The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 20, 1897, Page 17

t ten yearsago I was instrumental in ng for an American—a man whose fiuence and celek be described as national in characte in West- minister Abbey for the celebration of the golden jubilee service of the Queen. It was a great favor, one which he nad been jarticularly anxious to obtain, and when it is borne in mind that the space within the Abbey was so restricted that only 200 vlaces could be accorded to the 500 mem- bers of the House of Lords, and that fabulous prices were being offered for | tickets, his satisfaction, not unmingied | with pride, may be cined when he | received cards, not for himself, but | also for his wif at the very last moment he decide t to zo, on the ground that he apprehended some un- | toward event in the Abbe thither, which m d toa panic and cuiminate in u catastrophe. In fact, he did not hesitate to aumit that he dreaded me outrage of the dynamite or nitro- g yeerine o and inusmuch as I was aware t in this country he had d what is known as the ““Cause and bad accorded lucrative rent 10 some of the Clan-na-Gael, vincible and Fenian leaders, I was i to believe that his fears were | based on something more serious than | ere imagination. Fortunately, however, nothing occurred to justify them. Yet I ave never heard him express a word of? regret or disappointment at having re- ved from making use of the cards, which 1 had bad so much d:fficulty to ob- 1ain for him, and which he was so anxious 10 receive. The apprehensions tha! were manifested on that occasion by this American citizen, | whose feaiures are familiar to every man, | woman and child throughout the length | and breadth of the Unitea Siates, are | shared to-day by most of the leading Gov- | ernment officiais in London, and by no | one more =0 than by the Queen herself, who regards with no Jittle dread the pro- cession througlh the streets of Loaden on Tuesdsy next, and will be heartily giad and relieved when it is all over. In 18 the royal procession passed up Piccadi down St. James street, along Pali Mall and down Parliament screet 10 the Abbey, | nd back through the Bird Cage walk. | That is to say the route was & suort one and was bordered by the mansions of the wealthiest and grandest personzages in the | United Kingdom, by the fashionable clubs and by of which may rigorous!y ed to suspi But on Tuesday next the Q over a route at least three times a which from the moment it leaves 1 square until it reaches the Wesimin- er Bridge on its way back, extends through streets and thoroughfares that are lined on either side by buiidings so diversely occupied and so densely pop hat it is idle to dream of their be- bjected to any adequate surveillance n the part of the police. ssia ana in Oriental countries on | occasion as this every owner of a | e of procession would be ily responsible for the be- people Wbo cross its thresn- | i ir was over, and in many buildings would even be or on the road he Government offices, all g been | | regarded as hay us strangers. een will drive cleared and kept empty by the authori- ties. But thisis out of the question in land, which is relatively speaking a free country, populaied by citizens jealous of their rights; and the long and stiort of the matter is that the Queen for the space of some three hours, and durinc adrive at a foot pace over 8 route of moure than six miles, will be at the mercy ofany notoriety-crazed crank, of any fanatic | anarchist, of any revengeful Indian, or embittered “Invincible,” who cares to win everlasiing celebrity—it would be more to call it undying infamy—by at- pting the life of the aged sovereign, who, being in her seventy-eighth year, and having completed the sixth decade of her reign, may justly be considered as heving aiready one -oot in tbe grave. | There is little danger of any attack of | this kind being made by any one in the streets. Forin addition to the latter be- | ing lined on either side by troops stand- | ing three deepand shoulder to shouider | slong the entire route of the procession, the crowds will be so dense that the rege- cide would be seized, trampled down and probably torn to pieces by the mab before he would have any chance of accomplish- | ing his fell purpose. The danger will | come from tbe windows and the roofs of | the houses, and the recent “terr.fying out- | rage at the Aldergate-street station of the underground rairoad in London shows how easy it is forany one to use with deadly effect a so-called infernal machine without much peril of detection. Accord- ing to the report of Sir Vivian Majendie, | the Government expert on explosives, and | recognized as