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Show EVE PERRIGK f - I HAD V I A I j 30 POINT OF VIEW And stiil she got wet, cc!d, tired IF it make.? you feel any i -L better this morning after, I can now announce that we plutocrats in the 30 seats did things the I hard way too. , Naturaily, at this price, ! there was a noticeable lack of Londoners sitting in the stand at No. 1 London the Duke of Wellington's Apsley House at Hyde Park Corner. But we were a pretty mixed bunch. We had with us Mr. Joseph Airman, the Mayor of Atlantic City, a gentleman used to parades, of course. To make him fee! at home we also had a beautv queen Miss Van der Westhuizen, who had been elected the top pretty girl in South Africa Hiid so won herself a seat at the show. We had the Count and Countess Coun-tess Hadik from New Hampshire, Her Highness Maganri Sahiba of Palitana from New Delhi ; and also His Holiness Yogirag Shrl Siva Chaitanva. IN BY COMET' A couple of 74-year-old ladles had flown in by Comet from Johannesburg. And a .lolly group of New Zealand sheep farmers, by chartering a flying boat, just made it in time. To round up the party there were those pleasure-trippers who had been going round the world on that costly Caronia cruise. Anyway, there we were from the four corners of the world-armed world-armed with movie cameras, portable radios, binoculars, and all ready to sock the man responsible re-sponsible for printing on the tickets "Be in your seat by 7 a.m." At 8 a.m. we were still queue-ing queue-ing to get into them. By 9 a.m. we were queueing to get out of them and try to find a standing spot in viewing distance of a TV screen. Still, isn't it amazing what you can see when you do get up early. There was. for instance, a shiny black and chartreuse stage coach, contiining one handsome man. one beautiful woman, and one self-possessed little boy, wheeling round the fountain outsside the Dorchester. THE DUKE And those who went around to the front door of Apsley House could observe the Duke of Wellington himself, with some apparent difficulty in mounting the steps, clambering into his own coach. " There was the .sliehtlv stasrerpr- tng sight of seeing people eating fancy cream cakes to the tune of a bouncy samba, being blared out of the loudspeakers, at 7 in the morning. We seemed to nave, although it was all quite unofficial, a kind of regulation dress. No ermine, mind you, but nearly all the women wore mink. And in place of coronets the men had come prepared with little plastic cosies which they fitted over their light-weight trilby hats. For our 30 we got all this, a free programme, an address of welcome, and -a lunch-box too. The lunch-box contained sandwiches. sand-wiches. 1 a hard-boiled egg, biscuits, fruit bonbons, an apple, and a red, white, a.nd blue paper napkin. Do I sound cross ? To be truthful, I'm writing this after the show, and I'm wet, cold, and tired. Still. I'm sorry if I seem mean-minded about, the whole thing. Because I must confess that when the parade came by. at around 2.40, when all that glitter and gold, all that pace and precision, swept into our view under the three arches into the Park, it was worth everything. Even the mnch-too-earlv rising. Even the 30. , |