Yesterday was not a very bright Bank Holiday, meteorologically considered, but the weather we have had for the past two months must have prepared everybody for a dull leaden sky, and more or less rain. Its a dull day that is not bright for somebody, and yesterday was a bright day for those who provided amusement and, in case of need, shelter also. They made their hay while the sun didn't shine.
The holiday was, for a good many working people, the last of what must conventionally be called the summer, and a natural anxiety to spend the day in the country increased above the normal average the railways bookings to the resorts a little way out - Epping Forest, Rye House, Gravesend, Hampton Court, Kew, and other such places. But the traffic was nothing like so heavy as is customary on the first Monday in August. What, however, the Great Eastern, the South Eastern, the Great Northern, and other companies lost in this way, the Metropolitan lines gained. People went off in shoals to the South Kensington Exhibitions Madame Tussauds and other places where they could enjoy themselves "rain or shine." The two Palaces were well patronised. The number of visitors to the Crystal Palace was 56,715, against 45,206 on the same holiday in 1887. Over 50,000 were attracted to the Alexandra Palace, mainly by a desire to see Professor Baldwin come down from the clouds. Slight rain began to fall just before six, the hour fixed for the ascent; but this did not at all mar the spectacle. After rising, as was estimated, about the prescribed thousand feet, Mr. Baldwin was seen gliding swiftly earthwards. He gracefully and safely alighted in the Palace grounds about three hundred yards from the point of ascent. The number of visitors to the Zoological Gardens, Regent's-park, was 21,433; at the South Kensington Museum there were 12,723 up to six o'clock; at the People's Palace, East London, 26,489; at the National History Museum, 7,960; about 14,000 at the Tower of London; at the State Apartments, Windsor Castle, more than 7,000. From all these places, many went at night to theatres and musical-halls, and finished up their holiday with a damp journey home.
A telegram has been received in Huddersfield to the effect that Prince Albert Victor, who promised to visit the town to-day on the occasion of the Yorkshire Agricultural Show, regretted that he was unable to come, as he was confined to his room with a bad foot.
A Whitechapel Horror.
A woman, now lying unindentified at the mortuary, Whitechapel, was ferociously stabbed to death this morning, between two and four o'clock, on the landing of a stone staircase in George's-buildings, Whitechapel.
George's-buildings are tenements occupied by the poor laboring class. A lodger going early to his work found the body. Another lodger says the murder was not committed when he returned home about two o'clock. The woman was stabbed in 20 places. No weapon was found near her, and he murderer has left no trace. She is of middle age and height, has black hair and a large, round face, and apparently belonged to the lowest class.
