The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1896-12-19


A singular fact about Queen Vic
fona 10 that she has not always one
joyed exceptionally good health
and that even at her present adj
vanced agsshe 10 unusus'ly strong
and we'll, but that she has had more
hair-breadth escapes han any other
sovereign in history. No fewer
than seven attempts have been
made on her life, and there have
been -aaany occasions whom tho
Queen has seemed to be face to face
with death.
Hyde Park was the scene Of the
first attempt on the Queens life,
which was made by a youth of II,
who, on the 10th of July, 1910,
fred at her Majesty with pistol.
The Prince Consort, to whom the
Queen, had been married \ few
months before, happily saw the
youth in time to draw his wife
down beside him, so that tho ball
passed over her head. The mad
youth was for some time confined
in Bedlam and was afterwards al.
lowed to 60 to Australia.
Only two years passed away be-
fore the second attempt, when, al
most on the same spot, = man
named Francis fred at the Queen
as she was again driving with the
Prince. The shot missed and
Francis was sentenced to death for
high. treason, the sentence being
afterward COMMITTED to transporta-
ton for life by desire of the Queen.
Strangely enough, on the very
day her Majesty's clemency became
known, a hunchback named Bean,
mere youth, made another attempt
to injure the Queen. He was
transported for seven years.
A bricklayer was the next seeker
after notoriety. He fred at the
Queen az she rode in her carriage
on July 9,1849, but his pistolmissed,
and he was sentenced to seven
years transportation.
Less than q year after this, as
her Majesty was returning from a
visit to the deathbed of her uncle,
the Duke of Cambridge, an ex-
captain of hussars, rushed forward
and struck her on the face with a
small stick. The blow caused a
wound, but the Queen was not SER
iously hurt.
It was 1872 before another at
tack was made. In the early part
of that year q boy ran up to the
Queen with pistol and petition.
He was arrested before he could fire,
however, and was declared insane.
Ten years later a madman named
Robert Maclean aimed q pistol and
shot at the Queen as she entered
her carriage at Windsor railway
station.
On many other occasions the
Queen has been within. an ace of
death. When a child, six month.
old, she was at Sidmouth, on the
Devonshire coast, when boy shoot
ing sparrows accidentally dis
charged his gun at the window of
the nursery in which the Princess
was playing. The shots passed
close to the baby's head, but did
not, fortunately, do any harm.
When Queen Victoria was 4 years
old, her life was saved by an Irish
soldier who happened to be passing
when the royal carriage was over
turned. But for the soldiers inter-
vention the carriage would have fall
len on the Queen. Half century
passed away before the soldier knew
whose life he had saved.
A yachting excursion was the
occasion Of an alarming accident
when the Queen was a girl Of IA.
The young Princess stood on a
yacht, watching a storm that had
suddenly arisen, when the topmast
became dangerous. The pilot quick
~ conveyed the Princess to q safe
place, and the next minute the
mast fell with heavy crash on the
spot where the royal passenger had
been standing.
Twenty-one years ago, when the
Queen was crossing to Gosport from
Osborne, there was fatal collision
with the royal yacht, in which three
persons persisted. But once more
her life was preserved.
-On many other occasions the
Queen has been in great danger,
such as when, in August, 1851, her
Majesty was in a railway accident,
aud when, soon after her accession,
the horses attached to her carriage
holted. On each of these occasions
the Queens self-possession has been
remarkable.
Goodness and presence Of mind
have been characteristic of her
whenever danger has threatened
her. "Great events" she has said,
always make me calm. IN. r..
Journal.
A Pet rihcation Pam.
Humphreys creek. q small noun.