The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1899-08-08
WHAT VICTORIA HAS SEEN.
Fresh suggestions of the world Marvel
0us Progress During Her Life
lLeslie's \ eekly

it'.AtN '' |ht
Crowned heads mold a low place
in The space If longevity" If the
French author OF this expression had
forcseen Victoria bis assertion would
not have been quite so sweeping.
. Elglaud's queen born eighty years
ago, has long passed the Psalmist's
span of years. She has gone much
+ farther beyond the average official
/ life of the worlds wearers
Sixty-two years will have passed on
luue % since she ascended the
throne. This exceeds in duration by
over two years the reign Of her grand
father, George III , hitherto unex
ampled IN British annals. No other
monarch OF great nation in the
world history has been on the throne
as long except Louis y ". of France,
seventy.twO years, and he was only
i've years of age when be became
tiiulAr king, and during his minority
bis mother ruled in his stead AS re.
gent. Victoria, however, was eigh
teen at the time her predecessor
died, and she has exerted sway ever
since.
Victoria during her Lifetime has
seen the entire world transformed
On the day Of her birth, May u,
1919. the hrst steamboat which ever
crossed the Atlantic or any other
ocean started from Savannah for
Liverpool, making the voyage in
twenty days. The same distance
is now made IN less than six. She
Was SIX years OF age when the first
railway train in the world started TO
carry passengers. she was eighteen
years Of age, and had just asceuded
the throne, when the Morse system
of telegraphy and that of Cooke and
Wheatstone were first patented.
Tuirty-nine years Of her life had
passed when the first cable was laid
uoder the Atlantic, and that one al
most Immediately ceased to operate.
F.fty-six years of 1t expired before
the fret telephone went into practical
operation.
Scot and Byron were in their
prime when Victoria first began to
read the printed page. None of the
great writer's Thackery, Dickens,
Bulwer.Lytton, Tennyson, George
Eliot the Brownings and the others
whose names have cast glorv over
her country duriug the past half or
two-ihrds Of century had yet
begun to work. Darwin, whose labors
have revolutiouized science and have
profoundly affected the thought of
moralists and theologians was not
heard of
At the time of Vlctoria's birth the
tramp of Bcuaparto's armies had
Just ceased to shake the world, aud
BDnsparte himself was a prisoner on
British island in the South Atlantic
She has seen every throne in Europe
vacated many times. She has seen
her own country transformed pOliti-
cally from an oligarchy in which only
one out Of fifty Of the population was
permitted 10 vote, into a democracy
10 which the voters number one out
of six Of the inha btants. France has
changed It's form of government four
times since her early girlhood days.
Italy, then only a geographical
expression" to use Mettcrnich's
phrase, has since become one of the
greatest powers of Europe, while the
empire of Germany was still far in
tie future.
The United States was in the midst
of the " era of good feeling when
Victoria was bora. Monroe has bad
nineteen successors in the presidency
since that time. This country had
Only 5000, 600 population then. Buff
fslo and Pittsburg were frontier
towns, and not house existed on the
site Of the magnificent metropolis Of
the west, Chicago. The annexation
OF Florida, Texas. New Mexico, Cal
foruia and Alaska, TO say nothing Of
the more recent accession of territory,
all came since Vctoris's birth. The
worlds map has been changed in
many places, the worlds ideals have
been altered in many respects, and
the whole face of human society has
been transformed in the four score
years which have elapsed since
Brtain's queen first saw the light.