The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1904-10-14
WORLDS FAIR WANDERERS.
They see the Queens Jubilee Presents
Soothing the Queen Gould Use,
Not Even Pair of Slippers.
rrespondence ocala Banner.

Special Correspondence Ocsla Banner.
St. Louis, October 8, 1904.
1.-The poor, dear old queenl Five
million dollars worth of presents and
not thing she could use. Not even
sofa pillow to lay her head on; not
even a pair of comfortable carpet
slippers for her tired feet"
This was my campaniOn's comment
after looking over Queen VictOria's
jubilee presents, which are displayed
in 25 large glass cases on the upper
floor of the Hall of Congress. She
doubtless expected to see an array of
sugar spoons, salad forks, clocks,
card trays, linen napkins and other
useful things such as are commonly
bestowed upon the brides of our COM
munity. John thought they might
have given her a manicure set or
autograph album just to make her
think of old times"
But here are over four hundred
presents, mostly from the queens
subjects in her colonies and not one
of them of any use except a sumptu-
Gus carved ivory chair the gift of the
Maharajah of Travancore. This
chair is valued at $3.50, 1000 and yet 1
doubt if the queen ever sat in it. The
other presents consist largely of
silver and sandalwood caskets, richly
carved and many of them inlaid with
ivory. Many of them are cylindrical
in shape doubtless containing scrolls
Of parchment upon which the queens
subjects wrote their fluctuations and
good wishes. A particularly costly
and beautiful casket came from the
Sardar Edadji Khurshedji Kotti and
the Parsi Community of ISurat. One
naturally wonders why the Sardar
and the Parsi Community didn't send
an automobile coat or necklace Of
pearls or something real swell.
There are easkets galore from Al
lahabad, the Dewan of Palanpur EAs-
sam, the Maharaja of Orcha, the
Rsjah of BobbiH in Vizagapatam,
Madras, and a whole lot OF Indian
rajas and princes. There are also
royal saddles and elephant tusks.
The Indian rajas and princes meant
well but some one should have passed
the word around not to make any
more caskets or music cases. The
two swarthy British officers who are
guarding these presents are the big
gest men have seen at the Expo-
sition. The Patagonian giants are
small beside them. 1 asked one of
them what the jubilee presents were
valued at. He said that no one had
undertaken TO estimate the value and
that they were not insured. I also
learned that the presents shown are
only a tenth part of what the queen
received, and that their value had
been estimated by American silver
smiths at five million dollars.
Johns step was elastic and his face
lighted up with pleasant expectation
as we climbed the hill to the Japanese
paviliOns and pagodas. John swears
by the little Jap He wants to see
everything he does and everything
he makes and must say these little
Yankees of the East are bv far
the most interesting people at the
Exposition. 1t is hard to think of |
them Smelling Port Arthur and pound |
ing the Cars army of its boots, so |
gentle, unobstrusive and mild-man-
nered are they. Not content with
occupying large portion of each ex-
hibit palace with the products of
their skill and industry they have
thrown in this exhibit on the hill for
good measure. Passing through the
great carved wooden gates we sat
down in a nearby tea house to rest
and to drink some Formosa tea serv-
ed by the little Japanese maidens
who, Mary says, ARE Just too cute
for anything. TAD.
Love Letter.
Would not interest you if vou,re