of the Charter house school
where Col. Baden-Powen was educated
! VFGRa aTnI1Cnd from c16nn nv tho 00xEe
and the institution quickly became a
veritable p-andemonium of noise and
enthusiasm. AS soon as the informa-
ton of the relief was received, the lord
mayor, MI. A. j. Newton sent the fol
lowing dispatch to Col. Baden-PoweIl.
The citizens of London are relieved
They rejoice in the good news received
Your gallant defense will long live il
British annals. Gable me what money
is wanted for the needs of the garrison
and inhabitants after long privatiOns-'
In unrestrained jubilations the province:
were not behind the metropolis. Although
London had the start by a few minute.
towns burst into patriotic demonstration
Bells clashed in their steeples; villag,
bands turned out and people gathered il
the Queen
From all parts of the empire comes tn,
} same story, Bombay, Hong Kong, Colon
| bia and the Australian cities are rejOic
ing. Continental cities, as the press tele
grams a~bundantly. testified received tn
J news sadly. Under the head of 'hov
the news was received the Daily Chron
D icle says:
The telegram to the Associated Pres
from Pretoria the historic dispatch an
I %nouncing the relief of Mafeking was sen
from the capital OF the Transvaal at u:S
a. m, May is. 1t reached the Londol
office at 917 p. m, and was Instant,
dispatched to every quarter Of the globe
By 1880 o'clock had come a response from
) far off Toronto describing the receptio
of the news there.
This is not surprising in view of tn
: fact that four minutes after the receip
I of the telegram here it was in the Asso
ciated Press office in New York, when
was forwarded to the furtherest limits G
the North American continent"
Mr.. Joseph Chamberlain called at tn
D wal office after midnight and received
tremendous ovation.