The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-12-25
" CARMEN SYLVIA"
OF ROUMANIA.
Emily FaithfulI's Estimate of
That Bright Woman.
An Interview With the Brave and Tender
Lady Who Devoted Her Throne-Room in
the Palace at Bucharest to the Sick.


In my dream of Fair Women" Elizabeth
of Roumania has held distinguished place
ever since learned of the self-sacrificing
devotion with which she tended the sick
and dying soldiers in her gallant husbands
army, but the thought never once occurred
to me that l should ever be brought into
personal contact with the brave and tender
lady who converted the throne-roOm in her
palace at Bucharest into center of loving
service, where she and the ladies surround
ing were busy making bahdages for the
wounded men in the hospitals she had Or
ganized i'll the hour of need within the park,
and which she visited day and night, adj
minstering with her own hands TO the needs
of the sufferers, sustaining the last moments
of the dying with kind and holy words until
she earned the title far greater than Queen
or Empress-the mother of her people.
Chance, however, sometimes achieves
what We never contemplate or plan, and to
my surprise l found that Carmen SYLVIA"
the poet Queen of Roumania, was expected
at the very hotel on the breezy coast Of
Wales in which | was spending my brief
summer holiday; and even then l did not
realize all the pleasure which consequently
awaited me.
Kings and Queens are often gracously
mortals, however, are so hemmed in by
court restraints and etiquette that unless
accustomed to the appalling solemnity which
sometimes surrounds these acts of con-
descenson the process Is apt to prove
embarrassing; for the honor conferred is
Swallowed 10y the terrible anxiety that
self-consciousness or nervousness" may
betray one into some fatal disregard of the
correct usagcs to be observed in the presence
of royalty, and even the recollection of such
0rdeals only recalls the agony then endured.
The Queen of Roumania is stately to look at
and regal in manner, but the privileged per-
son summoned into her presence Is Mt once
placed at her ease by the kindly reception
accorded; the keynote OF the interview is
struck by her Majesty, but reserve is BAN
iShed when you realize that conversation is
invited-not mere audience granted;
and as look back to-day on these talks"
with Carmen Sylvia" l exclaim with one
OF her admirers:
Thy touch upon the golden harp of life
Is strong and true, as sweet as 1t IS wild,
Because thou art indeed very child
OF song and forest, though monarch's Wife,
carmen SYLVIA
Cannot be regarded from the ordinary royal
standpoint, and the enthusiasm she kindes
springs from her qualities as a woman
rather than from those of a sovereign. BY
her single,hearted devotion to poetry, art
and music she has won distinct place in
the republic of letters. Before you have
talked many minutes with her you realize
her intense appreciation and love for litera-
ture, her wonderful mastery of language,
and her sympathy with all progress through
out the world. Curiously enough her first
conversation opened with ali allrsion to
America; and she spoke Of the qualification
which she experienced respecting the
reception accorded there to her poems
on labor. She has a keen sympathy
dens which have to be borne by the sons If
toll have moved her deeply. Few things"
she said, ''have ever affected me more than
the greeting given me by some wOrkngmen
in London; they surrounded my carriage
and threw bouquets of flowers TO me, in
token of their recognition of the poems
had written of their struggles. / am having
these flowers dried so that may keep them
in everlasting remembrance OF one of the
most touching incidents Of my visit there"
She talked with great hopefulness of the
growing sympathy of the rich, and of the
breaking down of the barriers which divide
''the classes, as tending to the final eXtinc-
tion of the poverty and ignorance still to be
found in all Countries, especially in our oder
civilizations. In her own land she has eStab-
lished soup-kitchens as well as schools,
cookery-classes as well as hospitals; p0pu-
lar lectures on sanitary matters have been
given with her encouragement, and the arts
of spinning and weaving revived for the
women. Now" she said, in reference TO
the latter, my difficulty is to set a sale for
the beautiful embroidery which is DONE.
IL
her Majesty leads her listener to suppose
that she looks upon anything in which she
| is engaged as a philanthropic duty; her
| wor appears the outcome of a necessity to
leave no intervals of idleness in her own
life. The sorrows which have fallen to her
| lot, especially the loss. of her little daugh-
ter-the "Sonnenkind" Of her book OF ie-
| gendS-has made her realize that La iris
| Jesse Sc loge dams les brecheS ct puts ii
| NY plus moyen de la fare deloger," and
he @ 0f hplnp al IN
| what she is doing. but she never allows it
| TO interfere with her duties as wife. The
King likes to find her at every free mo-
ment," and then pen or paint-brush is
| cheerfully laid aside 10 afford him the COM
| panonship on which he sets so high value.
During the Queens visit in Wales she
was naturally much eigrossed by her tx
| periences at the Esteddford, and bitterly
! regretted
NOT UNDERSTANDING THE WELSH LAM
GUAGE.
found her with Mile. Vacaresco,
charming member of her suite, busly en-
| gagged over a Welsh dictionary, that she
| might speak in their own tongue to the bards
she was to meet at Lord Mostyn's, and she
| gave most amusing account OF the Way she
| had written the stanZas she reclted at the
| ancient Welsh festival on the previous day,
much to the enthusiasm of the audience.
She was amazed to find that one OF the
| bards-by calling mlDer-had translated
nearly the whole of Millions paradise
Lost" and many Of Shakespeare's plays into
| Welsh, but fancy she was a little disap-
| pointed that she did not hear of Welsh
| legendary lore from the national poets. Her
| own mastery of the pastoral literature and
folklore of Roumania has done much in
| winning the affection of her own people, and
| she was specially anxious to learn something
| of the Welsh legends, for, as he said, ''the
| human heart is much the same all over the
| world"
The most interesting of her Majesty's OBJ
servations, as far as l am personally con-
cerned, related to woman's work, both in
| connection with her country and with my
own. She does not care about questions in-
volyng the equality OF intellect. or the rela-
| tive weight of the masculine and feminine
brain. 1T is sufficient for me-" she said,
that women are the mothers Of the race:
that fact alone proves that woman is equiva-
| lent to man and capable Of rendering equal
service to humanity" The views she ex-
| pressed reminded me Of the theories held by
! Mr.. Raskin, that woman's duty to the
| State is the expansion of the domestic idea
rather than the political. and her empire is
| that OF goodness and art. 1.-The education of
the children is one of the social movements
| which has most engrossed her thoughts; she
has, established several institutions and
| orphanages. and carefully watches the de-
| tails. distributing the prizes with kindly
| words to teachers and pupils, and leaving
the actual management 10 those in charge
"as understanding the matter better than
any outotuCi Gail. Ill INC SClOOl Oh tt1-
| .broidery seventy peasant girls receive free
! instruction in reading and writing, as we'll
! as in national embroidery. The Queen sup
| plies them with Byzantine patterns to dec
| crate the national costumes, and she told me
| tnat now some OF the workers are extremely
! clever in working natural flowers and FORM
| ing original combinations, remarking that
the Roumanians display a marvellous sense
| OF color The training of hospital nurses
has also been promoted, and on the point of
lady doctors her Majesty holds emphatic
| opinions both in relation to their treatment
| OF women and the good they will do in teach
Ing the poor better sanitary habits in their
own homes The interest with which her
Majesty listened to the successes
WON BY ENGLISH WOMEN
at the university, and the decorative work
| which has been accomplished by Miss
Charlotte Robinson, whose sketches She AZ