Evening star., 1902-08-23
THE BIC SHOW
London Has a HouseCleaning
Day.
STANDS PULLED DOWN
MANY MILES OF DECORATIONS
CARTED AWAY.
All Who Can Are Going North to Shoot
Grouse-London News and
Gossip.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.


LONDON, August 13, 1902
London today vas disrobing itself. The
hammer of the carpenter was incessant.
Away went miles of timber and drapery,
and there are still many more miles to go.
At each scene of demolition small children
were seen picking up the crumbs that fell
from the carpenters table-very large
crumbs sometimes-and what would not
have justified the cost of carriage at least
made firewood in poor house. The
amount of dust and dirt that has accumu-
lated on the stands is surprising. sudden
squall may lift up armful of it and blind
you. If you escape that peril by wariness
you may still have your hat knocked askew
or brushed the wrong way by the lines of
flags which the Westminster workmen are
lowering from the Venetian masts
Carts and wagons We're being loaded and
the sight of them made one stop to wonder
where on earth they would go to when they
started. Where will all these planks and
timbers be piled away? What use can be
made of miles of red draping. cut and torn
and ripped with nails? 1t Is a new thing
to watch when it goes forward with this
suddenness. After the postponement there
was a hang-fire feeling about which left
many of the decorations to fade and fall
away, and did not SO resolutely set about
removing them. There is no doubt that the
coronation has really happened.
One Firms Many Contracts.
In connection with the coronation decora-
tions and illuminations It is interesting to
note that the number of important con-
tracts carried out by firm alone, the
kings decorative illuminators, amounted to
no less than 1O63. OF this number upward
of 200 were in connection with government
and London county council buildings. royal
palaces and public build ngs and institu-
tiOns. not including business houses, hotels
or private residences.
very large proportion of the devices
were composed of cOlOred crystals cut with
facets in exactly the same fashion as a
real diamond. to reflect the light. The total
number of facets in the Bank of England
iluminations is 5000 600.
The aggregate amount of crystal used by
the firm in the coronation designs exceeds
10000, 100000 facets. and in order to keep
the crystals together nearly 5000 miles of
steel and copper frames and ties have been
employed This quantity represents sufti-
cient to extend from Queenstown to New
York. The steel and other framing used
in the design provided by the same firm
for the Prince of Wales exceeded twenty
four miles in length
Their oriental ina gination aroused by the
legend of the stone of Scone, and their
loyalty touched by the fact that over it
their emperor was anointed, the Indian
troops who yesterday visited Westminster
Abbey had no eyes for anything except the
coronation chair once the tale was told.
Individually and collectively they saluted
it. swarthy-faced men, straight as the
rush, and with medal-covered breasts 81
lently telling of many battles in far-off
lands. This Indian invasion of the abbey
was, indeed striking incident. The SOL
ders were admitted in sections through
the famous annex, for which, by the way,
it is said that no reasonable offer will be
refused. Some of the carpeting had been
removed. and barricades had been erected.
but otherwise the interior of the abbey
as Saturdays great ceremony left it.
Today the colonafs are the visitors. Then
comes the turn of the patient public.
To Succeed Dean Bradley.
Now that Dean BradIey's resignation is
actually announced. the suppressed aspira
tions of many months have burst into ac-
tivity. Clerical hearts beat high under their
black Waistcoats, and sympathetic wives
stimulate ambitions and inspire paragraphs
and pull wires with laudable assiduity 1t
is really too pathetic to think of the vast
mass of inevitable disappofntments which
these devout aspirants are preparing for
themselves.
When the see of Canterbury became va
cant by the death of Archbishop TAFT it
was widely believed that Mr. Gladstone
would nominate a lifelong friend, then a
bishop. One morning the post bags being
opened at the breakfast table by the bishop
scription "W. E. Gladstone" His wife
placed the envelope in her husbands hands
and said. MY love- this is an offer which
you should consider on your knees" The
bishop went off with the letter, and the
family sat around the table discussing with
the domestic chaplain what rooms they
would occupy at Lambeth and whether
there was good society at Addington. Pres
emily the bishop returned looking a little
crestfallen, and said. 1T was very kind
letter, but it was not offer of the pri-
macy, only an apology for not offering it,
The deanery of Westminster vacated by
DR.. Bradley is worth f2,0OO a year. 1t is re-
garded as the preserve of scholarly eccle-
siastics, and is one of the most difnified Of
fees In the church. Dean Bradley has held
it for twenty years. having been presented
to the headship of the Collegiate Church of
st. Peter on the nomination of Mr.. Glad
stone at Dean Stanleys death. 1t will be
interesting to watch MIR. Balfour's nomina-
tion to this post, and to the vacant canonry
of Worcester The abbey, like st. Georges
Windsor. is a royal peculiar, and the
dean and chapter have always resisted the
jurisdiction of the bishop of London Dean
Bradley was the present bishop of London's
head master at Marlborough.
Although by no means so great a church
man Stanley or Buckland Dean Bradley
was yet admirably fitted for the high office
he held. 'Venerable'' was the epithet usually
applied to him, and Il suited him to per-
fection. "A dear old soul'' was another
phrase which was almost appropriated by
him, and was generally used by ladies.
Some Osborne House History.
The king was led to conceive the idea OF
Osborne House, the residence in the Isle Of
Wight of Queen Victoria, as a convalescsnt
home for military and naval officers owing
to the constant appeals to private generos-
ity for accommodation made by the war Of
flee during the early stages of the war
The accommodation at the military hos
pitals proved utterly inadequate to the
needs of the country, but many private
homes were thrown open for the use of
wounded and sick officers and men home
frem the war.
1t was this circumstance which impressed
the king with the necessity for some insti-
tuition to which convalescent officers should
be able to go as an unquestioned right
Osborne House naturally suggested itself
as most suitable and convenient, both on
account Of it's site and because Of his
majesty's inability to make a proper use
of it a royal residence
The appropriation of Osborne House to
the use of the nation will not interfere. I