The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-09
A STUDY IN TEARS.
How They Have Been Shed by Some of
the Worlds Great Folks.


Many of the great people who have writ
ten their names large in the history of their
time have been known to shed tears. The
majority, however, wept for others woes,
but smiled upon their own.
Queen Victoria wept when Informed that
II was her destiny to wear crown and
rule vast empire. The incident was seized
upon by Mrs. Browning for one of her
most beautiful poems, "She Wept to Wear
a Crown and her Majesty has ever since
been warm admirer of the writings of
this poet. Sixty years later, at the jubilee
last year, the Queen sobbed before thou
sands of her subjects. Another notable Oc-
caslon was at the funeral of Prince Henry
of. Battenberg. AS the burial service was
being recited, Britains monarch was seen
10 be crying piteOuSly.
One will never forget the universal lam
entation aroused by the death of the Duke
of Clarence. When the end came the Prin-
cess of Wales who had throughout her
sons illness watched him with the greatest
devotion, utterly collapsed, and cried for
some time as though her heart would break.
left Sandringham for the railway station,
followed on foot by the Prince of Wales, it
was impossible to hide his grief, and the
heir apparent was forced to find relief in
coplouS tears. The Duke of Saxe-Coburg-
Gotha has also been seen to cry in public.
In April, 1896, while the marriage ceremony
of his daughter was in progress his royal
highness was observed to be weeping.
Mr.: Gladstone. during the delivery of one
garian atrocities, was so carried away by
his feelings that tears coursed down his
cheeks, and the flow of his eloquence was
might recover his composure. The grand
old mans great rival, Lord Salisbury too,
agc deaR OF the Ra Of 1Gdesegh VIII
not easily fade from ones memory. When
Lord Salisbury knew that his old friend the
at the Foreign Office, he was so overcome
that for time he sobbed bitterly.
Thirty years ago the Earl of Halsbury
(then plain Hardinge Giffard) was defending
ex-governor Eyre concerning the massacres
that had occurred In Jamaica. Having de-
picted Eyre projecting the people from out
whether for SO doing his client was to be
done to death by persecution. Good Cod"
he exclaimed lis this justice?" and wound
up his apostrophe by bursting into tears.
Then the court adjourned for luncheon.
When the present lord chief justice was
known to fame as Sir Charles Russell,
he on many occasions. by the stirring force
of his elOquence made judges weep and
bathed juries in salt tears. He has himself,
too, more than once been so enthusiastic in
his clients behalf that the hoodgates of his
eyes have been opened. AT the historic trial
known as the Parnell commission, so moved
speech in defense of Mr.. Parnell that he
wept for some moments. while many of the
onlookers had damp eyelids.
Professor Herkomer, r. A. tells in one of
his lectures that his well-known picture
Chelsea Pensioners in Church was painted
against the advice of all his friends but he
completed it and sent it to the Royal
Academy. What expectation, what ankle
ties and fears were in that acti How he
waited! Two letters, respectively by Leigh
ton and Richmond, r. A, brought news
that the judges on seeing the work clapped
their hands Herkomer at the time was at
a sick bed, and as he read he fell his
knees and wept.
When that brave man Dr. Jameson real
lied at the battle which put the climax to
his famous raid that he had failed in his
mission and was compelled to surrender he
burst into tears and cried for some time
like a child. But it was not through fear
fnV ic 0fN h1fA 10
that his failure might place his countrymen
in jeopardy.
Rossni being asked how he liked Pa
ganinfs playing said he had only wept three
times in his life-frst, on the failure of his
earliest opera; secondly, when in a boat
with some friends a turkey stuffed with
truffies. which had been provided for their
dinner fell overheard and was lost; thirdly,
on hearing for the first time PaganiniS
divine performance on his beloved violin.
Lord Eldon when attorney general was in
the habit of closing his speeches with some
remarks justifying his own character. At
the trial of Horne Tooke, speaking of his
own reputation, he said: 1T is the little
inheritance l have to leave my children,
paired" Here he shed tears, and, to the
establishment of those present. Milford. the
solicitor general, began to weep. Just look
at Milford said a bystander to Horne
Tooke; what on earth is he crying for?''
Tooke replied HE is crying to think what
small Inheritance Eldon's children are
likely to GET
From the examples given it may be con-
cluded that 1T is not always humanity to
weep. Indeed, as Henry Ward Beecher
said tears are often the telescope by which
we see far into heaven.