The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-17
ANTI-GERNIANs RIOTS RE- CALL ERA OF POPE
 RURNING,' EXERCISES

Englishmen are celebrated for their sobriety and lack of enotionalism. but that these national characteris- tics have their limitations is proved by the recent anti-Gerrnan riots in London. The more conservative Lon don Journals have been outspoken in their utter condemnation of these popular outbursts directed against the German spy system but involving many innocent persons. To the ssyeI- low press the London Daily News inputes the responsibility for the prevalent hysteria, accusing it of
 exploitation of the vuIgarest of fears and passions ' which has damaged our repute among nations, besides ex- posing our countrymen abroad to the danger of reprisaIs.,
 The present excitement is not with out precedent. however. for on many occasions sober and sedate London has turned itself loose and given ex- pression to the widest emotional eak-s cesses. Tn the sixteenth and seven teenth centuries the observance of the seventeenth Of November as Queen Elizabeth's day was marked by a1a- ti-Catholic demonstrations in which the ceremoney of burning an efrigy representing the Pope was the prin- cipal feature.
 Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne on Nov. 1858, and the cus- tom of celebrating the anniversary was continued long after her death in 16O3. She was honored as the restsrer i of the Protestant religion, and after the gunpowder plot, 2 the .meal-tub plot, and other Catholic sconspiracies the festival was turned into a great popular demonstration against Cath olics. On many occasions the Catho- lies of London were roughly handled For the most part, ohewever. the pro- : <1es -f-,~1r l. sjn the mob was satisfied with Wreaking it's vengeance on enigies Of the Pope and other promiennt Catholics. She observance of Elizabeth Day as an occasion for anti-papal parades con tinued until the reign of George T., when 1t gradually died out.
 From a coutenp poraneol1S d6scrip- ton of a magnificent procession and solemn Burning Of the pope at Temple Bar, November IT, 1769,E we learn that never were the balconies vim dows. and houses of London more numerously lined. or the streets closer thronged, with nauItitudes Of people. I all expressing their abhorrence of po- pery. so that 'tis modestly computed l that, in the whole progress, there could be no fewer than 100000 spec l tators.' The procession included many men rnasquerading as priests, giv- ing pardons very plentiful1y to all
 
 and proclafming it merftorious.'' There were also JesuiIs with bloody daggers.'s ? and a long array of car I dinals and other dignitaries, the pro- cession ending with ttthe pope in a I lslofty glorious pageant, representing a chair of state, covered with scarlet. l richly embroidered and fringed, and l pedecked with golden balls and cross I es.s At the back of the figure rep- resenting the pope was another made i up as the devil. frequently caress- l ing. hugging and whispering to him, and oft-times instructing him aloud I to destroy his majesty. to forge Pro- testant plot, and to fire the city again. ! to which purpose he held an infer s nal torch in his hand. At the end oi
 the procession. his holiness. after some compliments and reluctances l was decently topp1ed from all his 1 grandeur into the flames
 It was only natural that such a I spectacle as this should fan the flames
 of religious bigotry. and arouse both
 Protestants and Catholics to bloody I deeds Every crime. including the
 starting of the great London fire, was 1 imputed to the Catholics, just as to-
 day every inomensiye German is de nounced as a spy-although often I perhaps not without reason.