Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-05-05
NO.. 11().
Mistellaneous.
THE QUEEN AND JOHN BROWN.

Richard Whiting, who saw Queen Vic
toria recently. as She rode away from the
depot in Paris upon her arrival in that
city. writes To the New York World as fol-
lows:
\ burly, gray-haired man, in a scotch
cap sat at tie back of the carriage. 1t was
the Queens body guard John brown.
There he goes to take care of her."
said mine host of the tavern. "Shouldn
like to be the man as tried to touch her
when he was by. Hes As big as a 'ouse
and as strong as lion. He looks after
her, he does and quite right OF him too;
he paid to do it..
This was not lal rs II rude definition of
the position and duties of this favored
servant, Brown stands in about the same
relationship to his royal mistress as the
lion to na-hc is to see that no harm be-
fall. The extreme simplicity of the
Queens ift ha long made some dc
nestle Of the sort necessary. In the
! Highlands the Queen loves to roam about
in perfect freedom from etiquette and GER
emonal, and vet it would not do to have
her roam quite alone.
She is no longer young; there are dam
gers by flood and field in such region
and besides there are more fools than Pas
sanante in the world Brown exactly
supplies the want; he would lay down
his life for her, not without requiring two
or three in return and. en- dHehtant, he
thinks nothing of carrying her in his arms
and perhaps IA princess or two to follow
her, across Il iordable stream. When she
rides he takes his place at the head of the
pony, and if the pony were too trouble
some he would not make much difficulty
about carrying him.
Brown is not Il lacquey-he wears no
livery; on the other hand, he is not Il gen.
tleman by birth. He has a sort of inder-
terminate office aS Strong Man. He is
death on all intruders on the Queens pri-
vacy. Once when he met some reporters
whom he suspected of dogging her foot
steps for copy he ordered them off the
the public highway As though he held all
the Highlands in fee. 1t was grossly ille-
gal, but they went.
He has saved the Queen in greater
strait. When Young mad O'Connor dart
ed ont on her from the shrubbery at Buck
ingham Palace, pistol i'll hand, he posi-
lively plucked the puny wretch from the
groun aS if he We're an offending kitten,
and held him out so. clawing the air with
his paws. till the Queen had passed out of
harms way. He is true clansman i'm
the character of his service; he
worships the Queen as devoutly
though not so demonstratively as the
.'Dougal creature" worshpped Rob Roy.
He thinks there never was such il Queen
and there never was such Il woman in the
wide world The Queen treats him with
the condescending confidence which often
subSists betweent the very great and the very
little in our older society. She knows
there can be no mistake about their posi-
tions it is those who are nearer to her who
are kept the farthest off. lie is "the old
servant" who is also the old friend of the
family. He has seen most of 1.-THE child
rem grow up. He probably knows
good deal more about family affairs than
many Il minister of state. To do him JUS
tice he lets nothing out to his more dstin-
guiShed colleagues of the Cabinet Atrue
Scotchman. he is as close as the grave 1t
is rather through the Queens own frank
avowals that we may Judge of the extent
of her condolences to him. There is moth
ing in the world to show, however, that
these condolences ever pass the line of do
mestic life. Brown is no successor to
Stockman, As some people who have the
happy knack of iancying anything once
| tancledt that he was. Brown own soici,ude
for her welfare may have had something to
do with this misconception. If he has the
devotion of the Dougal creature it is
doubled with Il little of the officiousness of
Andrew Fairservice He is for standing
between the Queen and all possible intru-
ders, and when he goes south he finds
greater compleNity of self-imposed duty to
which he is not alway equal.
The Highland shepherd dog loses some
thing of his nice discrimination of charac-
ter when he has to keep watch and ward
at the door of a London palace. He once
cave great offence to an artist summoned
to paint Il portrait of the Princess Louise
by cross-examining him As to his purpose,
a. if he had come to peddle the paints.
| Ih, and the natural envy of "Jeames,"
with whom he never associates and of
both JeameS's and Johns superorS in the
hierarchy of court service, make him about
the best-hated man of the household.
| There is a sort OF standing plot against
him in the servants hall, which has some
times spread from the subterraneans of the
palace to the Subterraneans of journalism
and society, and things have been said which
are not only criminal because they are so
intensely foolish. The lower classes in
England hate him with will and on the
most impartial grounds. without in the
least knowing why. If there were Il sue
cesstul revolution in London his head
would probably be the first luxury enjoyed
by the mob.