Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 109, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1911 — FESTIVAL OF EMPIRE [ARTICLE]

FESTIVAL OF EMPIRE

Preparations for the Coronation Already Under Way. * London to Be "At Home” to the People of the British" Realm—Carnival Parade From Hyde Park to Crystal Palace. London.—One of the most spectacular events open to tourists in London during the coronation season will be the “Festival of'Empire” at the Crystal palace. King George and Queen Mary will attend the festival on May 12 to hear the great empire concert, in which Mme. Clara Butt will take a prominent part, and in which there will be 6,000 voices in the chorus, under the conductorship of Dr. Charles Harris of Canada. The famous Queen's hall orchestra, conducted by Sir Henry Wood, will also take part Arrangements are completed for a series of grand empire carnivals. The city of London corporation has voted £2OO ($1,000) for the construction of a car symbolical of the life of the capital of the empire, while a number of other cities in Great Britain are sending cars. There will also be emblematic cars for each of the oversea dominions and others ,to represent great industries. In all there will be fifty huge cars. The festivities win be held periodically on the grand terrace of the Crystal palace. During the coronation period there will be a carnival parade from Hyde Park to the Crystal palace. In addition to the fifty carnival cars—Nice has but fifteen —there will be mounted calvacades and thousands of people in fancy dress, the men wearing grotesque heads. Rapid progress is being made with the construction of the “All Red Route," thermite and a half of electric railway which will give visitors a comprehensive review of the British empire at work and play. This work, together with the oversea dominion parliament buildings, which the line links together, is costing £176,000 The chief six spectacles will be the wheat fields of Canada, the tea plantations of India, the vineyards of Australia, the geysers of New Zealand, and the gold and diamond mines of South Africa. The exhibits in the various government. buildings will include thirty tableaux of “The Romance of Empire.” These will illustrate what the British settlers had to contend with in the early days and how the history of the oversea dominions has been made. , - .

The all-British exhibition of art* and Industries, to be held in the Crystal palace itself, which is being rearranged and decorated for the purpose, will make a special feature of machinery in motion. <£« j The duke of Marlborough is sending from Blenheim palace a priceless gallery of paintings which relate to the history of the empire and portraits of men who have helped to make that history. The photographic clubs of Great Britain and the oversea dominions will hold a competition. Mr. Frank Lascelles, the master of the festival, explained that on thia occasion "a great at-home will bo given by the people of London, the mother city of the empire, to her sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters.« “A sum of more than £250.000 (>1.250,000) i* being spent," Mr. Laa-’ cellea continued, "in order that the palace and grounds may be made worthy of the occasion. In the 230 acres of ground will bo seen exact replicas, two-thirds the actual slze.of •♦he Darllamant buildings of Canada.

Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Newfoundland and India. Inside these buildings in each Instance will be shown the progress and development of the country to which they belong —their scenery, their resources, their Interests and their industries. The government of Canada alone is spending more than £70,000 ($360,000) in a representation of the parliament buildings at Ottawa. There will also be camps for boy scouts from all parts of the empire; empire sports, under the presidency of Lord Desborough; a play, ‘Hiawatha,’ by Iroquois Indians from Canada; battles of flowers and carnivals; and, lastly, a series of scenes' in the great amphitheater, which Sir Aston Webb has designed, of the history of London. Under the presidency of Princess Louise, the performers already enrolled throughout London to take part in the representations of the city’s history number 12,000.”