The suburban citizen., 1900-08-25
SOME ROYAL PROPOSALS.
POPPING THE QUESTION IN THE
HIGHEST OF HIGH LIFE.


opportunity that presents itself for tell
ing the princess how much he loves
her, says the Chicago Times-Herald,
and he finds a lonely moor or a quiet
seuuestered dell in a wide park as
useful an adjunct to the process as
does any factory girl off with James
william" for the afternoon.
How did the Prince Consort Of Eng
land manage with the Queen. The
story has oft been told, and it is prob
ably correct in its outline, that it was
not he in this case who had to manage,
but she. For it appears to be court
etiquette for the Queen to do the pro-
posing in such case, 1t is said that
while at a dance with the Prince at
Windsor Castle in 1910 her majesty
took from her Nress a spray of white
lilac and gave it to him. He had no
buttonhole in his uniform as a soldier,
but taking out his penlinlfe he made
a slit in his coat and placed the spray
tenderly in it. What happened next
during the quiet talk in one Of the
adjoining apartments we may leave
to conjecture, but the fact of the en-
gagement was soon made known by
the Queen to her council.
The Prince of Wales had met his
future wife at a continental town and
had first set eyes on her while visiting
a cathedral there some time before he
went to Denmark to visit her parents
and made his proposal. His was a case
of love at first sight He was so
struck with the beauty and grace of
the princely maiden whom he saw in
that cathedral that he made many in
quiries about her and sought an intro
duction. Then the later steps came in
due course. 1t was at the castle of the
Danish royal family at Rosenberg that
the Prince of Wales had his private
interview with the daughter Of the
sea kings" and proposed gladly to find
her an English home and happiness
for the remainder of her life. And
here she accepted him. This was In
a private room which is one of the
suite of rooms in the Rosenberg castle
where the proposal was made. Either
here or in an adjoining room his Royal
Highness went through the same
trembling few minutes that all PRO
posers" know so well and remember
so wildly, often to their future dis
comfort. There never seems to have
been any doubt Of the answer to be
given by Princess Alexandria, how
ever, for she was as much in love with
the ane-looklng heir to the British
throne as he was with her. And so,
after this ausplclous day, "all went
merry as a marriage bell" and Eng
land welcomed the Danish conqueror
once more to her domains with a well
come very different to that of Canute
in 1040.
When in 1874 the Duke of Edinburgh
took to England his Russian bride it
was considered a good omen by the
many Britons who still recollected the
terrible days of the Crimean War. And
the omen has so far indeed been good;
there has been peace with that great
nation for the past quarter Of cen
tury. No more splendid surroundings
could possibly be imagined for ''pro-
posing than the precincts and salons
of the grand palace at st. Petersburg,
where the imperial family resides. And
here it was that the Russian Princess
first received the proposal Of the En-
glish Prince for her hand and heart.
She accepted the "sailor prince"
whether with or without hesitation we
are not told. But probably, like even
more lowly maldens, the daughter Of
a Car would like being asked more
than once, and would not be averse
to a little pleading upon the part Of
her royal lover. And we know that
the Romanoff princesses are not light
ly wont
1t was in 1857 that two lovers might
have been seen on n Scotch moor in
the district of Balmoral. They had
gone out for the day with a party of
friends, and, like many other lovers,
from time immemOrial they had man
aged very beautifully to lose the party
and lose themselves and the nearest
way. Nevertheless they walked gay
ly along toward Balmoral over the
springy turf, evidently anything but
cast down at the loss. Suddenly the
gentleman spied n piece Of white
heather growing close by. He gath
cred it and presented it to the girl be-
side him. For she was a true girl,
barely eighteen at the time! But she
knew the meaning of such gift from
such n person, and she clearly whls-
pered, yes" loud enough for the hap
py lover to hear. For when they
reached home there had to be a telling
to papa" and mamma" of something
that had happened. And the next news
heard was that the Grown Prince Of
Germany was betrothed to the English
Princess Royal
White Lodge, Richmond Park, was
the place where the Duke of York did
his "courting" Of the Princess May,
and 1t is generally stated that It was
in the small but well-kept gardens
round the pretty mansion that he
"went through the ceremony which,
as the old man said long ago, comes
to all of us who want to be married.
sooner or later" Prince George meant