The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1920-01-15
THE TOWER OF LONDON.
Description of Famous Building
Where Kaiser May Await Trial.

The Tower of London. suggested as
a place where William Hohenzollern
might be held pending his trial, is
described IN the following bulletin
from the National Geographic socie-
ty:
palace and prison, once noted also
for it's menagerie and it pageantry
birthplace and death house of mon
archs, scene of hairbreadth escapes
and reputed hidden treasure, CHASTITY
in it's memories of tortures and kill
ings and sacred for its martyrs, the
Tower of London amply warrants de-
scription as the most ancient and
most poetic pile in England
"William the Conqueror gave Lon
don a charter but built the White
Tower to show the people how little
that charter might mean. Like the
English constitution the rambling
London Tower of today is product
of centuries, and not one, but many
towers, now are scattered over some
13 acres. The site had been fort
ress since Roman times.
'To the Middle Tower Elizabeth
came back queen five years after her
jealous half-sister, Mary, had kept
her there in prison. The hump-backed
Richard III hired three assassins to
murder his nephew in Bloody Tower.
Not until years later were their bones
found and taken to Westminster Alb
bey.
Lady Jane Gray, she who had the
birth of princess, the life of a saint,
and the death Of ma1efactor, was
beheaded in London Tower. Henry
VIII waited to hear a gun fired from
White Tower, signal of the execution
Of Anne Boleyn, so he might marry
, Jane Seymour next day. Henry's
minister, Thomas Cromwell, sent
hosts of enemies to London Tower
to be butchered until he helped pick
Anne of Cleves for his much married
monarch, but when Henry saw his
prospe tive bride he pronounced her
a Flanders mare and off went Crom-
wells head with the rest.
Relieving such stories of royal
cruelty are the immortal last words
of the brave men and women who
laid heads on the axeman's block.
Good forbid the king shall use
any such mercy to my friends,
laughed Sir Thomas Moore when
told that Henry VIII had 'mercifully'
consented to let him be beheaded in
stead of hanged, and, to the execu-
toner, as he moved his beard aside,
PITY that should be cut that has not
committed treason
'NThe countess of Salisbury proudly
refused to lay her head on the block
because she had committed no wrong,
so that, says an observer, apologizing
for the executioner, he was constrain-
to fetch it off slovenly.'
If you strike me twice | cannot
promise you not to STIR warned Mon
mouth. Asked to raise his head bit
Algernon Sidney retorted, Not until
the general resurrection, strike on.
Peter inquired Sr Walter Raleigh,
to keep up the spirits of his attend
ant, 'Dost thou know of any plaster
to set mans head on again when it
was cut OFF,
Consigned to the tower for some
13 years Sir Walter set a fashion
which made a salon out of the palace
prison. While he was not attending
his garden, and distill:ng essence
from plants, he wrote his quaint His
tory of the World and there, too,
William Penn wrote No Cross, No
Crown not to mention the writings
of the Duke of Orleans and Sir John
Eliot.
'tAbout the main entrance to the
tower was a managerie until hun
dred years or so ago because Freder-
lex II of Germany sent Henry III OF
England several panthers and Henry
did not know what else to do WITH
them. Later James I, who liked bear
batting, added those animals to the
zoo.
sThe wardens, known as beef eat
ers,' probably because they one we're
fed on rations of meat, from one OF
the cur.osities for London visitors.
They wear tudor costumes and like
the Swiss body-guard of the pope
they keep their ancient costumes
undisturbed by current fashion.
"Just before midnight the board
warden and the porter, carrying a
bunch of huge keys, go to the guard