The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-02-26
RaYALTY PEMEABFRED


Almost ANY Old Thing That the
Testator Admired Anything From
Bird to stsRmsAip Line.
Tit-Blts: During the sixty-two years
that Queen Victoria has sat on the
throne she has been the recipient Of
some rather curious fegacies. TO say
nothing Of several very substantial
ones, notably that Of R5OOooo left her
By certain Mr.. Neals- However. many
Of her majesty's humber subjects. who
have had Just as much admiration for
their queen as their more fortunate fell
lows, have sought to remember her in
their Wills. and cats, dogs, and other
auadrupeds galore have been be-.
queathed to the head of the state.
whenever possible her majesty has
done her best to accept these requests,
but they have 80 often bordered on the
realms OF eccentriclty that she has
frequently had to refrain from doing 80.
Curiously enough, she has repeatedly
been left cats, and. as che Is not fond
OF the feline race, has been obliged 20
refuse them. It Is said that her name
has been mentioned in not far short OF
two hundred wills az the recipient OF
the family mousecatcher, and on more
than one occasion a small annuity has
been left her by the same testator' 70
order that the maintenance Of the AM.
NAL should be Of no expense to Its royal
mistress.
DOGS, too she might have had In
I ~ No 6tfaNt Inns
are already centred on those she has
obtained by other means EeVerthe-
less, she has frequently accepted these
leEaeies and RHteFwREd bestowed them
on members Of her household,
on one occasion she was bequeathed
a racehorse for which 21,000 had been
refused in It's younger days. AS far az
the writer Is aware, the animal was
afterward sold, and the proceeds given
to a welI-known charity. Moreover,
she can always be sure of final rest
ing place. for an eccentric old Scotch
woman named McWilliam, upon whom
her majesty had frequently bestowed
favOrs while at Balmora1, died a few
years ago and left her benefactresg
family vault in nelghborIng kirk
yard. At first the authorities thought
At to inquire into the case, which they
very naturally believed to be bogus
one, before Rcquainting the queen with
the fact. Investigations. however, only
went to prove that the old lady's Will
was correct, and that she had purchas-
ed and gorgeously fitted up a large
vault at the place in question. Need
less to say, her trouble was In vain, for
q sovereign like ours could never be
permitted to rest in such obscurity.
The Prince and Princess Of Wales
-. lS,R 10, -H,a ~
culIar legacles, among which. Of course,
pets figure prominently. Several Of
the dogs on the SandrIngham estate
have been the final requests Of their
donors. and the princess, whose love of
animals is proyerblal, has caused them
to be as carefully looked after as those
more closely connected with her.
Among other things she once received
pair OF cage birds OF an almost ex-
tinct variety, left her by an old gentle
man who had brought them home from
abroad, and they were valued by ex-
perts at five hundred guineas.
Among the many beQuests which
have fallen to the lot OF the Emperor
Franz Josef OF Austria, Is a hotel at
Brunn, left him by the proprietor some
years since, It was on sound hnan-
clal basis. and therefore valuable pro-
perty. The emperor accepted the be-
quest, although he did not employ 1t
for his own benefit, but sold It for an
enormous sum. which he gave in Its en-
tIrety to popular chlld's hospital.
It is not generally known that the
German emperor draws an income from
line OF steamships, besides that de-
rived from his regal position. The ORR
gin Of this is rather curious. The late
Kaiser William I, while crown prince
rNVt r,f htU - IN Hn a nOnH turn
for man who eventually became
celebrity in the shipping world, being
chief partner in line Of vessels plying
betwne Hamburg and the French and
British coasts.
A few years before the death of the
emperor the man In question died and
left The whole of his property consist
ing Of the share in the business, to his
old benefactor, then the kaiser. The
beQuest, OF course, was valuable as
well as an acceptable one, and is likely
to be handed down for many genera
lions.
Another gift which came into the
possession of the German emperor the
other day took the form OF three enor-
nous elephants Of great value, which
were bequeathed by q menaEerle pro-
prietor. To the emperor, OF course, the
gift was useless. but 1t was accepted
and he presented the animals to the
Geological Gardens at Berlin.
It is generally believed that the head
Of the Russian empire Is never popu-
lar man with the majority OF his sub
jects, and yet the large number Of lega-
cieB the present car has received rath-
err goes to belle this statement. They
arc, Of course, as various as they are
numerous, but among the better known
Is a lUrRe white Polar bear-H fitting
gift for q czaT-whlch IL kept in cap
tlVity at the winter palace. Where
bruIn originally came from, and by
whom he was sent, Is n mystery, for n
letter was received one day stating that
the beast was on the road, and was a
legacy from a loyal subject.
on arrival 1t was inspected by the
GEAR and sznrina, and as the latter
took such fancy 10 It, and admired its
magnificent coat Of exquisite Wilderness,
the emperor had no alternative but to
order home to be fitted up and bruln
duly Installed therein,
But this is not the legacy to which
the cSar shows the greatest Partially.
It is a small piece Of metal unorna-
mented and crude in the extreme, which
was left him two years ago by IA
nous physician in st, Petersburg, and
the reason II receives so much regal
favor is because 1t formed part OF the
fatal bomb which destroyed the cars
tiiustTtous predecessor, Alexander il.