There will be complexions in the procession to-day which will suggest
the vast distances to which the British dominion has extended itself
around the fat rotundity of the globe since Britain was a remote unknown
back settlement of savages with tin for sale, two or three thousand
years ago; and also how great a part of this extension is comparatively
recent; also, how surprisingly speakers of the English tongue have
increased within the Queen’s time.
When the Queen was born there were not more than 25,000,000
English-speaking people in the world; there are about 120,000,000 now.
The other long-reign queen, Elizabeth, ruled over a short 100,000 square
miles of territory and perhaps 5,000,000 subjects; Victoria reigns over
more territory than any other sovereign in the world’s history ever
reigned over; her estate covers a fourth part of the habitable area of
the globe, and her subjects number about 400,000,000.
It is indeed a mighty estate, and I perceive now that the English are
mentioned in the Bible:
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
The Long-Reign Pageant will be a memorable thing to see, for it stands
for the grandeur of England, and is full of suggestion as to how it had
its beginning and what have been the forces that have built it up.
I got to my seat in the Strand just in time--five minutes past ten--for
a glance around before the show began. The houses opposite, as far as
the eye could reach in both directions, suggested boxes in a theater
snugly packed. The gentleman next to me likened the groups to beds of
flowers, and said he had never seen such a massed and multitudinous
array of bright colors and fine clothes.
These displays rose up and up, story by story, all balconies and windows
being packed, and also the battlements stretching along the roofs. The
sidewalks were filled with standing people, but were not uncomfortably
crowded. They were fenced from the roadway by red-coated soldiers, a
double stripe of vivid color which extended throughout the six miles
which the procession would traverse.
Five minutes later the head of the column came into view and was
presently filing by, led by Captain Ames, the tallest man in the British
army. And then the cheering began. It took me but a little while to
determine that this procession could not be described. There was going
to be too much of it, and too much variety in it, so I gave up the idea.
It was to be a spectacle for the kodak, not the pen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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