The yellow danger

As all the world knows, the Children’s Ball of the Lady Mayoress takes place yearly on the night of “Twelfth Day,” 6th January. In the year ’98 the function was even more successful than usual, owing to Sir Henry Burdett’s fine idea that the children should be photographed in support of the Prince of Wales’ Hospital Fund. The little Walter Raleighs, Amy Robsarts, flocked in throngs to the photographer’s studio adjoining the grand salon of the Mansion House; while all that space outside between the Mansion House, the Bank, and the Stock Exchange was a mere mass of waiting, arriving, and departing vehicles.If anything tended to take a little of their exuberance from this and other New Year jubilations, it was a certain cloudiness in the political sky; nothing very terrifying; yet something so real, that nearly every one felt it with disquiet. An Irish member, celebrated for his “bulls,” was heard to say: “Take my word for it, there’s going to be a sunset in the East.” Men strolled into their clubs, and, with or without a yawn, said: “Is there going to be a row, then?” Some one might answer: “Not a bit of it; it’ll pass off presently, you’ll see.” But another would be sure to add: “Things are looking black enough, all the same.”