The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-09-05
INDUSTRIOUS SoVEREIGNs.
How Some of the Queens Spend Their
Time in Private.


rior personages near acquaintance
with them reveals the fact that they
are after all very human, and women
before all. A man who had travelled
very extensively over the continent
took pains not very long ago to find
Kat what the favorite amusements of
the women at the head of the great
European governments We're. He man
aged to unearth some little known Pc
culiarities which are the more especial
ly interesting for the reason that they
find mention in the court circulars or
the letters of foreign correspondents.
Queen Victoria has two hobbies
which she pursues even now despite
her feebleness. One is music, the
other languages. AS a young princess
the monarch of England was noted for
her sweet voice and her elegant touch
upon the piano. 1t is not at all exag-
gerating to say that in both these re-
spects she was more than an extraor-
dinarily good musician. Though
rheumatism prevents her playing'now,
and she seldom sings, she still retains
her love for harmony and enjoys moth
ing more than quiet musical morning
in the halls of Windsor.
A half dozen of the European Ian
guages have been at her tongues end
for many years, but the one in which
she has taken the most pride has been
Plattdeutsch. She has a very thor
ough knowledge of this difficult dialect,
and has read through many of the
romances written in it, which are re-
markably fine, but which have seldom
been translated owing to the fact that
their beauty and pith are lost in the
change from one Language to another.
Like her royal mother, Victoria Ade-
laide, now dowager empress of Ger
many, is fine musician, and she has
made use of the melodies of her child
hood to assuage the sorrows that the
years have brought her. Not only has
she been interested in musical matters
ever since her girlhoods but she is also
very fair artist, and had she not
been born to the purple there is little
question but that her paintings would
have brought name and fame.
Turning to Russia, the dowager en-
press Dagmar is an expert needle
woman and spends all of the time she
can spare embroidering. There is
hardly a family connected with the
Russian royal house by marriage or
kingship that has not some specimens
of her handiwork. Her daughter-n-
law, the reigning Empress Alix, very
Young woman, has developed no par
io111 Low La
matter has the present empress of
Germany, who has been absorbed ever
since her marriage in her ma ternal
duties.
Margherita, the queen of Italy, is a
keen theatrical critic and the patron
ess of everything relating to the stage.
She also takes much interest in lin
guistic matters, and it is point of
etiquette with her to always address
her visitors in their own tongues.
Cooking is the fad of the crown
princess of Sweden and Norway, and
there is pleasing story to the effect
that some years ago this royal young
woman, while on a visit to Berlin,
went down into the great kitchens of
the old palace, tucked up her dainty
sleeves and started in making various
connections for the old kaiser her
grandfather, who was nightly tickled
at the attention and enjoyed his meals
during her visit more than he had for a
long time previously.
Louise, of Hesse-Cassel, reigning
queen of Denmark and the mother of
the princess of Wales and of the dow
ager empress of Russia, could easily
become professional milliner and
make a great deal of money out of it.
The innate taste of poking up a small
bunch of ribbon and sprig of flowers
together so as to make what women
call ''confection" of hat is hers, and
has been for good half century. All
her daughters have to a certain extent
inherited this taste, and the princess of
Wales in particular is indebted to her
royal mother for the admiral BILE taste
she has always had relating to matters
of personal adornment,
Years ago the empress of Austria
used to hunt increasingly, and she kept
it up until her health broke down.
What was even more remarkab BILE, she
''broke' her own horses, and did it to
such good effect that she became very
nearly the best-mounted woman in all
Europe Since her health has failed
she has devoted her energies largely to
travelling and to studying modern
Greek, The practical end of this latter
is hardly evident, but it is certain that
the empress takes keen delight in it
n Y. World
History gives no definite informa-
tiOn as to when the observance of the