Westward with the Prince of WalesNewton, W. Douglas (Wilfrid Douglas)
History
Westward with the Prince of Wales
Newton, W. Douglas (Wilfrid Douglas)
Canada -- Description and travel; Windsor, Edward, Duke of, 1894-1972
The multitude of cars, mainly open touring cars of the Buick and
Overland type, though there are many Fords, or "flivvers," and an
occasional Rolls-Royce, Napier or Panhard, thickened as we neared the
Exhibition gates; and about them, in the side streets outside and in
the avenues inside, they were parked by thousands.
They gave the meanest indication of the numbers of people in the
grounds. The lawns were covered with people. The halls of exhibits
were full of people. The Joy City, where one can adventure into
strange thrills from Coney Island, was full; the booths selling
buttered corn cob, toasted pea-nuts, ice cream soda, and the rest, had
hundreds of customers--and all these, we found, were the overflow.
They had been crowded out from the real show, and were waiting outside
in the hope of catching sight of the Prince as he made his round of the
Exhibition.
The show ground of the Exhibition is a huge arena. It is faced by a
mighty grandstand, seating ten thousand people. Ten thousand people
were sitting: the imagination boggles at the computation of the number
of those standing; they filled every foothold and clung to every step
and projection. There were some--men in khaki, of course--who were
risking their necks high up on the iron roof of the stand.
In front of the stand is a great open space, backed by patriotic
scenery, that acts as the stage for performances of the pageant kind.
It was packed so tightly with people that the movement of individuals
was impossible. On this ground the war veterans should have been drawn
up in ranks. In the beginning they were drawn up in ranks, but
civilians, having filled up every gangway and passage, overflowed on to
the field and filled that also. They were even clinging to the scenery
and perched in the trees. The minimum figure for that crowd was given
as fifty thousand.
The reception given to the Prince was overwhelming; that is the
soberest word one can use. As he rode into the arena he was
immediately surrounded by a cheering and cheery mass of people, who cut
him off completely from his Staff. From the big stand there came an
outburst of non-stop Canadian cheering, an affair of whistles, rattles,
cheering and extempore noises, with the occasional bang of a firework,
that was kept alive during the whole of the ceremony, one section of
people taking it up when the first had tired itself out.
With the crowd thick about him, His Royal Highness strove to force his
way to the platform on which he was to speak and to give medals, but
movement could only be accomplished at a slow pace. As he neared the
platform, indeed, movement ceased altogether, and Prince and crowd were
wedged tight in a solid mass. The pressure of the crowd seems to have
been too much for him, for there was a moment when it seemed he would
be thrown from his horse. A "movie" man on the platform came to his
rescue, and catching him round the shoulders pulled him into safety
over the heads of the crowd.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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