The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-06

content and rejoicing in the very air,
for the great work of preparation was
over. There was at last time to rest
and breathe All had been done that
could be done to make the coronation
of Edward VII unique, magnificent
and famous in history.
About 10 o'clock the principal thor
oughfares were so tightly packed that
cabs made detours of mile to avoid
them and around the Kings palace
the people stretched in four great half
circles. At noon the King was to re-
ceive the foreign princes and poten-
tates, and the crowG was waiting to
see them arrive. glose gentlemen
themselves were getting into their I'M
forms. 1t was for many of them
their first meeting with the King in
whose honor they had journeyed half
around the globe.
And then. for the first time in a life
of sixty years, during which he had
never ceased to be one of the con-
spicuous actors on the worlds stage,
the King did a dramatic thing. With
out a moments warning he ceased to
be the tastful, easy moving gentleman,
the arbiter Of fashion and of sport,
the adjuster of social difficulties, and
in a moment became a tragic, historic
figure.
ANO 1OiOiluNlCiig nv tNA NOh-
ceived by man, could have invested Ed
ward VII with the dignity, nor given
him the place in history, which came
to him when-with the rulers of the
world assembling in his anteroom:
with his waiting empire gathering its
breath for one mighty cheer-he tossed
up his hands and gave up the struggle
and let the world know the secret
which he had risked his life to
keep. That it need have been kept
only forty-eight hours more, that it
had already been SO long secure, proves
only the unlooked-for unselfishness and
great courage of this man, who suffer-
ed silently that his people might not
be cheated of their holiday, that his
guests might not have taken their long
journey in vain, that the gaping world
might not know.
"Of all the soldiers the King has dec
GRATED within the last three years of
the war for bravery in the face of the
enemy, none deserves the Cross for
Valor more than himself, who grimly
and silently faced disease and death,
unarmed and without a comrade.
For now that the whole dramatic.
pitiful story is out, England learns
now that it is too late-of the days of
gnawing pain when her King forced
himself to smile and bow at court, to
watch a horse race, to review regi-
ment, to drive through London with
an assured and cheerful countenance.
il is not pleasant to think of the tor
ture of those days. of the mental anX-
iety as well as the bodily torment
when the King kept on his feet against
the protests of his physicians, when
his endurance was tested by hours of
unceasing pain-pain so great that it
is not decent to disclose it. Nor is 1t
pleasant to remember that last drive
through the Park to Buckingham Pal
ace, when the people for some reason
failed to cheer him heartily, while all
the time he sat erect, pale and with
set teeth, holding himself upright only
by his will, and that they might be
gratifed.
That was his last public appear
ance, and should the King die that
ride will be memorable in history as
one of the evidences that it is not only
republics which are ungrateful. In
deed, It was the Indian officers who
when they heard the news from the
Bishop of London, said I'VE go to
pray" and for an hour and a half
Frustrated themselves in applications.
But if the King should live he will
awake to find himself the most popu-
lar of England's sovereigns. The Brit
on loves pluck, he admires courage;
the highest honor he has in his power
to bestow is given to those who risk
their lives for others, and he will not
forget what Edward VII suffered and
endured for the most noble and the
most humble of his subjects"