Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-04
Interment of Duke of CAM
bridges Body in Westminster
AN IMPRESSIVE SCENE
ENGLISH MANIFEST INTEREST IN
RACE SUICIDE" QUESTION.
An International Exhibition Of Dress
and Clothing Attracts Much
Interest in London.
ce of The Evening Star.


LONDON, March %. 19O4
The removal of the body of the Duke or
Cambridge from his private residence to
Westminster Abbey on Monday night was
a picturesque event. 1t Was carried from
Gloucester House to Westminster on gun
carriage with a strong martial escort. and
thousands of spectators looked silently on
as the procession passed through the
streets.
At Gloucester House there was private
religious ceremony. the king and queen and
members of the royal family being present.
and then the coffin, covered with a silken
Union Jack, and bearing the dead duke $
robes. hat and field marshars baton. was
placed on a gun carriage. set amidst a
clanking array of mounted soldiery, Life
Guards, with their red plumes. FURNISHED
helmets and heavy cloaks, and a squadron
of the Duke of Cambridge's own Hussars.
immediately behind the gun carriage were
carried the colors, draped with mourning
bands. and the members of the family foi-
lowed in a couple of coaches
1t was a fine night, clear and cold, with
crescent moon hanging in the sky, and as
the procession skirted ST. James Park the
scene was very picturesque Policemen.
silent and statuesque, stood by the road
side. Spectators whispered low and uncov-
cred their heads. Not sound save the
tramp of horses and the roll of the gun
carriage drawn by sturdy team.
Outside the abbey crowds began to
gather an hour before the time at which
the procession was expected to arrive. They
were, however. easily kept in hand by the
police. and when the cortege appeared in
sight the decorum of the spectators was
complete. Only at the last moment was the
traffic between Parliament Square and Vic
toria street interrupted, and then only for
minute or two to allow the troops and
car tn
yard.
1t was a very impressive spectacle as the
procession crossed under the shadow of the
abbey and disappeared within the pointed
arch which gives admission to the abbey
precincts.
When the gun carriage came to the halt
ing place the body was received by the
dean and chapter in their robes and borne
by stalwart Grenadiers into the east
cloisters, whence the solemn little process
sion moved through the dim and ghostiy
south transept to the Chapel of St Faith,
where the bier had been prepared for the
reception of the coffin.
Here the body rested throughout the long
watches of the night, with six tall tapers
burning around it, and relays of four
Grenadiers keeping guard with arms
versed Before the clergy withdrew there
was short service, including the informing
of a few prayers and psalms.
Yesterday morning the body was trans
ferred to the sacrarium under the lantern
for the great funeral service.
Was the Last English Knight.
The Duke of Cambridge was the last
English Knight Of the Royal Hanoverian
Gueiphic Order. The knighthood was con-
ferred on him when he was boy by WILL
lam Nv. The duke was Knight of the
Garter. but it is not necessary that the
vacant place be filled. as Is the case usually.
The knighthoods of royal dukes are always
In addition to the twenty-five ordinary
knighthoodS. There can be any number of
knighthoods held by royal dukes and when
they become vacant one cannot speak of
them as having to be filed. Only the ordi-
nary knighthoods are supposed to be kent
constantly at the number of twenty-five.
Inc present constitution of the order was
created by statute in 1881.
The only constituent parts of the in
stitution are the sovereign and the Prince
of Wales. The lineal descendants of George
Nv and the twenty-five knights compan-
IONS are elected" At times the letter OF
the statute has been disregarded. and there
have been twenty-sx knights Companions
as when Lord Derby was elected after re-
urihg from the prime ministership. But
When the next vacancy came it was not
hlled. so that the number of knights Com
panions dropped again to twenty-five
1 am reminded that the Duke of Cam
bridges London house. Gloucester House
before its purchase by the last Duke of
Gloucester. was occupied by Thomas Earl of
Elgin, who brought the famous Marbles
TO England. There they were housed before
they went to the British Museum and
Byron refers to this in English Bards and
Scotch Reviewers when he speaks of Lord
Elgin's grand saloons las a general mart
for all the mutilated blocks of art"
On this point there were differences of
opinion, for Hayden. the painter. speaks of
them as being lodged in "a damp. dirty
penthouse" and j. Payne knight alludes to
Lord Eigin's stone shop" The name
gloucester House was not new to London
ers III 1916, for in the previous century the
present Grosvenor House had borne that
name when occupied by the first Duke of
Gloucester in 1861. He married the Lady
Naldegrave, whose lovely daughters by her
flrst marriage are SO well known in Sir
joshua famous picture.
Race Suicide" Interests English.
Ever since President RooseveIt's pro-
nouncement on race suicide" the subject
has had great interest to people on this
side of the Atlantic. In a recent article
Mr. Arnold White. the well-known writer on
subjects of the day. macs some startling
statements. Large families are or were.
common in England. but Mr.. White calls
Briton nation of MaIthusian inya,ids.,
ana SAYS that the birth rate has dropped in
the manufacturing districts in twenty-five
Years from 10 Der LOCO TO D.
The writer relates how couples with large
families can ind no proper homes in Lon
ana lodgings having made an informal
union to keep them out. The London Ia
boring men with large families seem TO be
as badly of as the New Workers. with chill
dren who look for flats.
This condition of things is having its eff
ttct on the poorer quarter of London whose
hirth rate dozen years ago was twice or
thrice that of Mayfair This is all changed
now. The famine Of house property In Lon
don is the result OF the continual dispos-
session of the working classes without CIV
ing them fresh and healthy accommodation
IN the neis hborhood of their work or cheap
means OF quick transport eisew here. ANY
one who Will turn to the advertisement
columns of the daily press" says Mr. White,
viii ind many married couples advertising
their childlessness bait to employers
Others are sufficiently intelligent only to
have one or two children. and thereby re-
Produce the least favorable element in
French national life"
1t would be untrue to say that the restric-
IN of their families by the working classes
Is due only To the absence OF housing ac-
commodation. Part, at all events. Is as
much due TO love OF pleasure and desire to
spend their money uron themselves as is
the case in other ranks of society. Still,
There Is rampant evil crying out for al
deviation in the fact that respectable
couple in the humbleSt walk of life cannot
retain a two-roomed tenement In any OF
TIE great buildings which are rapidly re-
placing the SUM dwellings, both in the East
and in the WpSf END IL ar mn hu