Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-03-05
QUEEN VICTORIA'S CONDITION.
Her Sincere Mourning for Prince
Henry of Battenberg.

IlCuIy VI DdllcuDtIS.
The following picture is from Harold
Frederics cable letter to the New York
| Times: Queen Victoria will in May be
entering her 18th year, infirm in bodily
health, unutterably sad in mind, bereft
almost wholly of old friends and SER
wants, and living in gloomy reverie on
the past, among memorials of her
dead. This thought of the aged SOW
ereign, so pitiful in her increasing
/ Isolation, comes uppermost now in
Englishmen's minds whenever royalty
is mentioned, and it rose swiftly. over
poWeringly, everywhere when the
/ news Of the death of Prince Henry of
Battenberg was spread on Wednes-
day. This amiable gentleman, who
had been living here for 10 years in a
somewhat anomalous position, had
been made sort of national butt for
jokes, not always good-natured, d1-
rected at the whole Institution of Ger
man pauper princes eating off the
English taxes. The poor fellow NUT
have WINGED terribly sometimes under
the ceaseless battery of banter and
cheap music-hall chaff which he bore
vigorously for his kinsmen and caste
He was very happy when ne could
get away from England for a time
but even abroad his comfort was lin
tied because there was uniform boy
colt arranged among the continental
courts by Emperor William against
recognition of the royal status which
England had conferred or him. So he
spent his vacations mostly on his
yacht, secure alike from British guying
and continental snubs. At last, when
the Ashantee expedition offered
chance, he pleaded for and obtained
permission to go with it, in a despair
ing effort to disarm the British popu-
lar levity and persuade the English to
think Of him as a soldier and a brave
man, instead of as an alien and a
tame house pet. If he had come home
alive with the rest, I doubt that he
would have achieved this end. Very
possibly the bloodless, almost farcical
character of the performance in Coo
massie would have involved him in
more ridicule than ever, but he was
afraid of the coast fever from the
start, talked about it all the while on
the way out, had not the right kind of
physique to meet it when it came, and
so died. Instantly a complete meta
morphOsis was wrought in Englands
notions Of him. People of all grades
and conditions recalled in flash how
it would affect the queen, and this re-
Election colored intuitively all thei1
thoughts and words.
In truth, the event Involves a deeper
personal affection for the queen than
perhaps any other death in her actual
family since she was widowed. Not
even her own son, Leopold, who died
II years ago, was so close to her or SO
much a part of her daily domestic life
as was Prince Henry. He had a re-
markable " ? itude for the role that he
was called CT to play, and he waited
On her watched over her, snnCOthed
the routine existence for her with un
firing zeal. It was by no means a
profound German patience. This is
remembered now to his infinite credit
and he is being sincerely mOurned 10
times as much as was the duke of
Clarence, who stood on the steps Of
the throne itself. 1t seems that the
shock has not directly affected the
queens health-at least thus far-but
+ &c Gil w hot Will inc a
bly, multiply the weight OF the melan-
choIy she is already bowed under.
Hence, the public have been raining in
message of coincidence upon her in far
more promiscuOus fashion than ever
before, and no one is too poor or too
obviously interested to fail of thanks
from her secretaries.
1t is being whispered about that the
German emperor's message is not of
character which would have pleased
England if it had been published. This
may have no better basis than the fact
that no official mention of the dispatch
from him has been made either here
or in Berlin, though something has
been said of his making inquiries as
W II6 uedlIu VI llo 81 duuDlOI11Cl dIlu
Aunt Beatrice. Unless something
definite is published soon, this rumor
is certain to spread and assume
large Importance in the public mind.
All sorts of ceremonial functions ap-
pointed for this week and the next
have been hastily abandoned or post
poned. There was to have been
royal review of the new flying squad
ron in the Sclent, which England's
aroused martial spirit would have in
vested with national Importance, but
the bereavement has stopped all that.
We have, instead, the picture of the
venerable monarch going out alone
Friday in the early morning in pony
carriage, sWathed in bla k shawls
against the Wintry channel mists and
batting for a long time OH the head
land, entirely alone, watching the 81
lent war ships riding at anchor in
Spithead, and perhaps, it is a more in
spring picture to the imagination than
the grandest pageant would have been.
FEW KNEW HE WAS MARRIED.
Marion Singer of the Comic Opera
Widow of Arobifpot Atwood