The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-26

early n1tleS, told the present WI1tel
 how the two were always seen out ol
 doors together, talking merrily in theil
 daily walks. The old fellow has one
 story in particular. He was running
 one day through the town archway of
 the Horseshoe Cloister without keeping
 his eyes wide enough open, when he
 came full tilt into the Prince Consorts
 arms. He recalls to this day the gay
 laughter of the two eldest daughters,
 the Princess Royal and the Princess
 Alice. But all these were the intima-
 cies of home life that had not filtered
 through to the outside world. No one
 fully realized them then, or what a for
 native influence a clever man could
 exert over the character of a daughter
 whom he loved so much. One of his earliest letters to the Princess Royal,
 after she had become Princess F'reder-
 ick William of Prussia, contains pit eous passage. It lays bare the tragedy
 of both their lives. Both were the vic 1 tims of popular prejudice; the father
 as German in England, the daughter
 as an Englishwoman if1 Germany.
 Prejudice he writes, walking to
 and fro in flesh and blood is my horror,
 and alas! phenomenon so common;
 and people plume themselves so much
 upon their prejudices as signs of deci-
 sion of character and greatness of
 mind, nay, of true patriotism; and all | the while they are simply the product | of narrowness of intellect and narrow
 ness of heart"
 In Germany they never understood
 her, never knew her; and she remained
 timid and cautious looking to the end.
 Almost her last public appearance southwest of the Elbe was at the un- Yelling of her dead husbands statue
 upon the battlefield of Worth in the autumn of 1895. She arrived at Stras-
 burg the day before the ceremony Tn precautions taken to guard royal per- sonages in Germany appear much less elaborate than over here. It may be that the crowd of people who flocked round the very beautiful Strasburg sta tion that September afternoon were most of them members of the secret po- lice. That fact, as the present writer will vouch for made it no more easy for the Empress Dowager to reach her carriage. The crowd was not unman
  quently obstructive At last her gen tlemen had to carve a lane, and the coachman had to start the horses very slowly, so that horses and carriage and the shrinking, unhappy empress might get through the crowd of onlookers without damage. If her appearance then can be taken as any criterion the publicity must have. been painful to her. It was the same next day at the grand unveiling ceremony, when she had the support of her son, and her daugter-in-la law, the reigning empress, very serene and smiling beside her. The departure of these two royal wo men, after the ceremony was over, oc casioned a gracious little incident, which at least one on-looker will al- ways rsmember. According to eti- quette, the Empress Victoria Augusta entered the carriage first, but she re- mained standing until her mother in- law had also entered and was seated, | and even then she did not sit down herself until she had arranged shawl | around the Empress Dowager's shoul- ders. Then for little time the curi- ous, noticeable shrinking disappeared | only to return when any attention was directed toward her, as, for instance when, In the course of a speech, the emperor spoke in dangerous accents of K ''Meine Hohe Frau Mutter." True, hers last fatal illness was upon her, ac- | for the appearance of pain \ hat enveloped her in her drives abroad II around Cronberg and Homburg during Il the summers of 1897 and 1898. But the II nabitual suggestion of timidity, of keeping her words and emotions locked II lp from the outside world, came to her very early in her married life. It rep resented the lesson learned after very many verbal indiscretions among new md somewhat sensitive relations who lid not easily forget.
 England was big and mighty when he young bride left it. and Prussia we'll Prussia was not yet the German ,mpire, nor the greater part of the Ger nan empire as we know 1t to-day The 'oung husband was only heir presump- i've; the more than middle aged fath- as yet showed no signs of yer becoming the great and famous Emperor William. but was no further han heir apparent to his brother the ing. Ten years before Chartist risings ad driven him out of his brothers cap- tai; between him and the crown impe- ial still stood Schleswig a0d Sadown ! nd Sedan. AS a child at Windsor or ,almoral the princess had not been tumble. Nor was she humble abroad, Q begin with She possessed to a curi- us extent the failing of English people, 1ho will not believe that any good hing can ever originate from outside hese islands So she delivered herself, ot once nor twice only, into the hands the enemy. When Bismarck repeat q with malicious glee her most unfor- mate remark about there being richer liver plate in many English middle lass houses than in most of the Prus- ian palaces, he did go with purpose. [e was too great a man to indulge in imless spite. As young woman, loreover, the princess lacked that abil- y to tolerate disagreeables that con- flutes at once the high breeding and enuine bonhomie of royal personages. here are Germans to this day who ravely date the late empress unpopu- rity from the unlucky afternoon hen, at a review on the Tempelhofer cid, she sent her footman to order a an to cease blowing clouds from the ost lugubrious of Hamburg cigars. ueen Victoria would never have done lch a thing; though it must not be