IN THE PARK.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7377, 1 February 1902, Page 3 (Supplement)

IN THE PARK.

On the morrow came the demonstration, and as the day was more than ordinarily fine for the season it was an undoubted numerical success, but the talk of 100,000 being present is simply nonsensical. Probably 50.000 would be much nearer the mark, and of these not a tenth took part in the procession from the Embankment, in which figured flags and banners proclaiming the advantages of union among .coal porters, carmen, bricklayers, labourers, and total abstaining Sons of Phoenix, which have seen service in every demonstration during the past decade. Only one banner had been specially made for the occasion, and on it were in large letters the words, "Working men's tribute of sympathy to brave General Buller, Saviour of Natal." At the head of the procession went a man carrying aloft a small bust of General Buller. Then followed half a dozen mounted policemen, after whom came a little boy dressed in khaki, wearing a leather bandolier, carrying a lance with pennon attached, and riding a small pony.

The route followed by the demonstrators was by Northumberland Avenue, Pall Mall, St. James-street, and Piccadilly to Hyde Park Corner. In Trafalgar Square there was gathered a huge crowd, and the traffic had to be stopped for a few minutes while the men passed. Just as the head of the procession entered Cockspurstreet there happened an incident which might have been disastrous in its results. The man carrying' the bust of General Buller was calling for cheers for Sir Redvers when one of the mounted policemen, without any provocation, urged his horse forward, snatched the bust and the stick to which it was attached from the man's grasp and dashed the bust to the ground, smashing the figure to atoms. The crowd growled ominr ously, but wisely restrained itself from violence, though it is doubtful if such restraint would have been exercised had there .been missiles handy. One man, in fact, did throw his walking stick at the offending policeman, but the others contented themselves by venting their feelings in loud jeers, which only ceased when Hyde Park was reached, and were intermingled the whole way with cheers for General Buller. 'As the crowd passed along Pall Mall the clubs were seen to be filled with interested observers. Outside the War Office there was a good deal of angryfeeling shown. The procession passed up St. James-street and into Piccadilly (where the crowd swelled to very large proportions and seriously impeded the traffic), and so passed on into the Park, -where four vans set far apart marked out a huge semicircle. Originally it had been intend* ed to have six. The platforms were allocated geographically — Devonian, English, Scotch and colonial, the missing ones being the Irish and Welsh, which were "amalgamated" with the others. The speakers were nonentities, the only man among them who could boast a public career being Mr Steadman, of the L.C.C., who is ever "on tap" at such gatherings. At all the platforms the speaking was practically on nonrpolitieal lines, but denunciative of the Government and the War Office for their treatment of General Buller. There was an occasional offensive demonstration at the mention of Lord Roberts' name, and Mr Chamberlain also received his share of reprobation from those who in some way conceived him to be rei sponsible for Sir Redvers Buller's position. Finally, this resolution was put and carried unanimously: "That this meeting -is of the opinion that the speech of. Sir Redvers Buller, V.C., was not the cause for, but the excuse for, his dismissal; that his refusal to alter the Spion Kop despatches redounds to his credit, and we respectfully tender him <mr deep sympathy and an assurance of our unbounded confidence." And then in the gathering darkness the meeting melted away.

How many of the thousands who followed the bands and the banners from the Thames Embankment tc Hyde Park, or had gone straight to that rendezvous, had taken the trouble to understand the position of General Buller, or how .many were capable of understanding it — for there was a very large juvenile element in the crowd — it would be idle to guess. Apart from those who had come to a reasoned conclusion on the incidents which led to Sir Redvers' departure from Aldershot there were many who were obviously of the class which must "take a side" in any quarrel, and they had taken the side which appealed most to their imagination. They were perfervid and demonstrative, and sang a doggerel ditty, the refrain of which clearly betrayed their position. It was this:—

You saved the men, He saved the mines, He's got the shekels; So out you go.

"Weal," said old' Coblot, with a thoughtful expression on his face, "I've taken a powder for my headache, a pill for my liver, a capsule for my gouty foot, and a tonic for my nerves. Now what gets over me is how do the blamed things know the right place to go to after they get inside?"