The streets were richly decorated with flags, festoons, triumphal
arches, banks of flowers, and trophies illustrating the industries of
that metropolis of manufacture, while the streets were thronged with
half a million of rejoicing people. A striking feature of the occasion
was a semi-circle of fifteen thousand school-children, a mile long, the
teachers standing behind each school-group, and a continuous strain of
"God Save the Queen" hailing the royal progress along the line.
On the 4th of May the queen received at Windsor Castle the
representatives of the colonial governments, whose addresses showed that
during her reign the colonial subjects of the empire had increased from
less than 2,000,000 to more than 9,000,000 souls, the Indian subjects
from 96,000,000 to 254,000,000, and those of minor dependencies from
2,000,000 to 7,000,000.
There were various other incidents connected with the Jubilee during
May, one being a visit of the queen to the American "Wild West Show,"
and another the opening of the "People's Palace" at Whitechapel, in
which fifteen thousand troops were ranged along seven miles of
splendidly decorated streets, while the testimony of the people to their
affection for their queen was as enthusiastic as it had been at
Birmingham.
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