The Washington times., 1901-08-01


Since King Edwards accession he ari
Queen Alexandra have for obvious red
sons not honored any subject with a visit,
but when the year of court mourning is
over it will be Interesting to see whether
the royal couple will remain faithful to
the rule early made by Victoria, who dur
ing her long reign never made even the
shortest of sojourns beneath the roof of
any host who could not claim either illus
trious birth or distinguished position. Per-
sonal merit and intellectual brilliancy
were always recognized by Queen Victo-
ria, but to the insstent and increasing
claims of mere wealth she seems to have
been Indifferent. As for the younger MEM
bers of the royal family, il soon became
clear that the course pursued by Queen
Victoria and the late Prince Consort need
not necessarily be followed by them but
in the case of their heir apparent and
his consort sharp distinction was very
early drawn between those stately homes
of England where the Prince and Princess
of Wales stayed together IN what may be
called semi-state and those mansions
where the Prince went more or less in
formally.
To give an example. Queen Alexandra
has never formed part of a racing house
party save as the guest Of such members
of the great world as the Duke and
Duchess of Richmond. 1t would be con-
sidered a grave breach OF etiquette for
Wales to be the guest at the home of
bachelor So strictly has this rule been
observed that the only exception ever
made to it by Queen Alexandra was In
favor of the nobleman who was destined
to become her son-in-Iaw, when early in
the sos the Princess of Wales attended a
great ball given by the then Earl of Fife,
Georgiana Lady Dudley, acting as hostess
on the occasion.
Nowadays it not infrequently happens
that the host and hostess of royalty see
very little of their distinguished guests
Indeed in many country houses the royal
suite of rooms forms as il We're a self
contained fiat, to which even garden is
sometimes attached and dinner has be-
come the only household meal which the
rovaI guests are expected to share with
their hostess and the latters .amily.
A London fog is an expensive visitation
A day of il, counting the day at eight
hours. is estimated to cost ANYTHING from
c5O.OO0 to e1OO,O00 in hard cash. No small
proportion of this goes to the gas and
electric light companies, which have to
supply about a third more power than
usual But there are also the railways.
For signaling is expensive. AT Clapham
Junction alone $50 has been spent by
single railway company during a days
fog in extra pay to the plate layers. When
the red light cannot he seen at distance
OF 100 yards the plate layers become fog
signalers and for this they are paid
shilling day in addition to their regular
wages, and 4d per hour overtime. pro-
yided the overtime does not run into
second shilling.
For signals, like a cuckoo. are more
Frequently heard than seen, and, like Il
number of things. such as babies. cats,
and crickets. make an amount of noise
altogether out OF proportion TO their size.
The largest OF those in use is scarcely
bigger than crown piece, and is a quar-
ter of an inch in depth. The little tin box
contains II teaspoonful of gunpowder and
three percussion caps and Is fitted on to
the rail by a red ribbon. II comes from
Birmingham mostly, and costs exactly "A
penny apiece. A hundred and fifty thou
sand or so are purchased by a big rail-
way company in the year. and there are
not many left over at the end of 1t.