the greatest authority on the latter in Europe, the explosion which shattered a railroad carriage, killing one | man and injuring a number of others, was caused by:a small bomb or canister filled with what is known in chemistry as a “high explosive,” and which hud been placed under the seat of a carriege and left there by some foe of socieiy, who mingling with the crowd on emerzing from the carriage, had disappeared with- out leaving any trace or clew to his iden- tity. As the man who blew up the train at Aldergate street was uninjured by the expiosion, and is still entirely unknowsx, it is certain that he can make and carry s explosives safely, and there is conse- quently nothing whatever to prevent him or any associate with the same malignity and nerve from repeating the outrage whenever he sees fii—say on the day of the jubilee celebration. He can then either escape, as he has| done previously — the chances being sagasinst his capture—or else if he be pos- sessed of that craze for notoriety, which appears to be the weak point in the char- acler of so many regicides, he will allow bimself to be taken, and glory in the Tact | that his name will live forever in history— just as long, in fuct, 8s that of good Queen Victoria herself. London, it must be remembered, is the city of refuge of all the Continenta! anar- chists, nibilists and socialists—in fact the foes of society of every country under t' e sun, since even Chinese highbinders and Turkish revolutionists have established vranches and lodges there, Elsewhere in Europe the police are too alert, and being possessed of means that are beyond the cach of their English comrades—methods ich are not anctioned by British law— re able 1o hound their gquarry out of their respective countries, or else 10 keep them | under proper supervision. But the latter is difficult—nay, almost impossible—in tem London, with 1ts enormous area, iis popu- lation of nearly 5,000,000 and its immense water front, which renders depariure ior SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 20, 1897. FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE OF The mere mention of the word *por-| trait” in the most desultory conversation gives risc just at present to the question. Have you been to the Academy? Have | you seen the portraits of Mr, Sargent? Of Mr. Shannon? Of Sir Georga Reia? The artist, if be is present, bursts into | an almost profanely emphatic tribute of | admiration for Mr. Sargent. The phil tine agrees feebly ana is inwardly almost | equally profane, because he cannot speak | with more genuine enthusiasm, Privately | he does not, cannot, will not like them; he | prefers from bis soul the portraits of Mr. | Herkomer. In this year's Academy Mr. Sargent | has only two piciures, but they have given the papers a chance for the use of | all the superlatives at their command, | with reiterations thereof to the point of | weariness. It is, however, impossible not | to feel, after writing about work with which we may not always be in sym. | putby bui which is alw s powerfully in- | i Piiathr oz, 04 becomes sli-htly perfunciory. The portraits at present exhibited are of Mrs. Carl Meyer, the wife of Roths- child’s financial manager, and her two children, and tbat of the litile four-year- old daughter of Lord Ribblesdale. The latter is frankly old-fashioned. The child 15 atiired in a black satin rock, like | a little Spanish Infanta, with her light hair escapinz from the daintiest of litue caps. She stands near a low pedestal almost as tall as her:elf, on which rests a tig, green ja: filled with bard, bright green leaves; one iittle hand flutiers out to the villar for support, with a somewhat timid and very childlike movement. In paint- ing children Mr. Sargent forgets his rather ironic attitude—one of indulgent but very keen observations of the vanities and rriv- olities of the fashionable world he has been cailed 1o paint—and he seems only 10 care 10 express the exquisite freshness, | the naive graciousness and bioom, which distinguish, apparently, littie children dividual, that criticism of other things |alone. I bave never seen in uny Sargent ";" TH THE PERIL OF QUEEN VICTORIA IN THE DAY OF HER Y RS I e X IS SARGENT PORTRAIT | portra:t of children of a larger growth the | painted in a studio light, but in the less| quite young, shows the piquant contrast same quelities of tenderness and sym- pathy. Everything seems to have been | selected with the view of expressing the delicacy of the little figure; its uncon- | scious pride of bearing, the shyness which battles with delight at ber new impor- tance. The portrait of Mrs. Carl Meyer plays upon an entirely different