The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-06-15
Washington, D. C..

Jullc
 Miss Agnes V. Cosgrove of Wa tertown, who for several years was The Democrat correspondent in that town and who now is a fed- eral government employe stationed in Washington, D. C., was among the many who thrilled at the visit of Their Majesties, the King and Queen of England, to our nations capital last week.
 In letter written home, Miss Ccsgrove- captured all the pageantry and color that was encompassed in this historic event, the first official visit of reigning British monarch to the United States.
 Her letter follows:
 So we saw the King and Queen!
 Washington put on smiling face and gaily bedecked itself today to welcome King George and Queen Elizabeth. Under a cloudless sky the Union Jack and Old Glory waved, side by side, the whole length of Pennsylvania avenue, down which their majesties rode from the Union Station to the White House.
 I was little early this morning, getting downtown about $40 in- stead of my usual 8:55, and already the forth side of the avenue was lined with Spectators-the wise ones who realized what the crush would be later and came early, equipped with camp stools, magazines, papers, flags, and cameras, to get front row seats in the shade. The sun was hot, but a redeeming little breeze stirred the trees and rippled the thousands of flags.
 The air of excitement was notice- able even then. Groups of police were gathered on every corner traffic was well directed this morn ing, the poor pedestrian was able to get across the street; souvenir vendors sold flags, buttons, balloons and periscopes. Inwardly fuming because official leave" was not scheduled to begin until ten, thou sands of government workers, in- cluding us, beheld all the front row places vanishing while we trailed diSconSolately into the office.
 Promptly on the dot of ten, how ever, we were dashing madly out the door. The fact. that the P. O. D. is right on the avenue gave us a little break; and that our section is on the first floor right next to the 18th street door also helped. I wouldn't boast of our speed, but it wasn't very much after ten (maybe l 1-4 minutes past, when we were searching along the line of a nar- row place, where we could glimpse the parade. The department is on the south side of Pennsylvania ave- nue, in the full blaze of the sun, (which may mean nothing to you unless you know that the tempera- ture today is predicted to reach 92-Washington in the summerD so the greatest crowd was gathered in the shade on the north side.
 We found place behind row of little colored boys right up against the cable-almost as good as the spot from which we viewed the President of Nicaragua. I had my camera along to see if I couldn't get a few snapshots of the king and queen, and the spot was about right for that too. It was between two of the soldiers who lined the streets, and little to one side of the po- liceman who stood midway between them. I breathed a fervent prayer that he wouldn't choose to move at the wrong time. The soldiers face front at salute, you know; but the poor policemen can't watch the par ade. They have to watch the crowd.
 So there we were, with nothing to do but stand and wait for about two hours under the broiling sun. We read a newspaper for a few minutse to review again the royal schedule which, I believe, everyone in Washington knew as well as the king and queen themselves did. But all the reading in the world would not make that train get in before Il o'clock, or make time go any fas- ter. Then we watched the crowd, people attempting to cross the street at the wrong points, official cars dashing up and down the ave- nue, motorcycle police and am- bulances. The papers had an- nounccd that forty or fifty am- balances would be patrolling the streets to take care of emergencies. We couldn't see the necessity for them, reading about 1t, but, before Inc parade finally went by, if the ambulances picked up one person. they picked up at least nine or ten Just in the limited space we could see between i2th and 14th streets. The funny thing was that most of Inc people who tainted were on tho 'hady side of the street, but sup-