The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-04-23
THE QUEEN OF NAPLES.

The Quiet Existence of a Lady who
Has Been known to Romance.
New Yor sun.
Another Queens private existence Is
not without its characteristic features.
The name of the Queen of Naples evokes
a figure out of some romance of chivalry
and legends. She appears to our fancy
as heroine in sensational adventures of
love and warfare, sometimes heading
fantastic masquerades and mad revelry
in the palace of the Bourbons at Naples,
at others defending the last bulwarks of
threatened royalty on the bastions of
Gaeta; visiting the dying in the easement
under the bombs Of the Garibaldians, or
kneeling at the feet of the Pope to re-
ceive his blessing on ''his dearly beloved
daughter. This is the portrait lingering
in our Imagination. In reality the
Duchess de Castor, as she is called now,
is a quiet, subdued, silent woman, lead
ing life almost monastical in its mo-
notonous repose, in an ordinary hotel of
the Rue Boissy d'Anglis,in Paris,a street
near the Champs EIysees and abutting on
the Place de la Concorde, where another
Marie lost her life ard her thr one. She
has lived there through the long years of
exile, after the cottage of st Mande was
abandoned, in 1874, for the Hotel Vuill-
emont, where the King and Queen oc-
copy two large apartments ON the first
aud second floors. The King has one
secretary and the Queen one lady in
waiting. A butler and four men and
four maids compose the whole OF the
private staff of servants. For the rest
they avail themselves of the general re-
sourses of public establishments. The
royal couple have renowned the pomps
Of palaces. Even when visiting Munich,
the Queens native city, they put up UNI
tremendously at the Hotel Bellevue, the
quiet old hostelry, with its highly col
ored, almost historical decorations.
During eight months of the year the
Duchess de Castor resides in Paris. The
remainder of the time she spends at the
seaside and in Bavaria. She seems to
eschew all splendors, all representation,
even the social advantages she might en-
JOY in city where she wovld be welcom-
ed by so many illustrious families more
or less related to her. Almost her only
amusement is riding, either in the open
air or in riding school. She owns
large stables in the Champs Elysees,
which she superintends herself, and in
which she has the warmest interest. She
never entertains. Hotel life is a suffi-
cient excuse for the non-giving of balls
or receptions. Her only visitors are
old and tried friends, some travellers
from Naples, men and women whose
names are written on the same pages of
past happiness and past sorrow. On
Saturday only few more are admitted,
but their number is always
limited. She is intimate only with the
Duchess d'Alencon. The Queen sub
scribes widely, almost prodigally, to any
charitable undertaking set on foot by
the rich, noble and fashionable women
Of the best world in Paris. The early
worshipers at the Madeleine know that
the quiet, familiar figure kneeling every
morning at the same hour, before the
same alter at low mass, is the wife
of the man who accompanies her-a man
with black moustache. a Bourbonian
nose and the slight italian staggering
gait-and that they are the Royal exiles
known as the Duke and Duchess de
i'nstOr