HOW 1923 WAS RUNG IN.

Shannon News, 23 March 1923, Page 2

HOW 1923 WAS RUNG IN.

NEW YEAR IN LONDON CITY

INVISIBLE LINK BETWEEN EIRE

SIDE CHORUSES

For tlic first time in history the death of an Old l r ear and the birth of a New was announced by wireless in thousands of English homes.

Listeners-in, sitting cosily by their firesides, heard the call, speeding from the Loudon station at the first stroke of midnight, to mark the passing of the year. Then came the voice of Mr Kenneth Ellis singing the opening strains of “Auld Lang Syne,” and joined by this invisible bond, households in widely separated parts of the country took up the chorus in unison. Merry parties gathered in the West End hotels to celebrate the event with festivities and dancing. At the Savoy; an elaborate banquet was served, and when 12 o’clock chimed, the regimental trumpeters of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders sounded a fanfire, and 25 figures of Father Time descended from the ceiling, amid loud shouts of “Beaver.”

The interior of Claridge’s Hotel was decorated to represent an Italian landscape, with thousands of silver stars twinkling in its sky. The Berkeley announced the' event with a mysterious play of lights, which appeared to fill the atmosphere with a heavy snowfall.

Large crowds gathered in front of St.Paul’s to celebrate the coming of 1923 in time-honoured fashion, and the streets were filled willi singing crowds until well on in the early hours of the morning.