set of emotions. It is frankly modern, as moderns can be who are 1nevitably, at this day and date, imitations. To what secret springs of | emulative decoration are we indebted for the wealth of artistic eflorescence which gives tne drawing-rooms of the ‘“‘high world” all the glitter of gilt and brocade, of glass, of bighly cultivated blossoms, of polished floors and paneled walls and ceilin s that Burcher aione might appro- priately bave decorated. Here we are in- troduced into such an interior, as mod- ern as the revival of interest in the an- tique can meke'it. The portrait gains an | direct, less concentrated one of an ordi- nary room. The lady, who is in fuli even- ing dress—and what a marvel of skill in | another direction is the gown I—is the very | Sower of such surroundings. The spirit | of the design is purely French, the execu- | tion is of no country and for all time. The two children behind the sofa—the | gitl in white muslin, the boy in gray vel- | vel—have just the amount of relief neces- | sary to make them share, without dis- turbing the importanes =f the mother, | who is a spreading glory of shimmering vink satin of duil finish and white chiffon. The whole picture is a harmony of pink and gold of zray and white, in which the | only dark notes are furnished by the rich | black of the hair of the children, the black | velvet ut the waist and elbows of the gown of the mother, and the smooth, dark volish of the floor. The dark children, with their characteristic look of race, stand behind the sofa, leaning over it and added distinction in the fact that it is not | sxzainst each other. The mother. who 1s| London. May 24 of abundant. prematurely gray hatr, with a complexion of maivelous f:esnness, in which the shadows are as light as the shadows on w Everything lives, breathes, is’ instinct ‘with action. The book rests as it has been flung down, with fluttering pages; the edges of the gold sofa glisten; the shepherdess dances in the brocade that covers it, and which bardly differs in color from the band that is stretched out carelessly, lightly, but which the younger child has caught and held w.th a little intimate gesture which brings the three together. It is the full and consummate expression of fashion- able lite of the present day, with all its cayety, its carelessness, its extravagance expressed witha technique thatis in itselt another tribute—for ii it has ali the energy, the vitality of older masters, it bas a restless, breathless, ‘high-strung brilliancy entirely of the period, not with- out its irritating qualities. Vax Dycx Brows, | i JUBIEEE a foreign clime a relatively easy matter ta | those who know how to go about the eiiada Moreover, the English people in the | past nave not sufficiently expressed their abhorrence or even disapproval of crimes of v olence committed what may be de- scribed as under a cloak of politics. For the London Times, that newspaper which may be regarded as the very versonifi- | cation of British respectability and pro- priety, did not hesitate to inciude among the most valued and honored members of |its staff a man who under the literary | name of Kazcheffsky, which psendonym of “‘Stepniak” disguised, but did not attempt to conceal, his real igures in the as that of the criminal annals of Russia | murderer of the chief of ihe St. Petersberg | included | police, General . Mezenizeff. The latter was killed in the most cowardly manner by a couple of stabs in the back on the part of “Siepniak,” who was afterward by Edmund Yates among his ““Celebrities at Home” in the London World, and finally came to a violent and on the whole well-merited end through being ground to pieces by a locomotive while walking along the tracks of a rail- road in the outskirts of London. Another equally celebrated member of the staff of the Times, and who was for many years the special correspondent of that journal in the United States, was the late Anthony Gallenga, who, according to his own ad on, celed all the way from Parma to Turin as a young man for | the express purpose of assassinating King | Charles Albert of Sardinia, a crime for which he was sentenced to death, only escaping that fate by flight to Boston. Yet the fact of his having been implicated in this conspiracy ana of having plotted a murder, the execution of which was only prevented by the vigilanee of the Sardinian police, did not prevent Mr. Gale lenga from becoming one of the so-called “embassadors’’ of the London Times, nor from even attaining subsequently high political honors in his native country. Such things as these are calculated to warp the minds and the principles of those who, educated beyond the station