THE CHIDREN'S JUBILEE. A Happy Day in Hyde Park. SALA'S DESCRIPTION OF THE FETE.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 216, 20 August 1887, Page 5

THE CHIDREN'S JUBILEE. A Happy Day in Hyde Park. SALA'S DESCRIPTION OF THE FETE.

London, June 24. Thst most successful of all the Jubilee festivities so far lias been the Cbildien's Fete in Hyde Park. This is particularly satisfactory because prognostications >of disaster weie numerous. The " Pall Mall Ga/ette,'' more especially, foretold endless misfortunes, even going so far as to prophecy that when all "wao over, Mr Lawtson would be classed with King Herod and other infant slaughterers. Still, other and moie dispassionate judges averred it would be impossible, at suoh a time a^ the • Jubilee, to engineer :>O,OOO little ones r living mostly at the East. End, to and fiom Hyde Paik. It therefore speaks .volumes for the good management and organisation of the Committee that the whole affair bhould have pasted oti without a Jvifcoh, and not a .single child been missing when the final roll-calls N\eie nm over. The following concluding extract from tixr account of the tete, wiitten by the veteran journalist, (i. A. Sala, who was a prominent figure Hitting here, there, and every where arnongbt the children throughout the day, will give you some conception of the .scene :—: — But by this time, in tkc iimmortal words of Huin^r, " they had put away iioin them the desire of eating and drinking, 1 ' and the time for other pleasures vas arn\cd. Like youthful giants refie->hed the groups oi boys and girls rose from the grasps to tind a perfect embarrassment of fun and frolic awaiting them. They .gathered in large audiences lound the open-air theatres, and watched the fantoccini, which were so comically life-like, except that the too candid bun would cast the shadow of tiie managers' hands upon the proscenium. They "clustered Jike t> warming bees round the Punch and Judy shows, which were in full force oi that deathless and delightfully immoral tiagical-comedy on every side. They vmtcked the learned pigs and dogs and gouts go through their lessons with a more than Board School docility. They laced and romped and fought for the air-balls, which were sent dancing and glistening over their heads in wildly lavish profusion—some floating far overhead in gaily-tmted\ftoveys, some sailing | tantalisingly close to the earth, but ever rising anew when nearly grasped. Then there were the Aunt Sallies— which were not merely attacked but demolished, smashed, puh erised, massacred by the shower oi sticks which the enchanted boys hurled at their devoted heads. There was a kiss in the ring— the boys too shy to kiss just at first, but ?oon put up to that daring duty by the demure little damsels. There weie races, leap-frog, ball play, football, touch and cross, follow my leader, and all soits of ether improvised pastimes, with dances whenever the jnusic struck up, and peep-shows full of such surprising visions that the boys and girls who got their noses against the glasses could not and would not take them away untilthe boys and girls waiting behind, in delirious impatience at the detcriptions ejaculated, pulled the first comers bodily away from their place of vantage. Does anybody dream that was about all in the way of amusement V All ? It was not even a half or a quarter. "Oh dear, oh dear," a small hing in white mob-cap and yellow gloves from Archbishop Tenison's school was heard to sigh, " I wish it would never be night. I shan't be able to play at half the things here." And there were, indeed, a thousand skipping-ropes served out^ of waggons, forty-two thousaud.separateprtee to be scrambled for, and, beyond all, Avonderfully exciting " lucky-dip barrels," of which here is an official list of the contents : Japanese balls, walking sticks, folding lans, pop guns, dressed dolls, china head dolls, Japanese figures, monkeys on sticks, fancy mounted money boxes, china head walking sticks, Japanese figures, Jubilee Queen's portraits, Pan's pipes, _ toy butterflies, cornets, large boxes m paints, scholars' companions with pens, paper and blotter, &c, new drawing slates, boxes of coloured crayon 3, fancy French kaleidoscopes, fancy wood money boxes, carved animals, coloured bookcases, snakes, musical pears, whistle mallots, horse and carts, polished wood pencil cases, mechanical walking figures, bird games, expanding figures, dolls in cradles, tin whistles, flageolets, trameur whistles, fifteen puzzles, lotto games, Jubilee watches, pin-cushions, assorted boxes of toys, skipping-ropes, sailing boats, &c. Imagine these glories all shot out at once from the top of a fairy-firkin with saw-dust to veil and mystify them, and then imagine a horde of joyous lads and lasses plunging into the delicious debris and joyously fighting for the mass of mixed treasures, covered with saw-dust, gladness and perspiration. But it could not be imagined ! One must behold a Board School class turned loose at barrels of boundless wealth like these before the feeble and unassisted fancy cap rise to the shrieks of laughter, the tangled hair, the tumbled frocks and pinafores, the i general frenzied glory and pleasure of the , whole lawless proceeding. Thus wore off the golden afternoon, 1 while the balloon " Victoria " waved bigger and bigger in the rear, and the paper bags drifted wildly westward, ana even the toughest-fibred of the little Londoners began to' show signs at last of havihg had ! almost enough of pleasure. '', At 545 p.m., j however, the most thrilling motn'frit of th^ j day was to arrive, for then they ' woul '/

