Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-10
THE TOPICAL TALKER.

Pittsburg-Spoons for More Than Lovers
"A Philadelphia Accident - Emperor
williams Precedent-The Vanity of
Good Queen Bess.
THE toby is coming out strong-a way 1t
always has-in q new role. Several of
| the delegates to the Catholic Temperance Con-
ventioD purcha sed boxes of tobies to carry
| home as mementoes of their stay in Pittsburg.
| The toby appears to impress strangers invaria-
| bly, as no other Pittsburg product does or can.
There is no doubt about the unique qualities
OF the toby be it handmade or mold, and Its
fame has gone out into many lands. A Lon
doner who talked to me about his visit TO Pitts
burg two years ago remembered his introduc-
| tion to a toby better than any incident IN his
| round OF sightseeing in this busy city.
Two Pittsbu rgers who carried q cargo of
| tobies with them on Western tour this spring
| found a terrific demand for the long weeds
wherever they went In fact the toby is good
deal more of a swell abroad than It is at home
and as a Keepsake it is likely to prove very
popular and successful in every way but one
it won't keep. At least that is the experience
of the man who enters a newspaper Office with
his pockets full of tobies.
a MORE aesthetic keepsake which is I am
- told greatly in favor with the fair sex. is a
spoon with the city's name craven on the bowl.
Spoons with "Fittsburg' SO engraved upon
them have been freque emily presented to visit
ors as mementoes of this bustling city. The
idea has taken root in other cities, and 1t is
possible to collect set of spoons representing
the principal cities in the country. Two or
three such sets are owned in Pittsburg.
Come Pittsburgers on their way 80 Atlantic
City last week stopped over for day or
AruO In a1.b;o ira Of
the lady in the party spent half day In the
Postmaster Generals labyrinthine stores. She
took her 6-year-old boy with her. He was very
much astonished at all he saw. When they
were In the street car returning to the hotel his
mother remarked that he was unusually silent
for he talks like anything normally.
whats the matter, Bob?' she asked.
ibid he make all those thingsf' was the boys
curious reply
"Who make what?'
"All those things in the store-you said one
maker, mamma
The boy was not a depraved punster; he was
merely seeking truth.
REFoRE Emperor William started on his tour
abroad he ordered that in future no por-
traits Of his imperial majesty. whether in the
shape of oil paintings, photographs. epgravings,
Autographs or drawing Of any kind should be
exposed for sale without his approval attested
by his imperial signature. Some Of the pictures
of the Emperor. who is not an Apollo Belvidere
anyhow, exhibited in the shop windows of Ber-
lin had been SO excessively unflattering that he
was forced to issue this order in sef-protection.
At the time the order was made public men in
this country, and it may be surmised in all
civilized lands which are fflicted with the bar
barous hatchet-cut portrait envied Emperor
Williams prerogatiye to stop one species Of
libel.
But the many who know not what It is to have
their features caricatured pictorially. have
snickered irreverently at the imperial sensi-
tiveness, and many paragraphers have poked
fun at Emperor William as the author of an
unprecedented order and a monarch of un-
heard Of vanity. Neither the order nor the
vanity are without precedent, however.
ELIZABETH of the House of Tudor, Queen
of England, and still good Queen Bess to
most people in spite Of the strong light thrown
upon her foibles and failings by the historical
microscopists of to-day, was the vainest woman
who ever set the fashions for her sex-and
that is saying a good deal since it bars no
woman of any account since Mother Eve defed
criticism with fig leaf polonaise. 1nnumer-
able anecdotes are told of her coquetry and
conceit and none better illustrates her charac-
ter than the well-authenticated story which
constitutes a precedent for the German EN-.
perors recent embargo upon unauthorized por-
traits.
In 1868 or five years after she succeeded the
melancholy Mary upon the throne. Elizabeth
chanced to see, possibly her favorite Dudley
showed them to her, divers portraits of herself
These must have been fancy sketches, and it
is clear that they erred unfiatteringly. Very
likely they represented too truly her long, fair
complexioned face her tawny hair, and small
black eyes; and it is more than probable that
her hands of which she was especially proud
they were very pretty hands, with long, deli
cate white ingers-did not have justice done
them, nay, maybe they did not appear in the
picture at ALL
At any rate the virgin queen did not approve
of unauthorized presentments of her royal
features and she issued proclamation against
portrait painters and engravers who had erred in
expressing ''that natural representation of Her
Majesty's person. favor or grace" that was de-
sired by her loving subjects, and who were
ordered to desist until some especial cunning
painter" might be granted access to the royal
presence Sir Walter Raleigh tells us further
that the gentle Elizabeth ordered the portraits
made by unskilful and common painters to be
coEfscared wherever found, and a number of
them we're knocked into pieces and cast into
the fire" before the Queens eyes.
1t is rather curious that q sovereign who
claims to be democratic in his sympathies
should have copied an arbitrary act that made
men wonder even in the days of Elizabeth.
HEPBURN JOHNS.
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