CORONATION CURIOS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 26, 25 July 1911, Page 7

CORONATION CURIOS.

MANY AMUSING ERRORS. London, July 12. ■ Jack Johnson lias at last achieved a fame that is likely to go down into the annals of history. Ho is classed anions the people who made mistakes at Coronation time. The serio-comic papers in London give a list of those who made themselves famous during the celebrations for doing what they should not have done. This is how several notabilities excited the jollity of nations by errors of etiquette. Sir John Drodrick, for instance, is said to have arrived at Westminster Abbey in the wrong clothes. Instead of sweeping velvet robes and the deep ermine eape, he appeared in his habitual Parliamentary robe.

He hastily sought help from Lord Lvtton. "No," said the latter, "but I believe Earl Ridley can supply you with a spare set of correct robes." Sir John found that he had not time to get a change of clothing, and while seeking an inconspicuous place he caught the Earl Marshal's frown, and departed a sadder and wiser man. Lord Rodesdale exhibited another peculiarity. His Lordship is in the habit of wearing his hat at a rakish angle when parading the Mall, and from sheer habit he cocked his coronet over his right ear, to the intense amusement of many of the sightseers.

Another humorous incident that caused many sniggers of laughter was when the Duke of Norfolk entered the Abbey with his stockings hanging like concertinas over his shoes. Just before the entry of the King the Duke hitched up his hose. He was just in time. But all these stories are outshone by Johnson's Coronation exploits. The black fighter had set out to boom himself to the utmost extent, and he was the tail; of London.

On one even ing lie went out in one of Mrs. Johnson's frocks, and was pulled up by a, kindly policeman, who told him to go home ami stop being silly! On Coronation Day lie tried to get into Westniintser Abbey, but after rushing round to all the entrances and being turned down by all the janitors on duty lie began to get rather angry. A London paper tells the rest of the story: "All right," said Johnson. "I'll have my own blooming coronation." "Accordingly," continues the journal, "the dusky" black went down to the East End, and seated in state in a bar parlor, crowned himself with a tinsel bauble purchased at a top-shop, and bought drinks for all the people around him. lie called then his retinue, and before the mock ceremony came to an end the majority of them were just about as far gone as Tommy Burns was when he fought the negro in Sydney."