Middletown transcript., 1882-03-03
QUEENS WITH THEIR CROWNS
OFF.

When l read short time ago of the
serious illness of the Queen of Saxony,
brought on by overfatiguing herself in
putting up preserves, I could but smile
when thought how different was the
image thus presented to ones mind
from that of our childish ideas of a
queen as being always wearing a
crown upon her head, and going around
in velvet robes lined with ermine. One
learns in later years that these royal
ladies are a good deal like ordinary
women in their pursuits and occu-
pations. Some, like her Saxon Majesty,
have a taste for household pursuits,
others are devoted to art, and not a few
have passion for practical millinery
and dressmaking.
For instance, the Princess of Wales
is very fond of making up her own bon
nets. She has often been heard to say
that no one of the court milliners can
contrive to suit her style so well as she
can herself. She will purchase half a
dozen bonnets of as many different
modistes, and will remodel every one of
them before she will consent to wear
them. The close pretty capote that she
has been instrumental during the past
season in bringing into vogue in Lon
don, to the vast improvement of the
appearance of the British matrons and
maidens, was her own invention, and
the work of her royal fingers as well.
She never allows any one of her
daughters to appear in hat that has
not first undergone careful inspection,
and perhaps also certain amount of
alteration. The Princess learned these
arts in her schoolgirl days, when she
was only the eldest daughter of a very
poor Danish duke, who had something
less of an income than her own equer-
ries have nowadays. Many anecdotes
are told of the simple and economical
manner in which Duke Christian and
his excellent wife, before becoming
King and Queen of Denmark, reared
their blooming flock Of lovely girls and
promising boys. Even after their ac-
cession to the Danish throne they did
not part with their taste for a simple
and unostentatious mode of life. When
the lovely Alexandra was first betrothed
to the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria
wrote to the Queen of Denmark to re-
quest that a photograph of the young
Princess's boudoir might be sent her,
so that she might have room fitted up
in precisely the same way at Marl- |
borough House. Her Majesty of Den
mark was in quandary. The rooms
that her daughters occupied were fur
nished in the plainest possible manner,
and their plenishing was in no wise
suited for reproduction in the home of
the Princess of Wales. So in this
dilemma the leading upholsterer of
was applied to, an elegant
boudoir was hastily improvised, and
Queen Victoria's kindly and gracious
request received a due response. One
may remember, too, the loose short
Jacket in which the Princess Alexandra
was constantly portrayed just before
her marriage. An English lady of
rank, who chanced to be visiting the
court of Denmark before there was any
talk Of the betrothal, asked the Princess
why she wore those jackets, since they
we're no longer fashionable. 81 know
that, " was the modest and candid reply;
g but have a great many skirts of
lresses the bodices of which are worn
out, and as I cannot afford to throw
hem aside, I wear them with these
ackets." Undoubtedly her skill at
making and altering bonnets dates
rom the period of her girlhood.
Queen Victoria in her youth was an
musician, and was very
'ond also of engraving and etching on
,opper-pursuits in which she was
lided and encouraged by her gifted
Notwithstanding the rigid,
Ind it might be added, selfish seclusion
n which it now pleases her to dwell,
The was in her early womanhood an