Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1913 — PALACE OF ST. JAMES [ARTICLE]

PALACE OF ST. JAMES

Meeting Place of Balkan and Turk Peace Delegates. Historic Building In London Was Mads Royal Residence by Henry VIII— Commissioners Attracted All Attention at Conference. London.— St. James’ palace, on which the attention of the whole lized world has been fixed on account of the momentous peace conference, a dark, gray pile, every stone of which enshrines historic memories. For years the visitor from America and elsewhere has made early morning pilgrimages to the palace, for it is here that the picturesque ceremony of “guard mount" takes place, and it is generally one of the regiments of flashing guards that supplies the officers and men to pursue their o d-world task of protecting royalty and the Bank of England. It is also e haunt of the London nursemaid, for here she can combine the morning outing in the park for her aristocratic charges and the glimpse of the worshiped guardsman.

During the recent peace meet between the Balkan and Turk delegates the guardsmen and guard mount lost their attraction, and it was a more favorite occupation to stand among idly curious crowd and watch the prominent statesmen arrive at and depart from the great conference. * s nothing hero to suggest the bloodshed and the carnage that Lave stained red the page of recent European history. The sequel of this battle of wits, carried on amid all the mild surroundings of metropolitan peace, sacrcely recalled the roar of the Creusot and Krupp guns. Men who looked upon or guided the course cf the struggle gazed aefoss the park, where the out-of-works sleep through the summer days. Now the park is - _a vista of frosted grass, with a flurry ofi sea gulls showing whitely against dull sky and blue-fc-anched trees There is no hint anywhere of the passion below the surface that accompanies the changing frontier lines and the making of a new map of Europe. Although “our Palace of SL James" Is no longer used as a royal residence, it still gives its title to the English court. The levees are held in the fhrone room, well known to the late Ambassador Whitelaw Reid and the

members of the American ambassy, as well as to the citizens of the United States who have been presented to his majesty George V. and been allowed to kiss his hand. The site of St. James’ palace was formerly occupied by a leper hospital, founded in, 1190 and dedicated to St James the Less., Henry VIII. pulled down the old structure, laid out a park, and in 1532 began the building of a palace. The Staurts were particularly fond of St. James’ palace. That ill-fated prince, destined to be James U., was born there. Queen Anne lived there, and George 11. was the last of the English monarchs to reside at this place. Though he finally quitted it

for Buckingham palace, he continued to attend the services at the Chapel Royal. There, according to Bme. d’Arblay, the king stayed so long over his prayers that “the queen and family, dropping off one by one, used to leave the king, the parson his majesty’s equery to freeze it out together.” Hitherto the only dispute associated with SL James' palace was, when Queen Victoria wished to Install hey mother there, but was thwarted by thg selfishness of the king of Hanover. Every other association has been oven shadowed by the Balkan conference, which in times to come will be looked upon as the most important event la its history.