Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-06-24
Death of Queen elizabeth
BY JOHN QUILL.

4
Queen Elizabeth is dead. 1t doesn'
make any difference how we got that in
formation. This is none of our fight-thiI
quarrel between the Associated Press and
its rival. We've received the news, and
that's enough. She died 268 years age
the oath of last month. She survived
until the vital spark had fed, and then she
saw 1t was OF no use resisting the inscru-
table DEGREES of fac, and so her unfettered
soul took its flight into the mysterious
void, and settled down in that bourne
from which no traveller returns unless he
has a mission to jerk chairs around and
rap on tables for the benefit of mediums
and other long-haired. wildeyed lunatics.
| Queen Elizabeth was virginia Vergin'
on seventy and yet the fire cleaned as
! brightly as ever in her cream-colored eve
and the delicate sheen of her finely
| tinted maroon nose contrasted as forcihly
as in her youth with the aIabaster of her
brow; and the plugs in her teeth were
just as valuable as when gold was at 156.
She died without ever having read the
Sunday Dispatch" and without making
the acquaintance of John Quill The ply
slclans attributed her untimely end to this
IN great measure, and upon reflection it
does seem somewhat rough on her. But
1T couldn't be helped. All the human race
cannot be equally blessed. Alexander the
Great met the same unhappy fate.
But. still, she had no small vice. She
dill not smoke Oh chew or belong to the
society for the promotion of cruelty to an
imals And when she swOre, she never de-
scended to the vuIgarity OF Horace Gree
ley-Queen Elizabeth didn't. When she
used profanity sho gave it with finish, an
elegance, delicate airy grace, and infused
into 1t certain luxurious abandon, and
rounded it On carefully at the corners, and
dressed it up with we'll selected poetical
adlectives, SO that it sounded like strain
from some sweet singer-like some sweet
singer straining herself. in fact. And she
had red hair.
Her chignon was burglar proof. And
often in the dim twilight of evening, when
the sun had sunk to rest, when the ives,
tern sky was filled with tender radiance
and lambert light. and the bulbnl wooed
the rose in the back yard, she would sit
down and play few notes upon her harp
sichord, or write Latin hymn or All essay
on the Harrison boiler. She was supposed
to be the author of Rock me to Sleep,
Mother" and " Beautiful Snow" and
Five o'clock in the Morning" But
nevertheless she was very estimable wo
man, end with all her faults we love her
till-better, indeed, still than if she was
foOling around.
Queen Elizabeth was not proud. She
always insisted upon cleaning her own
teeth, even if she was a qneen; and she
always did it once week, every Sunday
morning, with her own tooth brush. What
q lesson does this teach to those who are
vain and naughty and belong to the bon |
ton She never forgot that she was mere
perishable dust, and that the sheep and |
the silk worm wore her fine clothes long
before she got them. She read every Sun !
lay School book that Taught these facts
tnd she once trOd on Sir Walter Raleigh's |
cloak TO remind him Of them, because he !
was so set up with his fancy cassmereF. |
She said npOn her death bed that Lydia
Thompson need not learn this lesson, be-
cause it had no mora! for those who
browsed around il natures simple garh.
Queen Elizabeth was not sorry to die. !
She foresaw that George Francis Train .
was coming to England, and she said to |
her physicians that she would prefer the
enduring peace of the cold and silent grave
TO three weeks Of George and the Alabama
claims controversy and the Schleswig-
iolstein Question all at the sathe time.
Her last words were, 81, i'll Horace Gree
y before he has q clanca to write What
Know about Farming" There was not
dry eye IN that second story front room.
E' cry body was thinking how impossible it
vas to carry out her dying request aud to
scape such misery
But she has game nows she has left rs;
9e shall see her no more. Perhaps it is
or the best. She was vigorous woman;
md if she had lived she might have come
o America and lived in Philadelphia, and
ve might have given her offense, and she
night have prnnced around here and fog
Jed us like the very nation. For she was
woman who followed closely all the pre-
falling fashions. And so we are glad she
s dead, and has four tons of marble
planted on her grave to hold her down.
Rest III peace. old girl. rest III peace. |