Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-01
COURTS OF EUROPE.
A~Reign of Domesticity Supplanting
the Ancient Splendor.
BoNNETS PREFERRED TO CROWNS.
Russia Still Bfazes in Her Royal Dignity,
the Empress Attire
DAZZLING ALL WHO BEHOLD HER
WRITTEN FOE THE DISPATCH,

of domesticity seems to be coming over all
| the courts OF Europe. Not the mock dairy
style of Marie Antoinette, but the plain
bacon-and-eggs-every-day-En English which it
is now considered SO virtuous and proper for
sovereign te assume. 1t has become posi-
| lively distasteful to the monarchs themselves
to keep up the ancient splendor which has
always been sign and symbol of their
power-they no longer talk of the divinity
that hedges them and in their desire to be
thought "true hearts lay their coronets on
the top shelf Ct the cupboard. But isn't it
a poetic fiction that the two cannot exist to-
gether. Is Tennyson to blame for all this?
Mrs. Humphrey Ward complains of the
leveling of the mountain tops in the great
modern rise of the people, their study of
sociology, their desire for general disinte-
grafton which seems to have made all men
mad. She fears dreadful dead level of
need for the future. 1t certainly seems as if
royalty was bent on bringing itself into the
shiny depths Queen Victoria persistently
clings to the rusty old bonnet that would
disgrace ehar-woman, although it some
| times seems as if it would enrage the long
suffering British public into saying: "You
can't play queen if you wont wear the
crown" The royal grants would come freely
if the crown-jewels were brought out occa-.
| sionally.
The epoch of the working classes is slowly
coming-noble ladies opening millinery
| shops on Bond street and queens preferring
ment to tradel
The mountain peaks shine DINNER and
DINNER, only the imperial SUBMITS of
Russia still blaze in royal dignity. Perhaps
if the Empress of Russia had to make her
own bonnets when girl she got enough of
the millinery trade then and really prefers
crowns.
SHE BEATS THEM ALL.
There is no monarch in Europe who sur
passes her in magnifcence of attire, which
is semi-barbaric in its gorgeousness, and at
the state balls she is literally walking
Golconda. The nearest approach to her
splendor that has been witnessed in London
was the attire of the Indian Princes who
attended the Queens jubilee. The Queen
had driven through Piccadilly very pale and
stern, expecting every moment mine to
explode beneath her feet or a bomb la
Russo to be hurled from house top, for
there were whispers of socialistic threats,
her body guard of princely descendants
looked like a river Of gold winding through
the dark masses of the densely-packed crowd
on either side with their uniforms glittering
in the sun-but suddenly great cry of ad-
mirstion arose from the crowd. 1t was the
carriages of the Indian Princes which had
come in Sight, and now the river OF gold was
changed to river of diamonds, for they
were literally covered from head to foot with
jewels.
AS YOU approach the state drawing room
of the Princess Dagmar, of Denmark, EN-
press of all the Russias, you perceive that
the doors thickly overlaid with gold are
also incrusted with jewels, great emeralds
uncut amethysts, topaz and turquoise gilt
ter in the brilliantly lighted corridors. At
of &c, 900 candles set in crystal, and beneath
them, before the golden throne, blazes the
beautiful woman, sister to the Princess of
Wales who holds her own amidst all these
splendors with the simple dignity of the
Cinderella princess who made her own bon
net in the little kingdom by the sea. Her
robes are stiff with diamonds and the
strands of priceless pearls, and with
their great pear-shaped pendants fall
like a network nearly to her feet.
Scarcely an inch of textile fabric can be
seen, for the entire train is covered with
embroidery in gold and pearls andslined
with Russian sable.
THE IMPERIAL TREASURES
are beyond calculation, but they are for use
and not merely kept as the curiosities OF
former age-the great antique crowns with
the finest rubies and diamonds in the world,
the scepter with the wonderful Orloff dia- |
mond in its head are brought out and used
for different state ceremonials, the people |
given sight of them and at the royal BAN
quets the gold and jeweled plate is taken |
from the cabinets and spread for the feast. |
An American politician. once proudly |
showed me pearl which he dug from his |
goblet with penknife when official position I
gave him entree to one of these scenes of |
splendor. Even the carriages and harness |
are covered with jewels.
One room in the palace is entirely lined |
with amber, walls, ceilings, columns, doors,
everything-the frieze, elaborately carved, |
being Roman arabesques in transparent am
Der on an Opaque ground. The capitals of
the pillars are inlaid with topaz. When the
Czarina receives here she wears a dress of
cloth of gold covered with gold embroidery,
topaz and yellow diamonds.
The Russians adore jewels. The court
ladies all have the most wonderful parures,
while the 25 Grand Dukes with their
splendid uniforms and foreign orders make
a never to be forgotten spectacle with their
splendid forms and blonde mustaches.
The churches are all gold and jewels, in
a sort of Gr@co-Byzantine mosaic. Their
sacred portraits'are called icons. They are
small miniatures of the Virgin and child
set in frames of gold or silver SO made that
only the painted heads show while the out
lines of the figures and draperies are traced
in the gold and inlaid with jewels.
Some are large and of priceless value,
while others are as small as miniature
iocket. They descend as heirlooms in the
family and are greatly venerated. The
Oldest having been painted by st. Luke.
Their quaintness has of late made them
much sought after in Paris as bric-a-brac.
I remember turning to Russian lady at
in Paris, and not knowing what
they were, not wishing to say something
with Russian flavor, remarked: 'T hear
icons are becoming very fashionable"
"FashionableP' she cried with horror
''Mon Dieu! What will you desecrate next?
Why, they are the sacred images we pray
to-"
ALL ROYAL STYLE DROPPED.
The Gar and Czarina are now making
their annual visit to her old home. There
they drop all royal style. The Prince. and
Princess of Wales, with their sons and
daughters, join them. The King and Queen
of Greece and their family. The King is
brother to the Czarina and the Queen cousin
to the Czar. They are just like any other
family party, with their little gifts and
surprises for each other. The Wales
children bring all the new jokes, puzzles and
toys from the London streets
"pigs in clover" etc.; from Athens will be
brought some recently discovered antique,
while the Russian family have strange