Evening star., 1901-11-09

We're staying and when noon came and
there was still no sign of the cortege these
folk thought they would run over to the
hotel get bite of luncheon and go back.
1t so happened that just as they reached
the sidewalk company of infantry was
pushing through the crowd making an OPEN
ing through which the Americans reached
their hotel without much trouble. When
they had finished luncheon. however, and
emerged they We're amazed to see how the
crowd had thickened. BY dint of explaining
to the people in the crowd that they had
window just across the street they man
aged to worm their way to the front OF
the throng, where line of sturdy police
men was stretched. These men refused TO
let them go across. They had, they said,
positive orders to let no one pass, and
they could not break them even If the peo-
pie who asked it had a fairy palace wait
ing them on the other side of the way.
Prayers and threats were alike vain. The
Americans had to go back to their hotel
and sit there without being able to see
anything while the cortege passed and their
window remained untenanted.
Public Not Needed.
So you can judge of the prospects Of the
general public for seeing the coronation
procession
Hotel prices confidently are expected to
go up, although hotel men would eat their
thumbs rather than admit the possibility
of anything more than modest increase.
In anticipation of an unprecedented de-
udHU al the JuD1eS many HOtet piopllciolS
put their rates up so high that they made
them prohibitive, and some of the largest
hostelries in the city lost heavily through
having scared off intending guests. Even
II Bonfface decides to be satisfied with
only respectable profit, the London hotels
will be crowded to the doors, and it Will
be little short of miracle If the result is
not uncommonly bad service. The English
landlord and his staff are anxious enough
to please everybody, and under ordinary
conditions they do, but any alteration from
the ordinary, everyday requirements finds
them fioundering helplessly, the natural
victim of the confusion being the luckiess
guest who is paying a heavy rae for at
tentions which he doesn't get.
And most rapacious Of all the different
people bent or "plucking'' the visitor to the
coronation will be found every variety of
the London tradesman, whose last two
years have been lean ones indeed. In their
roseate dreams Of profits no small part is
played by the throng of profitable "Amer-
can COUSINS whose presence at the coro-
nation is counted upon as certain.
Spectators Busy.
There is another side to the picture,
however, and it is an entertaining one.
Cousin Jonathan is taking a hand in the
game himself, to an extent that is causing
some local uneasiness. Some of the best
sites for stands in the vicinity of West
minister Abbey have been leased by Ameri-
can firms. A man who halls from Boston
and seems to have every pocket bulging
with bank notes is buying up program and
special coronation number privileges
right and left and paying spot cash for
them, and, furthermore, a large number of
medium-priced furnished flats, especially
along Charing Cross road, have been rented
till next September by Americans who SUBJ
let them up to the time of the coronation
and expect either to come over and occupy
them themselves during the festive season
or else lease them again for that term for
enough to make handsome profit on the
investment.
So many of these furnished flats in the
central parts of London were gobbled by
what was going on that it would not be
much of an exaggeration to say that a
corner had been created. Several New
York and Chicago spectators also rented
unfurnished flats before the present COM
petition set in. put in furniture and then
turned the property over to agents to be
sublet at regular rates until May l and at
big rates for the succeeding two or three
months.
At least two American syndicates are
now being formed in London for the pu--
pose of acquiring apartments to be re-let
when the time comes. One New York hotel
proprietor, when here a few months ag,,
entered into an arrangement with board
ing house keeper who runs several estab-
lishments in Bloomsbury, the district in
which most of the American summer tour
stislodge, by which he agrees to pay
full years rental for a two months occu-
patton. And philanthropy wasn't his mo-
tive, either. CURTIS BROWN.