St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-20

This Queen has no love for Londsn She
never sleeps IN town II she ca, possibly
evoid 1t. and Buckingham PaIsee is alto.
gsther under her ban OF her diaDleasure. Ever
tho horses in the nsyp attached to that
gloomy pile look leae we'll kept than those
lodged II the stables at Windsor, which are
truly royal. London to the Queen means
whatever is disagreeable in life; Bamoral
all that is delightful, and Osborne and Wind
SCR are sort Of halfway houses between
purgatory and paradise. The Queens maids
of honor are generally the prettiest girls that
can be selected, and this will readily explain
why they are usually given in marriage
almost as soon as they are appointed. AS
the Queen bowers each to the extent of a
thousand pounds, beauty SO near the throne
threatens to become a formidable expense.
The Queen, who is fond CT music. frequently
receives at Balmoral Mme Albani-Gye for
merly Miss Emma Lajeunesse of Albany,
N. W, who goes annually to stay at Lord
Flies place-Mar Lod2e-and it is even
whispered that her majesty occasionally
sings duets with Hon. Alec Yorke, gentleman
in waiting, who is a prime favorite at court.
Hon. Alec is a pompous little gentleman,
good natured, radiant and suggestive Of a
more juvenile Sir Harcourt Courtley He is a
work of art and his toilet must be task of
no inconsiderable duration.
The Queen is conscientiously supplied with
the gossip of the day, and no scandal that
affects the position Of any prominent member
OF London society escapes her attention. The
Queens ready sympathy for all suffering is
well-known and her bereavement and lifelong
sorrow is still so fresh that whenever she
hears any time or place mentioned that is
associated in her mind with the prince-con-
sort, her eyes fill with tears.
Queen Victoria has always been q stickler
for court etiquette, and she has become
yearly more exacting in this respect. She
carries out her wilful insistence upon the
observance of it in every least detail, and
even when it concerns only her own children
and grandchildren. When the Princess
Louise returned from Canada and arrived at
Windsor she was kept waiting until she
changed her attire and until the Queen sent
word she was prepared to receive her. It is
reported that the princess entered the draw
ing-room in the evening to await dinner,
dressed in most lovely crimson velvet gown,
with crimson silk hose to match. The Queen
happening to espy the princess feet, said:
"Do you not know that colored stockings are
not permitted in my presence? Go to your
room at once and change your stockings
And so the princess came down to dinner in
crimson velvet dress wearing white stockings.
Not one of the royal children ever visits the
Queen except by special and formal invita-
ton. Her majesty appoints the hour for her
own children to come and for them to go.
One can imagine the unnaturalness of such a
household. The prince-consort was stately,
but he was genial happy. mirth-loving gen.
tleman. He was a most affectionate husband
AID father, and no royal etiquette ever stood
, in the way of his fine German heartiness.
Since his death his children have had no
parental companionship, and they are as far
removed from the Queen as though they had
not been born of her. 1t is well known that
the Prince of Wales has very great influence
with his mother and is personally deeply at
tached to her. He was constant companion
of his father, and he quite remembers how
his father managed the Queen in the old days.
The prince is said to be most charming in his
relations to his mother, and is always upon
his most beautiful manners in her presence.
He at times does approach her with great
affection and even tenderness of feeling and
demonstration.
While royalty has become more or less Of
sham in these later days the Queen has
often shown that she could rule as well as
reign. During the Russo-Turkish war,
and early in the struggle, Colonel now
Lord) Wellesley was sent to the Gar with a
verbal message from Victoria, to the effect
that the war must be concluded in single
campaign OF England would be constrained
to lend her support to the Sultan When
Wellesley reached the Russian camp, however,
he was advised by friend that Alexander
might refuse to accept verbal communica-
ton conveying news of such transcendent
Importance, and that the Queen had better
be asked to send her ultimatum in writing.
This was finally done, and with her majesty's
autograph in his hand Wellesley had his in
terview with the Russian autocrat The
latter took the matter graciously enough, so
far as Wellesley was concerned, and wrote
an answer covering several foolscap pages,
which he intrusted, not to Wellesley, but to a
special courier, to be conveyed to her ma
jesty. The courier, however (by whom or
for what purpose never transpired), was rob-
bed during his first stage. The practical re-
suit of this secret interference OF royalty was
that the Gar prosecuted the war all through
the winter, thus technically making one
campaign of it, but at the cost of the lives of
10000 men, who died unnecessarily. The
affair was conducted with such privacy by
the Queen that even Lord Derby, then Secre-
tary of War; and one of the shrewdest meY
in England, knew nothing of it until it was zoo
late for remonstrance. 1t was clearly I'M
constitutional act on Victorias part; but it is
not the only proof she has given that sove-
reign power, in her hands, is something more
than phrase.
EDWARD HILDANE. =
We have now fifty-one metals, thirty of
which have been discovered within the pres
ent century. Four hundred years ago only
seven were known.
And now up jumps a grubber amid Greek
roots, with the discovery that Mark Twain's
story, "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras, was
first laughed at in the classic shades of old
Athens.
The termites are white ants of Southern
Africa. 1t is said they have five distinct
classes of society, workers, sentinels, soldiers,
males and females. OF the last two classes
there is only one for each settlement or viii
lage, and they are maintained by the authors
ties for the purpose of keeping up the popu-
lation.
A railway train, travelling night and day at
the rate of fifty miles an hour, would reach
the moon in six months; it would take two
hundred wears to get to the sun while to