Questions about Excerpt from Here is New York by E.B. White

Dear friends, how are you doing! I am newcomer and glad and honored to be here with all of you. Some questions in reading experpt of Here is New York. Your explanation is appreciated.
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I am reading here is new york by E.B.White. In reading, I have some questions. Your explanation is apprecieted.
1. It carries on its lapel the unexpungeable odor of the long past, so that no matter where you sit in New York you feel the vibrations of great times and tall deeds, of queer people and events and undertakings.
Q: It carries on its...., here "it=the unexpungeable odor of the long past"?
Q: What does "lapel" refer to?


2. I heard the Queen Mary blow one midnight, though, and the sound carried the whole history of departure and longing and loss. The Lions have been in convention. I've seen not one Lion. ..
Q: The " Lion" is the officials of the city or coucilman.
Q: Is the convention House (parliament of NY)


3. At the ballgrounds and horse parks the greatest sporting spectacles have been enacted. I saw on ballplayer, no race horse. The governor came to town. I heard the siren scream, but that was all there was to that—an eighteen-inch margin again.
Q: The sentence"but that was all there was to that..." confuses me. What does it mean, and what's the syntax of it ( subject...)
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Thank again!