Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-08-24
The - Emnress -.


Lucy HoOper's Paris Letter. A
strange, weird figure is that of the
eldest of the three Expresses, the
aged widow of William I. Sorrows
and bereavements have accumulated
On her head, but have not suffced to
bend her viii or to quench her as
founding vitality. ShePOssesses what
was once given as a recipe for a long
ife-a hard heart and a good diges-
ton. F'She viii never diel' once said
of her an exasperated German shop
keeper at the time of the demise of
her husband. ''She loves to Worry
people and to give trouble, and she
viii keep on living just to keep on
making herself disagreeabIe 3" 1t is
said that she was once beautiful, with
a genuine royal beauty, tall, slender,
and graceful, with brilliant eyes and
finely formed shoulders, which she
delighted in displaying, covered with
jewels, under the low cut cor
sages of her state toilets. But
that In so long ago probably no one
now living remembers the charms of
her prime. Her shoulders were her
latest point Of vanity, and of late
years she wore false ones modelled in
wax, the juncture with the throat
being concealed by a collar necklace
In diamonds or pearls. But for the
last twenty years she has been little
more than a living skeleton, kept
alive by medical appliances, and too
/ feeble to walk, a fall that she once
/ had at Baden Baden some years ago
/ have deprived her Of her powers of
! lOcOmOtiOn. Yet she has invariably
and infeXibly fulfilled her social
/ duties as Empress. Rolled in a
/ wheeled chair to the entrance of the
/ thrOne-rOOm, her attendants would
/ afterwards place her on the throne the
? days of grand ceremOnials or the
/ evenings Of grand balls. 1t was
/ painful to see this remnant of a
woman, installed in her place of pride,
/ the weird, Withered face and still,
/ shining eyes, emerging from a mass
/ of costly stuffs, and apparently con-
centrating in them all the energy
and vitality of the hidden figure. 1t
used to take hours to prepare her for
one Of these Undergraduates, during
which her active participation was
/ limited to the exchange of a few
scarce audible phrases with some
| prominent guest or high dignity, after
which she would disappear like an
appartiOn. For some years past she
has been too feeble to bow to the
/ passers-by during her daily drives,
so she caused her carriage-seat to be
mounted on rockers in such a way
that a touch from the foot of the
/ lady-in-Waiting who sat opposite to
her would cause the aged Empress to
bend forward at the right moment.
She has always been, above all
things, the Queen-COnsOrt. Never a
happy or loving wife, welded from
political necessity, and ruled with q
rod Of iron bythat despOtic martinez
her husband, she has never been es-
pecially devoted to the two children
| born of that lOveless union. She
has taken delight in the exercise of
her social functions, first as Queen
and afterwards as Empress. She is
also an intelligent woman, and is
well versed not only in German but
in French literature as we'll, always
taking care, with a certain degree of
atfectatiOn, to exchange a few, words
/ IL puDIIC Will Cu6 I6uCu AlDdSSct-
dor in his own language at the great
court ceremOnials. She has always
been fond Of dress, but as an actress
is fond Of her costumes, taking great
interest in arraying herself to appear
in public to play her part as a SOW
ereign. This frail skeleton, wrapped
in an imperial mantle or shrOuded in
laces and embrOideries and Jewels,
showed like the ghost of some van
ished and ancient dynasty at the
grand official entertainments. She
was the She Of Rider Haggard who
had survived herlast passage through
the fire.