see wilh their own eyes, .ami clpf>e at hand — the Queen— the Queen herself, coming to visit her metropolitan children, and to smile upon them and actually to pre- , sent one of the Memorial cups to one of their own numb.r. They had feasted their small eyes on the Guardsmen, foot and horse ; the grand officers and soldiers posted all round on splendid chargers and in shining armour to guard their playground. They had beheld walking among them a most brilliant po%c of fashionable people ; for, besides the duchesses, countetses, and highbred ladies acting inside the tents as general servants, there was the following company outside and among the children : Mrs Gladstone and Mr W. H. Gladstone, Duke and Duchess of Westminster, Earl and Countess Spencer, Earl of Derby, Marquis and Marchionessof Ormonde, MrH. W. Lawson, M.P., Maria, Marchioness of Ailesbiuy, Marquis and Marchioness of Londonderry, Duke of Portland, Marquis of Hartington, Marchioness of Salisbury, Loul and Lady Rothschild, Duke and Duchess of Abercom, Sir Alboi t fcJassoon, Sir Charles Warren, and many others. But soon Her Majesty herself was to be there, and all the children would see her iaoc to face, when the Royal standard would go up to the ilag&talMiead, and the Royal tiumpetcis would blow the signal for the " Old Hundredth ' and "God Save the Queen. " In preparation and anticipation of this crowning occurrence the Memo rial Cups were now delivered, every " manJack " and every " woman-Jill " ot the boys and girls getting the pretty souvenir — a glazed goblet, with two portraits of her Majesty of a soft cieam colom and graceful form. Then the distinguished poisons gathered at the Committee Tent, the Guards' band struck up martial and patriotic strains, and the columns of little ones drew up along the line of the Royal route. At this junctuie the great balloon soared aloft in the air with thee voyagers it, its car, sailing serenely away for Suirey, where it descended sately last evening. Soon after live o'clock members of the Royal family passed up Constitution Hill, and were received with an amount of enthusiasm ■which left nothing to be denied Upon the Queen's appeal .mcc, in a dress .of violet and black laoe, and looking well, and highly pleased wi'h the scene around her, Mish Lawbon had the honour of oflering Her Majebty a -plcndid bouqurt of the lon elie.st orchids wrapped round with a sniveled satin holder, bearing the inscilption of the gateway — "Not Queen alone; but Mother, Queen, and Friend in 'one !" Other presentations followed, and then the Prince of Wales led to the Royal carriage a proud but trembling little maid ot twelve years old, Florence Dunn by name, wearing many hehool medals and possessing a peifectly blameless rccoid of attendance and good conduct. In her little hands the Queen yiuckmsly and sweetly placed the cup, saying, *"* I am pleaded to give you this memoiial of any Jubilee, dear child." As noon as the too happy and too honoiued giilb had leceived the cvj, the Union Jack went up to the ilnt^tafl under the Royal standaid, and the bands stiuek uj) the tii bar of the Old Hundicdth, in which the little voiceb joined. " (lod b'eps the Piince of Wales " was next played, and, last of all, " God save the Queen.' nnd the Royal carriage r0220d away towards Paddmgton, on tne way to Windsor.