The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-22

''''' ''N' A''N'JN5hJ AANNNl ISSlNNS iNplilS lbA
 short excursions during the eight
 months of official life, but I think this | seeming indifference to the points of at
 traction and curiosity around Rome is
 probably due to the queens kindness of | heart; she knows that the villagers and
 farmers of the Campagna could not be prevented from expressing in a more or
 less costly and elaborate form their | feelings of loyalty; and she knows also | that such excursions must be preceded, attended and followed by certain police precautions, which are not always cal
 culated to foster the feeling of freedom,
 and deliverance from state life,
 A visit or private presentation to Queen Margherita Is a delightful eXpe- | rience, indeed. Arriving at the Quirinal | palace at the hour named in your card, | you are shown into a waiting-room, | simply but tastefully ornamented with rare specimens of tapestries and china,
 where one of the gentlemen in waiting welcomes you, and converses With you | until the door of her majesty's cabinet | de reception" is opened, This recep- | tion-room strikes the visitor more for | the magnificent view which it com
 mands through it's six great windows,
 opening on a terrace, than for any dis | play of showy decoration. Dense mass | es of evergreens occupy the foreground, while the Janiculum and the Monte Ma rio shut the horizon beyond the roofs
 and the domes of the city, with St. Pe | ter's and the Vatican towering between
 the two hills.
 As have remarked in previous pa | tbnrn ic n fo ccinatinn for thoughtful minds in gazing at these two
 palaces, the Quirinal and the Vatican, facing each other much more arniably than the respective situations of their | tenants would lead us to believe. Per haps it is one of the good characteris- tics of the Italian nation to make difi-
 cult propositions bearable by mutual kindness and toleration.
 | The queen speaks the four great Flu ropean languages to perfection. and as
 she keeps herself au courant with mod ern literature and with the contents of the latest literary or scientific maga-
 zines, her conversation is delightfully."- easy and full of interest. No stranger
 of distinction leaves Rome without car rying away with him an ideal remem- brance of this lady, equally perfect as
 wife, as a mother, as a queen.
 Italians do not make as much of Christmas as the Anglo-Saxons do.
 Until late years gifts were made or ex- changed at the Befania (Epiphany), | Christmas eve being celebrated only by a family gathering and souper mai
 gre. But the queen follows and has
 made popular the Anglo Saxon style, and the good d-fashioned Merry | Christmas" is fast becoming a national institution. The Christmas tree at court is welcome celebration to the mem
 bers of the royal household and to the
 ladies and gentlemen of the inner circle.
 The gifts consist mainly of admirable
 pieces of jewelry.
 The closing of the parliamentary sea-
 son at the end of June or at the begin
 ming of July Is the signal for a general
 stampede from Rome. The court the diplomatic body, senators and deputies,
 and even some of the ministers of state, not to speak of minor officials, emigrate
 en masse in the old approved Roman fashion. It is not the degree of the
 heat that makes July, August and part
 of September very disagreeable in Rome, but it's depressing quality.
 These months bring with them an al
 most complete cessation of public life.
 Sixty thousand persons left the capital
 in the summer of 1895 for an average
 period of forty days.
 The king and queens headquarters in
 summer are at Mopza, thirteen miles
 north of Milan Here they own a com fortable residence surrounded by
 park many leagues in circumference,
 crossed, watered and made cool by the
 river Lambro. I have had frequent oc-
 casions to converse with ladies and gen.
 tlemen who had just enjoyed the royal
 hospitality at Monza, and they all con- cur in declaring that their majesties are just as amiable and fascinating in their intimate family life as they are
 admirable on the steps of the throne in
 the state rooms at the Quirinal.
 The king rides out early in the morn
 ing, visiting his tenants, surveying the
 works of improvement on the estate, or
 shooting in the royal preserves. After
 breakfast he devotes himself to affairs
 of state, which involve a pdetty lively correspondence between Rome and
 Monza, and a constant running up and down of cabinet couriers. The docu-
 ments which require the royal sigma
 ture are brought up once week by
 one of the ministers.
 Then comes the season of the grand | maneuvers, in which two army corps take a share-something like sixty thousand men, including artillery and
 cavalry and the Alpine regiments. The kings headquarters are generally taken up in some gentleman's villa in the neighborhood of the field where the last sham battle and the closing re- view are expected to take place. The army maneuvers are followed by those of the fleet. The theme is much the
 same every year; a hostile squadron tries to force it's way through the coast defenses of Genoa, Spezia La Maddale-
 na, or some such harbor and a national
 squadron tries to prevent it from doing
 so. The king watches the naval re- view on board his yacht Savoia
 The last and most pleasant part, r
 suppose, of the royal holidays is the
 one spent in the shooting of the bou-
 quetin, or ibex, among the crags and
 the seracs of the Gran Paradise One of the most thrilling episodes in the
 queens summer Alpine life, was the
 death of Baron Peccoz of Grossoney
 while crossing the Lysjoch, tied to the
 same r0Da which held her ma iesty and