Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-06-30
The Fate of a Queen.

anxiety ana alarm. -Ch1c0yo 1tn2eS.
The Fate of a Queen.
There is something very patriotic III
the lonely position OF the present ruler
of Great Britain, who is approaching
the allotted limito of life with no one liv-
ing privileged to address her by her
Christian name. and, as it We're, DOOM
ed to the d~espotism of s~clf-imposed
court custom. Throughout her reign
the Queen has gone farther in the way
OF ''impenetrableH drawing-room OBJ
%servanees than any of her predecessors.
She has ruled upon an elaborate scheme
OF royalty which the irony of events
has transformed into an unmistakable
burden. Twenty years ago. if the wife
OF an American Ambassador had asked,
as Mrs. Lowell did the other day, to
have certain arrangements of costume
waived in her case during the court
days at Buckinham Palace, we do not
know how cold and %unyielding an an
swer might have been sent through
Spencer Ponsonby of the "Gentlemen
ushers," but in the year 1888 the con-
cession is granted IN a gracious little
autograph note to Mrs. Lowell, who
has been i'll for a long time. All the
London journals recently expressed
their wondermcnt good-naturedly at
the unwonted feeling Of the count Cir
cular's announcement of the death of
her body servant. 1t was unusual, not
in her line, and more womanly than
queenly. and conveyed the evidences of
a regard which the families and friends
of a statesman might have treasured.
The Queen has always been a woman
of feeling, but in her court life she has
been as placidly temperate and unre-
sponsive as the sunlight upo hills of
snow. Her ideas Of royalty included
first of all remoteness, and so leaving
buckingham Palace and the familiar
glories OF London, she retires up the
Thames to Windsor Castle. a second
Westminster, and sleeps under the tow
ers where the Georges and other royal
personages are buried. This of course
%alienated the ladies of her court, and
the breach willnever be bridged. Evep
to-day when she rides through Hyde Park
with her outriders at full gallop on
d~rawing-room days, anything in the
way of outward demonstration is quite
unheard ola silence that is in marked
contrast with Scotch enthusiasm when
she visits her northern capital. During
the first years of her mourning the
force OF this social alienation may not
have been felt, but latterly her exile
has been the gossip of the clubs and the
talk Of the multitude. Forty years ago
when she told Sir Robert Peel that even
though a change in the Government
might necessitate a change in the Min
istry, she would not CONSENT his inter-
fering with her ''ladies of the bed-cham-
Der" the famous leader of the OPPOSE
ton, who had come to form a Cabinet,
went back to his seat, and the public
sentiment was plainly in her favor, for
even Sir Roberts own friends could
only say that the Melbourne Govern
ment returned to power after a few
hours absence ''behind the petticoats
OF the ladies in waiting.
During such crises the theory of her
reign could not fail to appear alluring,
but as the demands of politics asserted
themselves and the Constitution where
in the Executive has no opinion pushed
mercilessly forward, the charm of tha
Queens position disappeared. Thus
the English troops were recently for the
second time in English history ordered
back from Cabul, and the story goes
that the Queen with tears in her eyes
asked Nh. Gladstone to change his pol
icy, but he shook his head and still held
the Government. The day of the ola
dies in waiting had passed, and now
the pathos Of a dissipated dream is the
most that is left of Victoria's life, ana
her natural affections, so pronounced,
have little to cling to. Her children are
pensioned e Europe in castles and
palaces; she lays a book on the marble
Of her husbands tomb; she has prim-
roses for her favorite Tory Minister and
a Scotch plaid and flowers for her
favorite gillie, while her council table is
circled with liberal statesmen. She,
however, still has a remarkable hold
upon the army, though it is rather the
affection of a sovereign. When the
maid of Queen Margaret caught her
mistress kissing the sleeping poet, Alain
Charter, the ugliest man in France, the
Queen explained: 81 kiss notthe man,
l kiss the soul that sings" Victoria
kisses the soul that fights, and therein
lies her hold upon the nation. Well
does the London Spectator say: ere
pubhcanism in England sleeps and will
sleep while the Queen reigns;' but her
fate as a woman left alone in q High
place is none the less pathetic
Springfield (Mass.) Republican.