The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-06-04
THE TOWER OF LONDON
Continued from page Four)

students of the race attribute to
those early days influences. The
last prisoners confined in the Tower
were Thistlewood and his associates,
who went to the gallows in 1920,
but to this day, in their modern prisons,
such as Pentonville and Woodwork Scrubs,
are to be seen the rack-not the one in
vogue in centuries past to dismember the
unfortunate victim, but the one used in
the infiction of corporal punishment and
which. among them, is considered indis-
pensable in the maintenance of the rigid
discipline existing.
The Tower of London, viewed from those
barbaric times, repels, but, regarded from
its present aspect, awakens vivid interest.
That part of it which is now used as an
armorial hall-"The White Towers a
veritable museum. In its various chambers
the student of the past finds at his disposal
rich material on which to base compre-
hensive estimate of England's wars of the
middle ages and the present. In the chamber
called "The Council Chamber" exists a
profusion of arms and armor once welded
and worn by Romans, Greeks, Brtons,
| Anglo Saxon, and warriors of other coun-
tries. Notably among them is group of five
damaskeened suits of armor, of German
make; present from Emperor Maximillian
to Henry VIII, upon the latter's marriage
to Catharine of Aragon. In other chambers
are to be seen cannons taken from the
French in the war of 1913; the uniform of
Wellington, worn by him as Governor of
the Tower; the cloak in which VOLTS re-
mains were enveloped when he fell at the
battle of Quebec, which gave to England
undisputed mastery of Canada; muskets
and rifles brought from France by Charles
v when he was Prince of Wales; armored
accoutrements for horses; battle axes;
halberds, catapults, and an inhnitude of
trophies captured in the field from the
enemy. Near these, in the chamber known
as the Banquet Hall, you will see enormous
stocks, and the block and ak used by the
executioner of London since 1876.
In "Wakefeld Tower are kept the
royal jewels. The crown of St. Edward,
once the property of Charles ii, is one of
the most ancient ones in existence today;
it has served at every succeeding coronation
of England's monarch. until 1888 Queen
Victoria commanded the execution of the
Royal Crown, which is classed as the great
est work of modern iewelry, and, in parallel
proportions to this master work of the
goldsmith, are the famous gems thickly
incrusting it. Those who are most famil-
lar with it aver that it contains one thou
sand eight hundred and twenty diamonds;
the celebrated Koh-i-noor,-the largest
found at the opening of the Transval mines,
-predominating. On its front, it bears an
enormous ruby which, according to the
inscription, was presented to the Black
Prince by King Peter of Castillo, in 1867;
at the back part shines superb sapphire of
of extraordinary size, which tradition re-
cords as belonging to Edward the Con-
fessor. The scepter of Justice; the royal
scepter; Queen Mary's and the baptismal
fonts, salt bearers, trays, symbol of mercy
and the various bejeweled insignias of the
Orders of the Bath, St. Michael and St.
George, Victoria Cross, etc., contribute to
an ensemble of splendor and richness, the
computed value of which has been placed
at three millions of pounds-ffteen million
dollars.