The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-06-25

4
toria. From what l know of her hab-
does Shakespeare. She admires the
hymns of Horatio Bonar more than she
does Byron's 'Corsair." She has not
Knowingly admitted into her presence
a corrupt man or dissolute woman. To
very distinguished novelists and very
celebrated prima donnas she has de-
clined reception because they were i'm
moral. All the coming centuries of time
cannot revoke the advantages of having
had 60 years of Christian womanhoOd
enthroned in the palaces of England.
Compare her court surroundings with
what were the court surroundings in
the time of Henry Will, or what
were the court surroundings in
the time of Napoleon, in the
times of Louis XVl., in the times
of men and women whose names may
not be mentioned in decent society.
Alas! for the revelries, and the worse
than Belshazzar feasts, and the more
than Herodian dances. and the scenes
from which the veil must not be lifted.
You need, however, in order to appre-
ciate the purity and virtuous splendor
of Victories reign, to contrast it some
what with the gehennas and the pam
demoniums of many of the throne
rooms of the past and some of the
throne rooms of the present. l call
the roll of the queens of the earth, not
that l would have them come up or
come back, but that l may make them
ho no ~ Y1in in hinh
l can better present the present septu-
agenarian, so soon to be an octogena-
rian, now on the throne of England,
her example so thoroughly on the right
side that all the scandal mongers in all
the nations in six decades have not been
able to manufacture an evil suspicion
in regard to her that could be made
to stick: Maria of Portugal, Isabella
and Eleanor and Joanna of Spain,
Catharine of Russia, Mary of Scotland,
Maria Teresa of Germany, Marie An
toinette of France. and all the queens
of England, as Mrs. Strickland has put
them before us in her charming IL vol
umes; and while some queen may sur
pass our modern queen in learning, and
another in attractiveness of feature,
and another in gracefulness of form,
and another in romance of history,
Victoria surpasses them all in nobility
and grandeur and thoroughness of
Christian character. l hail her, the
Christian daughter, the Christian wife,
the Christian mother, the Christian
queen! and let the church of God and
and all benign and gracious institu-
tiOns the world over cry out, as they
come with the music, and hammered
host, and million-voiced huzza, and
the benedictions of earth and Heaven,
What wilt thou. Queen Esther?''
Again, this international occasion
impresses me with the fact that wOm-
an is competent for political govern
ment when God calls her to it. Great
fears have been experienced in this
country that woman would get the
right of suffrage, andas a consequence,
after awhile, woman might get into
the congressional chair, and perhaps,
after awhile, reach the chief magis-
tracy. Awful! Well, better quiet your
perturbations, as you look across the
sea, in this anniversary time, and be-
hold a woman who for go years has
ruled over the mightiest empire of all
time, and ruled well. In approval of
her government the hands of all ma
tions are clapping, the flags of all ma
tions are waving, the batteries of all
nations are booming. Look herel Men
have not made such wonderful sue
cess of government that they need
be afraid that woman should ever
take a turn at power. The fact is
that men have made bad mess of
it. The most damnably corrupt
thing on earth is American pol
itics after men have had it all their
own way in this country for 12l years.
And now pray God that day after
tomorrow, the uncertain skies of En-
gland, so economic of sunshine, may
pour golden light upon the scene, and
that since the day when, in Westmin-
ster Abby, the girlish queen took in
one hand the scepter, and in the
other the orb of empire, there
may have been NO day so happy
as that one m which she shall
this week receive the plaudits of
Christendom. May she be siren 9Th
ened in her aged body to ride the
whirlwind of international excitement,
and her falling vision be illumined
with bright memories of the past and
brighter visions of the future, and
when she quits the throne of earth
may she have a throne in Heaven, and
as the doors of the eternal palace are
swung open, may the question of the
text sound in her enraptured ears,
What wilt thou, Queen Esther?"
But as all of us will be denied at
tendance on that Goth anniversary cor
onation, L invite you, not to the ami
versary of a coronation, but to a coro-
nation itself-aye. to two coronations.
Brought up as we are, we love as no
other form of government that which
is republican and democratic. we, liv-
ing on this side of the sea, cannot so
easily as those living on the other side
of the sea, appreciate the two corona
tions to which all up and down
the Bible you and 1 are urgent
" invited. Some of you have
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