Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-22
ON CORONATION DAY
Preparir ; for the Greatest Spectacle
Of Our Time.
WONDERFUL ROBES AND CoRoNEqs
Estimated Cost Of 1T All is Seven
Millions.
WORK OF HERALD'S COLLEGE
WORK OF HERALD'S COLLEGE

LONDON, June 13, 1901.
Nobody, except possibly King, Edward
VII, knows when the coronation, the most
gorgeous and elaborate ceremony of our
time, 1t to take place but it must come
before long, and the knowledge of that
fact is making things lively among the
great jewelers. and robe makers of London
town, and is worrying every peer and peer
ess. incidentally the price of ermine is ris-
ing steadily.
His most excellent and Christian majesty
Will not be any more kingly after he is
crowned than he is now, he will have no
new prerogative. and his subjects will have
no new hold on him. He could follow the
unfuliled suggestion of his great-uncle
William ". and abolish the ceremony al
together if he chose without blocking the
wheels of government in any way. But he
would block the wheels of trade if he did
so, and that is where the rub comes
AS nearly as can be estimated, the coro-
nation Will lift about $7000,000 out of the
pockets of government and peerage and
hlgh society generally and transfer it to
London trades folk.
Otherwise the only practical use of this
Dig expenditure will be to provide the most
gorgeous spectacle that has been seen since
the coronation of George ". And the only
persons who will get the full benefit of it
VIII be the precious few who will be per
iiiietoN " Stt iIlO w GStmlnSter Abbey
the great day. The general public will
nave to content itself with a look at the
coronation procession and, Judging by the
experiences OF the late queens funeral and
at the new kings opening of parliament a
goou many thousands of those who stand
TOT hours IN the hope of seeing something
VIII go mournfully home at last, with life
f atlll4st crushed out of them, and without
having seen anything more inspiring than
the packs of other peoples heads
How the Money Goes.
But the lords and ladies who see and take
part in this wonderful show will have 10 nav
dearly for the privilege, for the government
Will nave to pay rather less than $1,000 900
or the total expense. The coronation of
George ~ cost the taxpayers almost ex-
actly $lDo,000, aside from what was spent
out or private purses. That monarch had
waited so long before getting his crown that
when he did get it he made the occasion the
most brilliant that has ever been seen in
England and perhaps in any other country.
The present king hasfthe same excuse but
is OF a rather more economical turn of mind,
ana has not an equal taste for display.
L have been unable to learn what Queen
Nlctoria's coronation cost, but it was Ger
talniy much more expensive than that of
her predecessor, for Uncle William finding
that his idea of abolishing the ceremony
altogether not popular cut down the
government outlay to S2oo,oeO, of which 500
600 was spent in fitting up Westminster
$4,000 for fireworks and for keeping open
public theaters on the night of the corona
ton.
Work has already been begun on the coro-
nation clothes for the king and queen, and
it is lucky thing for them that they do not
have to pay for those garments out of the
privy purse. 1t is not yet known just what
they will cost, but it is believed that the
figure will be something like 500 900
George " spent more than that on robes,
and James H. although he abolished the
coronation procession from motives of econ
omy, spent $500 900 in arraying the person
of the queen, which was fair considering
what fate had in store for her 1t was only
four years later that the radantly beautiful
Queen Mary Beatrice. dressed in garments
that Of her maids would have been
ashamed to wear, had to run through a
back door of the palace and get across the
Thames in a small boat to save her liberty
if not her life.
Clothes for King and Queen.
AS the king IS the head of the state
church, his garments will have to some ex-
tent an ecclesiastical character. When he
opened parliament he wore a military cos
tune underneath his gorgeous parliament
robe, but that wouldn't do at all for a
coronation, and in consequence the col
lege of heralds is busy trying to arrange
what sort of thing he ought to have on.
1t doesn't really matter so much, for over
all Will be his great robes of state, and
these. Both the king and queen will have
to have three each of these wonderful gar
ments, one in which to enter the abbey
one in which to be consecrated crowned
and to take the sacrament, another to leave
the abbey. According to custom, the en-
trance robe is of crimson velvet, lined and
trimmed with ermine, and the going-away
mantle an equally elaborate CONNECTION Of
purple velvet and ermine.
The mantle that will be thrown over the
kings shoulders just before his consecra-
ton Is the most interesting of the three
however. 1t must consist of a white lawn
surplice, trimmed with most precious lace:
a supertunic of brocaded cloth of gold, lined
with crimson; stole of the same aterial
with st. Georges cross embroidered on it
and over all a mantle of cloth of gold with
a long train. Winterhalter's painting of
Queen Victoria taking the oath of the sac
rament shows the type of garment admir-
ably.
Never Can Be Worn Again.
These garments must never be worn a
second time, and all this product of the
skill of hundreds of workmen at an ex-
pense of many thousands of dollars, rarely
is seen again after the few moments of use
in the abbey. The coronation garments
worn by Queen Victoria We're relegated
promptly to tin cases kept in Windsor Cas-
tie, and there they are to this dav Once a
year they were taken out for an airing and
once in while the queen used to take a
look at them or grant that privilege to
some especially honored person. but that
was all In the last rev weeks, however
the court dressmakers have had them ont
and have been studying every detail closeIv
to aid them in designing the costumes for
the coming coronation.
AS Queen Alexandra Is not the baad .op
the church, all of the ecclesiastical minntjae
Of the mantle placed upon Queen Victoria,s
shoulders at the moment of the consecraS
tion.each detail freighted with all sorts of
Specifications of the power of the churcb
will not have to be followed In her case
but otherwise her dress wll-resembIe nroh''
ably that Of Queen Victoria in MANY mar
ticulars. e. p''i
Rank Shown by Length of Train.
The king and queen are not so much
concerned about their clothes for this occa-
sion, however, as are the lesser lords and
ladies, for whom it will be the cbance of
a lifetime. 1t is only at a coronation tb.+
the peers and peeresses wear their corone+s
and their ftii.ial