THE PRINCE OF WALES IN INDIA.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXI, Issue 2316, 12 January 1876, Page 4

THE PRINCE OF WALES IN INDIA.

THE ILLUMINATIONS IN BOMBAY. [ ARGUS CORRESPONDENT.] -The whole line of routel live mile in length, was brilliantly illuminated, a^d in . many .places tKe -scene was lovely beyond 'description. I have seen P.arifl.illuminated on the Emperor's Saint DayV"Ti\vin atthe fete of the Constitution, Venice when Victor Emmanuel ; 'entered after the Austrian .,- evacuation, Madrid when Prim and Serrano entered as liberators after the fight of Isabella, Cairo at the'opening of the Suez Canal^and London on the Prince.of Wales' Thanksgiving Day — but none of them could compare in beauty,, in splendour, and picturesqueness with Bombay as the Prince drove through it. This, doubtless, was due to the softness of the oil lamps and Hindoo lanterns, to the picturesque style of the houses, and to the great variety of the. style of the illuminations themselves. As to the number of actual lights used, "or the brilliancy of any separate device, including the almost infinite number of gas jets used, in London at the thanksgiving must have many times exceeded the number of lights used in Bombay V but gas is a very poor Bubstitnte for oil, it suffers terribly in effect if 'he slightest breeze be blowing, its light is monotonously while and glaring, it p isses3es brilliancy, indeed, but at the cost <if softness, colour, and steadiness. A small gas device at wide intervals among oil illuminations has', as was proved herej a brilliant and striking effect ; but when, as with, us, gas ;is used; almost to the exclusion of oil, the effect is garish and pot r. In Bombay there were three distinct, styles of illumination, the, one as" used at the Government buildings, strictly, architectural ; the other arbitrary, that is 6f lights arranged in frames of wood in •.the form of arches,- stars, pyramids, &c, without regard to the architectural lines 'of the houses ; the third, native, that is, merely lavish display of colored lanterns, chandeliers and chandelabras, with myriads of cut-glass pendants, lamps of every sort and. kind, mingled with flags and banners. It addition to these should be mentioned large gas devices of the ordinary modern type. All these four methods of illumination were adopted with success, and as a detailed account of the illuminations would be of no interest whatever to an Australian- reader, I will describe merely one scene of each type. :U " Of the first type there were two most splendid examples — the Governmentbuildings and Elphinstone-circle. The new range of Government buildings here are reaiiy magnificent, consisting of a number of splendid detached buildings, all differing in, detail from each other, bub all built in a rich Moorish-Gothic style. The two buildings selected for illumination .face each other, divided by a road of very great width. These were ;•; lighted frbni the ground to the Bky-line Vjvith small lanterns, those on the lower '? story.. being colored, while those above -•were ■white.' The effect of these two buHdicgs^ . with every line, pointed window, s.-ch, colonnade, projection, roof, and pii^iacle thus" bathed in soft light, was simply superb. Similarly Elphin--stone-ci.de, containing the town-hall, the reached; •!, the offices of the great railway compai es, and other important buildings, .: r ;wefe illuminated architecturally, every '* line an; '. window being brought out, while 'upon i 5 c wide steps of the 'town-hall scores <>t thousands of lamps were placed, giving i.b the effect of a wall of fire. Across the entrance to the 'circle was a gas arch with the device, "God bless the Prince of -Wales!" As a specimen of the second style, Churchgate street may. be.described. Here, upon both sides, light wooden aicb.es had been placed, above which were lines of start and other forms. These .were all covered with small oil lamps, and the effect was very brilliant, being greatly •increased by the/ fact that. the inhabitants . : had, in all cases,' done something on their ..iown.-piirts to. illuminate their houses. '•' SomehaoV done, so^arcitecturally,. others i'fi'aclhuvgotitnobld chandeliers, withthousands ci luat^ and lanterns of 'every eiape and color. The purely native style ot illumininatioii consists of, in some instanc s, lighting up the fronts of the houses, as I have just described, with numbe a of chandeliers, lamps, and lanterns; in others' of leaving the front of the house in darkness, having hanging across the street a few Hindoo' lanterns among the festoons of flags. These lanterns are large, and are decorated with transparent colored flowers or arabesques upon an opaque black ground, the .effect being very good. The natives who thus .■leave.the fronts. of their houses in semiobscurity, throw open every window up to : the top, and hang lighted chandeliers from the ceilings, showing the brightly painted interiors and ceilings. This is an effective and, to a European, a novel Style of illumination. To attempt to enumerate and describe the principal edifices, the Bombay Club, the French bank, the schools, the market, the triumphal arches, the esplanades, the temples, would be wholly impossible in the space of a single letter, and your readers must imagine for ; .themselves a fairyland composed of such scenes as those I have faintly outlined, and extending upwards of five miles. The beauty and singularity of the . scene was • largely enhanced by the white-garbed crowd who thronged it. With Hindoo, Mussau Iman, and Parsee alike, white is the favourite, indeed, except with a few castes or, sects, the Universal, color of their robW Color k shown only in the .turban, and here the variety of hue, of shape, and of make is astonishing. A ;. singularity, too, of so vast a crowd in •movement was the absence of noise. The fall of ihe countless naked feet upon the dusty road w-a3 almost imperceptible to the seme of hearing, and except for the frequent laugh, and the babble of joyous talk the silence would have been singular ; indeed. There were, with the exception of a few of the lowest class, no women •whatever in the throng, but the windows of the Parsee and Banian merchants' houses were bright with the yellow, blue, ■crimsoij, and green silk robes of the . '-native ladies. After the royal procession had pa-aed, top, thousand ■of closed, or *. almost closed, carriages, . crowded with 'native ladies and children, made their j'way sl'-wly • through the streets; The o crow.d -. was wonderfully good-tempered and full of fun. They cheered and chaffed carriages and horsemen as heartly 'ana noisily as an English crowd would do, and th(ne cheered, ,whether v European or native, entered fully into the fun, and iJTowedtHeirlSsknowledgments of the ironical greeting. ;.< From the windows of many of the houses sounds of wild native music came out on the air,' and it is much to be regrett & that -the -natives, are in a great measure giving up their own wild and

plaintive airs, and have taken to murdering "Glory, glory, halleluia," "Sweet Alice," "We'll run him in," and other popular European airs. As the procession approached the crowd fell back of themselves, and kept capital lines, and as the Prince passed lie was cheered more loudly and heartily than upon his entry. Then people had thought so much of gazing that they had almost forgotten to shout ; now, especially in the Parsee quarter his welcome was as warm and as loud as it would have been in an English town. Well as the line was kept, as the procession came up. the i. people i. could not restrain themselves from pushing forward as the Prince passed, and handfuls of rose leaves were thrown into the carriage at several points of the route.