The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-07
London's New Lord Mayor
 To Be Quietly Installed

Owing to the war; much or the -pomp and display which customar11y marks the installation of a new Lord Mayor of London will be lacking this year Sir Charles Johnston, who has been chosen to succeed Sir Thomas Vansittart Bowater as chief executive of that small part of the worlds me- tropoIis called ssthe City, will have quiet induction into office. It is likely that he will take the oath to- day, while the public ceremony, great ly curtailed, will take place on Mon day.
 For centuries the Lord Mayor Of London has been elected on Michael mas Day, and sworn into office on the eighth of November. On the follow ing day he is presented to the Lord Chief Justice to take the final dec laration, the accompanying pageant being known as the Lord Mayors show. The occupant of the exalted position receives $3O,000 a year, but most incuInbents spend several times that amount in entertaining during the year they are permitted to hold office, and the Lord Mayor must nee essarily be man of considerable wealth to stand the strain.
 London's Lord Mayors have been chosen annually for exactly seven centuries, as it was in the year 1214 that King John granted the city a new charter, which directed the chief mag
 
 has ever since been done. although in early times the same man often held the office for more thanS one term. Sir R. N. Fowler was the last man, to serve London as mayor for more than a year. He was elected in 1883, and, after a. year out of office, was return ed in 1885.
 The title of Lord Mayor was first bestowed on Sir Thomas Legge by Edward IIL, in 1854. In Saxon times | r r7f< known as the sportreeye, and the all dernen were called burgesses.4 Will liam the Conqueror changed the title of portreeve to bai1iff, which, in 1189 was changed to mayor. The officials continued to be known as mayors until the title of Lord Mayor was created by royal fiat. The Lord Mayors job is about the queerest compound of duties to be found anywhere. Theoretically he is so powerful that not even the King of England may enter the square mile of territory comprising ..the City,
 without first receiving the permission of the Lord Mayor. He is an ex-of- dcio admiral and his official family includes gentlemen in waiting, sword-
 bearers, a purse bearer chaplains and a hangman! He lives in a magnif- 1 cent building, called Mansion House. opposite the Bank of England, and has to spend a small fortune every week in salaries to servants and in 1 entertaining on a lavish scale. l Yet with all this medieval pomp and display, the actual duties of the | Lord Mayor are very similar to those of a police magistrate in a country town. He must spend the larger part
 of the forenoons in neting out justice l to petty criminals and disturbers- of l the peace. A majority of those wh o are haled before him are persons who have drank not wisely but too well, and who would be described on
 a police bIotter over here as drunk
 and disorderly.'' The grist at the 1 Lord Mayors legal mill is astonishing | ly small, however, when it is consid-
 cred that the city is the business cen
 ter of London, where millions toiI
 daily. The brand of justice meted out
 by the Lord Mayors is such, however,
 that real criminals give his realm a wide berth and carry on their. opera l tions elsewhere.
 One recent Lord Mayor kept a rec i ord of his activities, and at the end
 of the year he found that besides act I ing as judge, he attended 130 public I dinners, 8 5 receptions and balls, 365
 meetings and committee gatherings, l and had paid 20 state visits to 1 churches and delivered LIDO speeches. 1 Which would indicate that the job, of Lord Mayor is not the softest snap in 1 the world, and that it must be an aw- | fu1 bore to any but man who is fond l of hearing himself talk.