Morning journal and courier., 1885-07-04
MAX O'RRL'S LETTER.

! CTS In Par1S-SOmeth1nE About A8n. l guage-Jane Hadfng.
 Special Correspondence of the JOURNAL AND CoUR- All Rights Keserved.l
 1 LONDON, June 19.
 | To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 The wedding of Princess Beatrice, long
 known as ''England's Baby" is definitely ar
 ranged to take place on the 23d of July in the
 parish church of Whippingham. The cere- mony is to be very quiet one. The whole of the princess life has been quiet. It has been her lot to share the lonely existence of l the Queen, and her gala days must have been ! few and far between. Her Majesty's notions 1 about the proper thing for unmarried prin- ! cesses to do are known to be pretty strict. ! Her daughters were never allowed to attend ! parties except in the inner circle of royalty, ! and she has just commanded that the Prin- ! cesses Louise of Wales and Victoria of Teck l are not to be taken much into society. 1 These royal ladies, if they are as fond of parties as most young folks of eighteen, must [ be inclined to differ in their opinion of ! grandmother from young lord (aged five) ! of my acquaintance, who, when a little play | fellow told him he had no grandmother, ad- vised him to get one, "they were so nice" It appears Princess Beatrice has never seen ! a raes-course yet, but this defect in her edu- cation is to be remedied. It is expected | she will be at Ascot with the royal party. | The princess has been a devoted daughter, and everybody hopes she will have good ! husband in Prince Henry of Battemberg. [ This gentleman is clearly doing fine thing ! for himself in marrying the last available r T L. self on the list of John Bulls noble army of ! pensioners, for at present he is German lieutenant with pay of fifty pounds year, which he will of course lose quitting the ! army. His serene and penniless highness is going to be promoted into royal one, so, you see, things generally are looking up for him.
 It is rumored that suitor for the hand of Princess Louise of Wales will be shortly forthcoming in the pesson of the Duke of Schleswig- -Holstein- -Augustenburg Ca fine name or you are hard to please). He is de- cidedly pretty good catch from monetary point of view, for he possesses large estates of his own and has an allowance of 915, 1000 a year from the German government. Per haps it is as well that the Prince of Wales should marry his daughters to men who can keep them, for to judge from his grumbling when the last grants for royal ladies were ask ed for, the British taxpayer seems to think it is high time the hordes of German prince lings should get rid of the idea that he was sent into this world to provide them with wives and money.
 General Lord Wolseley of Cairo is very an gry with his countrymen for ordering him to withdraw from the Soudan, and, forget ting that the duty of a soldier is purely exe- cutive, he makes it his business to tell the English government that the line of action they have adopted is not worthy of the Brit
 ish nation. No doubt the general is to be
 T
 capital of the Ashantees, in 1874, and bring
 ing home the umbrella of their king, he re-
 ceived from the English government the sum
 of e25, ,O0O sterling. For firing bullets into
 the backs of Egyptians in 1882, while Admir-
 al, now Lord Alcester was firing cannon balls
 into the walls of Alexandria, he received
 f29, 900 and a peerage. Undoubtedly this
 was promising, but probably the general goes
 little too far when he supposes that the English people are bound to carry war in
 the Soudan and retake it's capital, in order to furnish him with occasion to be Earl of Khartoum and to swell his banking account ny forty or fifty thousand pounds. The gen eral has not been able to regain Khartoum; he will have to content himself with the road to England.
 To think that the two names of Wolseley and Gordon should be associated in this wretched Soudan campaignI The hero mar tyr, the soldier saint, whose death will re- main an eternal reproach to the oscillations of his country, and the noble and gallant millionaire whose easy victories sounded by the ringing of guineas.
 The fire season seems to be setting in. One hears of nothing else every day. Last Friday the Indian museum was badly in jured, and the ''Inventories'' which are close by hadss narrow escape. Yesterday five shops of the immense establishment of Whiteley, the 'tUniversal Provider," were totally destroyed. This tradesman has en- ha Of ba nnh lio tn tent that his business has grown in a few years from small drapery concern to the largest retail house in England, supplying everything from penny whistle to white elephant, much to the wrath of MT. White ley's smaller brethren. This fire was the fourth attempt (within two years) to burn down his premises. The loss will be very heavy, for, knowing the spite which Whiteley's sue cess has kindled in the breast of the jealous, ! no insurance company would insure his vast l concern. It is pretty well known in. assu- rance offices that only very small propor ton of the fires that occur are purely acci- dental. I was one day remarking to the ac- ! tuary of large English company upon the comparatively small premium I was charged 1 for the insurance of my goods. "My dear l sir,' he said to me, eff there were no fires but accidental ones we could do it for tenth of the money and make fine thing of it." I thought the remark pretty severe juGg- ment on mankind, but no doubt correct enough if you only consider how difficult it often is to get fire to burn in 8 place made on purpose, even when laid according | to scientific principles.
 Nice will no longer enjoy the monopoly of holding an annual Battle of Flowers. The 1 thing was tried in Paris at the beginning of the week and proved such success that 1t is l pretty sure to be repeated every year. The l fete was got up in order to raise a fund to be applied to rewarding "victims of duty" and Ha -c | workaday life who lose their lives in saving other peoples. Over one hundred and fifty l thousand francs were taken at the gates. The battle of flowers took place in the after noon in the Bois de Boulogne, and when the | aHray was over more than two hundred acres of land were literally covered with flowers | several inches thick. In the evening the | wood was illuminated and the thousands of l children who had assembled there to dance may we'll have thought they were in fairy l land. A grand display of fireworks and a l ssretreat with lighted torches" round the 1 beautiful lake wound up the proceedings. Ot course numberless were the families of work | men encamped for the afternoon on the | smooth turf of the Bois de Boulogne. In | the midst of one of these happy groups might have been seen a cage containing couple of eanaries and goldfnch. Tears of l joy would have risen to the eyes of any soft l hearted member of the Society for Protec- | ton of Animals who had heard the chief of the tribe explain how the little creatures had | been included in the party. Because you | see there is so little air in our lodgings and | we thought they would enjoy it out here" The Grand Prix de Paris was won by an l English horse on the 14th inst. The English are exultant over their victory. think they
 should keep it quiet Why, John, doesn't it occur to you that the race was run on a Sun 1 daya But in Rome the English do as the 1 Romans do and in Paris the Parisians do. This cosnopolitanism is the key of their suc cess.
 I have been asked by some American friends to refrain from using French words in my letters to America. If the request is an echo of the sentiments of most Ameri-
 cans must congratulate them on wishing to keep their language free from any foreign el ement and not initiating the absurd fashion now so fourishing in France and England. The invasion of English in all parts of French f'high life" is causing some heart
 burnings to French patriots. You have only to shut your eyes in Paris and fancy yourself
 in London As for the races, it really makes no difference whether you at Ascot or at Longchamps A patriotic society has re-