Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1882-04-12
Queen Victoria at Home.

| Cicafcet hIu uOst uluhA1luS luucX OI
character. In contemporary. literature
We have repeated notes of admiration
for this pure and peerless voice. LADY
de Dustanville was in the House of
Peers when the Queen first appeared.
1t was a most imposing sight. Her
voice was full, clear and sweet, and
most distinctly heard" Passages of
this kind might be multiplied. Miss
Fox gave some very pleasing incidents
of the early days. "Uncle Charles
dined with us. He was delighted and
dazzled by the display on the Queens
day, and mentioned right merry quib-
Bile, perpetrated by my Lord Albemarle
who, on her Majesty saying, II wonder
If my good p9ople of London are as glad
to see me as | am to see them 2 pointed
out as their immediate cockney answer
to the quibble v. r. She relates the
touching incident that when the Queen
drove one day to the Park, Just after a
dastardly attempt, in fear of assassina-
tion, she 'forbade her ladies to attend
her and expose themselves to danger
from which she would hot shrink"
Stockmar came over nearly every year
to visit the Queen and the Prince, and
almost entirely took the management
OF the whole menaSe into his hands.
He put all the details of the management
of the royal household ON sort of phil
osorhical basis. He passed at willfro
the broadest generalizations on the
British Constitution to the smallest de-
tails of the nursery. The organization
and superintendent of the children's
department occupied a considerable
portion of Stockmar's time. In one of
his letters he writes: "The nursery
gives me more trouble than the govern
ment of kingdom would do" We may
mention that the little Princess (the
Crown Princess of Prussia) now a wcm-
an blooming with health and life, was
for many years a sickly child, whose
rearing long seemed matter OF doubt.
He found that an odIous system of red
tapeism pervaded the management of
the royal household. 1t was in the
hands of three great state officers-the
Lord Steward, the Lord Chamberlain
and the Master of the Horse. These
are always noblemen of high rank and
great political position, who of course
delegate all the practical duties into the
hands of subordinates. The result was
that all the tricks of the Crcumlocution
Office were to be found in Buckingham
Palace and Windsor Castle. There was
a great deal of the how-not- to-do- it ele-
ment- The outside of the Palace be-
longed to the department of Woods and
Forests, the inside cleaning of the win
dows belonged to the Lord Chamber
lain's department, The Lord Steward
lays the fire, and the Lord Chamberlain
lights it. The Lord Chamberlain pro-
vides the lamps. and the Lord Steward
must clean, trim and light them. If a
DhAAt was a
door went wrong, there was whole Sc
ries OF formalities to be gone through
before either could be mended. Stock
mar complains that there was no one to
receive visitors. and show them their
rooms: and that they wandered about
the corridors alone and unassis.ed. NJ.
Guizot relates that this was a circum-
stance which once actually happened to
himself. 1t was through this state of
things that the boy Jones was enabled
at O'Clock IN the morning actually to
hide himself. under the sofa of the room
next the Queens bedroom, Just after
the birth of the Princess Royal. Once
when the Queen was taken Ill there was
nobody whose business 1t was to attend |
to such matter; until at last domes
tic had the presence of mind to nail a
cab and to come to the door of Buckin- |
CHAM Palace and to drive off to fetch a
doctor.
We have reason to believe that all the
anomalies which Stockmar pointed out
in his memorandum have been rectfied. |
The royal household is now a model to
every household in the kingdom. Its
guests are made as comfortable as in |
the most home-like home In the land
Indeed, in the pie easantness and freedom
Of the arrangements, Windsor Castle
seems almost Liberty Hall to its visi
tors. The Baroness Bunsen writes: 81 |
have always liked the visits at Windsor;
the comfortable quiet and independence |
in which one could spend as much time
as one would of the day in ones own |
comfortable rooms, where l have written |
letters and read books for which 1 had |
no time in London. The period of state |
stiffness was often restricted within the |
narrowest imaginable bounds" She |
amusingly observes: "One must make
an n. b. that when one visits queens,
they give one everything but matches
l was once in the extreme of distress for
one at Queen Adelside's. Before par
ting with Baron Stockmar, however, we
must quote his striking language res-
pectlng the Queen: ''The character of
the Queen develops itself to great ad-
vantage. She gains daily in judgement
and experience. The candor truthful
ness, honesty and fairness with which
she Judges of men and things are really
delightful; the impartial self-knowledge
with which she speaks of herself is tho
roughly charming"
Modern Pistol.
The Denver newspapers recently had
accounts of an exploit by Comanche Bill,