The San Francisco call., 1896-01-26
Kind Words Spoken for Prince
Henry, Who Was Ridi-
culed in Life.
OTHER WORRIES OF THE REALM.
Statesmen Make Weak Denials of the
Alliance Between Russia and
Turkey.
LcOpyrIght, 1895, by the New York rtmes.l

friends and servants and living in gloomy
reveries of the past, among memorials of
her dead. This thought of the aged
sovereign, so pitifui - her increasing iso-
lation, comes uppermost now in English
mems minds whenever royalty is men,
toned and it rose swiftly, over poweringly
everywhere when the news of the death of
Prince Henry of Battenberg was spread
Wednesday.
This amiable gentleman who had been
living here for Ten years in somewhat
anomalous position had been made sort
OF national butt for Jokes not always
good natured, directed at the whole insti-
tuition of German pauper princes eating
the English taxes. The poor fellow must
have WINGED terribly sometimes under the
ceaseless battery of banter and cheap
music-hall chaff which he bore vicariously
for his kinsmen and caste. He was very
happy when he could get away from Eng
land for a time, bEt even here his comfort
was limited because there was a uniform
boycott arranged among the continental
courts by Emperor William against recog-
milton OF the royal status which England
had conferred on him.
So he spent his vacations mostly on his
yacht, secure alike from British guyirg
and continental snubs. At last, when the
Ashantee expedition offered a chance, he
pleaded for and obtained permission 10 go
with It, in a despalring effort to disarm the
British popular 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 l doubt that he would
have achieved this end. Very possibly
the almost farcical character of the per-
formance in Coomassie would have in
VOWED 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 ply
siqUe to meet it when it came and so died
instantly.
4 complete metamorphosis was wrought
in England's notions of him. People of
all grades and conditions recalled in a.
fash how it would affect the Queen, and
this reflection colored intuitlvely all their
thoughts and words. In truth the event
involved a deeper personal aff1iction for
the Queen than perhaps any other death
in her actual family since she was widowed
Not even her son Leopold, who died
eleven years ago, was so near to her or so
much part of her daily domestic life as
was Prince Henry. He had a remarkable
aptitude for the role that he was called on
to play, and he waited on her, watched
over her and smoothed the routine of ex-
istence for her with untiring zeal. 1t was
by no means a Il ht task, but he per-
formed it with profound German
patience. This is remembered now
to his infinite credit, and he is being sim
ceTeIy mourned ten 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 it is
uneasIly felt that it will inevitably
multiply the weight of the melancholy
that she is already bowed Under.
Hence the public have been raining in
messages of coincidence upon her in far
more promiscuous fashion than ever be-
fore, 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 Eng
land if it had been published. This NAV
have no better basis than the fact that no
official mention of the dispatch from him
Las been made either here or in Berlin.
though something has been said of his
making inquiries as to the health of his
grandmother and 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 appointed
for this week and the next have been
hastily abandoned or postponed. There
was to have been a royal review of the
new flying squa dron in the Solent, which
England's aroused martial spirit would
have invested with national importance.
but the bereavement stopped all that.
We have instead the picture OF the vener-
able monarch going out alone yesterday
in the early morning in a pony carriage,
swathed in black shawls, against the win
try channel mists. and hating for long
tine on the headIand. entirely alone,
watching the silent warships riding at
anchor in Spithead, and perhaps it is
more inspiring TO the imagination than
the grandest pageant would have been.
Where that squadron is going remains
as mnch mystery as it was week ago.
The belief of the politicians, however, has
veered quite around to the theory fore
shadowed in these dispatches then that it
has something to do with the Armenian
question. The Pail Mall Gazette's story
OF Russo-Turkish treaty gets plenty of
ofncial denials, but it is precisely one of
those statements which, if not literally
true, describes all the same an actual situ-
auon- That Russia has the Sultan in the
hollow OF its hand and that be does what
ever Neiidoff tells him to do has been
TUih!non knowledge for six weeks or more.
Hhether this relation has been formalized
oy treaty is wholly a consideration of
eApeolency. 1t is beginning to be COM
PFehehuee now that Germany and Russia
are acllhg IN entire accord and that Eng
laho IS giving up the notion of trying to
establish relations with Russia. ALI the
interest here is concentrated on the oues.