in life which they can reasonably expect 10 attain, are already disposed to regard | their surroundings with a' mind that can oniy be described as distorted. Itisex- ceedingly difficuli for people of this char- acter, who are frequently styled the “step- children of socieiy,” to define the exact | line that separates a crime from a politi- | cal offense. Thobey cannot but appreciate the fact the | felons of to-day are often the martyrs and i the b es of to-morrow, and when they see the treatment accorded by posterity to Orsini, who in an attempt to assassinate Napoleon III with a bomb Kkilled aad | wounded twenty-two people at Paris, and | | part of individuals who occu | police provided _only | issued for his arrest. Oberdank, who sought to murder the Em- peror of Austria, both of whom are now extolled throughout Italy as patriots who sacrificed their lives for their country’s good, it is difficult to prevent their run- ning away with the firm conviction that in the event of their killing some sovereign of the present time they will, notwith« | standing the execration which such an act would at first call forth, pe eventu- ally raised by their fellow-countrymen and by socieiy to just as high a pinnacie of popularity and regard as any of the men above mentioned. It must not be forgotten that every political revolution of the past has been precedel by &cts of conspiracy and often of violence on the d toward the Governments of their day much the same position as that in which the an< archists, the socialists, the Irish Invinci- bles, the Russian nihilists, etc., now stand, and regicides are to a certain extent war- ranted and encouraged by the past to believe that the legalization and justifis cation of their crime is almost always but a question of time. Indeed, the very condition of international intercourse tends to blunt the moral sense of the regicide and of the political assassin with regard to the infamy of his crime. For, as we have seen above, England sheltered the murderer Stepniak from the Czarand declined to surrender to France the fellow conspirators of Orsini on the ground that their crimes had been of a political char- acter and dictated by patriotism rather than by wickedness. In the same way, France, in spite of her anxiety to please | Russia, turned a deaf ear to ‘the demand of the Czar for the arrest and surrender of Hartman and those other nihilists who were concerned in the attempt to blow to pieces the imperial train near Moscow, the conspirators destroying the wrox train, killing the majority of its occu- pants. Irishmen indicied by the Enghsh courts for dynamite outrages may aiways rely upon protection from the English they can reach France; and although Austria and Lialy are bound together in a close union by the terms of the triple altiance, Oberdank would never have been obliged to expiate his offense on the scaffold had he man- aged to attain the Italian frontier. Paris harbored until the day of his death the late Priace Karageorgivitch, who stood convicted by tbe tribunals of Hungary, in which country he was a resi- dent at the time of the shocking assassine ation of the late Prince Michael of Servia, | of having been the principal instigator of that crime, and a warrant being actually Yet owing to the fact of the murder having been of the regicide order no attempt was ever made to interfere with Prince Karageorgivitch in France. It isalmost certain that were any one to murder the Sultan, Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria, King Alexander of Servia, or let us even say King Humse bert or Emperor William, and then es- cape to either France or England, it is ex- ceedingly doubtiul whether the Govern- ments of either ol these two countries would be willing to surrender the assas- sin; and in theevent any Liish invinci- ble or Indian fanatic, maddened by the sense of the wrongs inflicted upon his people by their Engiish oppressors, made some attempt upon the life of the venerable Queen Victoria, his extradition by any foreign country to which he might flee would be contrary to usage in the past, and entirely s tribute to the uni- versal respect and admiration which her Britannic Majesty commands, not only at Lome but also abroad. The above will convey an i of the dangers 1o which the Queen will be ex- posed on Tuesday next, and thers re many both in her own do- minions and abroad who will breathe more freely and feel relieved when they Jlearn that she has reachea home 1n safety after the royal procession through the streets of the metropolis without having succumbed to fatigue, ex- citement or to the aitack of some homi. cidal or regicidal crank, Ex-AzTACHE