The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-05-08

4
eater lis the cell where Sir Walter
Raleigh was confined: in this apart.
ment he wrote his History of the
World With this axe he was behead-
ed on this block. This same block wa:
also used for the beheading of Queer
Ann Boleyn. Lady Jane Gray. and
Lords Lovat. KiImarnock. and Bal
merino.''
We We're in the room known IS Queer
Elizabeth's armory, in the Tower. Of
London. Our guide wore the GOLDEN
broidered scarlet coat, black. round
broad-brimmed stir hat. and SILK stock.
ings, which have constituted the uni.
form of the Tower guides of Beef
eaters from tinte imzneinorial.
I knelt down and placed my neck il
the ax-dented, black shining groove
which had formed the death necklace
of queen, courtier and rebel, and my
wife struck the headsman's blow with
her handkerchief the while with closed
eyes my wits went wandering away and
away beyond these thick low walls te
the England whose history you may
read in cleaning halberd, and en-
broidered armor, and rusted torture
screws, scattered through these gloomy
rooms.
They were stalwart and fearless men.
these island sires of ours. and who shall
jibe their sons for carefully preserving
every relic of their achievements,
whether of glory or shame? In the old
en- times. craftsmanship was clumsier
and rougner In its contrivances than at
present, and to smother or behead your
rival Was the fashionable way to dis
pose of him. We have bettered all that.
We lure him into boiling caucus, or
induce him to join a Municipal Reform
Club.
Every room in the Tower is filled with
ancient armor and spears and swords
and guns, from rusty matchbox to the
most recent Improvement in muskets.
You pass from the White Tower, which
William the Conqueror erected to over
look the marshes of Essex and the tur-
bulent citizens of London, into the
Bloody Tower, where the two princes
were srnothered four hundred years ago.
From thence to Beauchanp Tower,
where to this day you may behold the
autograph of Philip Howard, Earl of
Arundel, carved over the fireplace.
Philip died In prison for the crime OF
not falling in love with Queen Eliza
beth, and his father was beheaded for
the crime of being very much in love
with Mary, Queen of Scots. You
couldn't suit people in those days. no
matter which course you took. In the
new regalia room in this tower, the
crown Jewels are exhibited for a six
pence. Edward the Seventies cap of
purple velvet, hoped with silver and
blazing with diamonds and rubies; and
his fathers crown of beaten gold, I'M
adorned with jewels; st. Edwards an
cient crown with its collection Of gems,
and other crowns and sceptres and rods
and bracelets and spurs, and amounting
vessels, and baptismal fonts, and spoons
and sacramental plate, all blazing with
gems, and never used, and worth ever
so many millions and millions of dol
lars, the while the squalor and sorrow
of England surges, and struggles and
suffers, all about the walls which en-
viron and guard these glittering baubles
of a realm.
We ksad only time to glance through
the DeVereux Tower where Essex was
confined, and the Tower where Duke
Clarence was drowned in a butt of
malmsey,- my! what a drink he had
before he went under. We paused
at the water gate, where the
galleys of the Plantagenets
were accustomed TO land, and then we
emerged into the din of London, and
called a cab, and in half an hour were
in Madame Tussaud,s gallery OF wax
figures.
Since the days when the invincible |
spirit of buffoonery possessed itself of |
The tongue and pen of Artemus Ward, |
people laugh at the mention of wax
iggers" Such is the power of ridicule! t
It is more potent than mere wit, be-
cause it draws its Illustrations from
ruth Rebuke it as we may, its illus /
rations are irresistible, and better that
| cause or a character fall into the
lands of maligners than travesters. It
will have been remarked, however, that
lothing wholly inconsequent ever pro-
-okes the eye of the cartoonist or paro-
list-a poor compensation, we may say,
or the real achievers in high art.
A very poor reason for preferring
marble statuary to that of wax may be
furnished by the fact that it is more
nduring, and more difficult of execu-
ion. But the odds in favor of wax
re more than equalized, in that the
after is malleable, and susceptible of
life tints and capillary growth.
here is about some of these figures.
specially those OF modern execution,
Iife-like pose and air that absolute
2 def1es detection.
Upon entering the gallery, my wife, 8.
eing duly Impressed with the soIem-
ity of our historical surroundings. sug-
ested in sepu1chral whisper the pro-
riety of procuring a catalogue ], in
~ innocence, referred her to gentle /
ian standing hatless, with one hand in I
IS pocket, near the entrance. The lady |
nr,rc,achad him with her sweetest | !,