The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-13
VICTORIA.

The flags of the world hang at half
mast A woman has passed from earth
and left it poorer for her passing. All
the homage that could be paid to mortal
was laid at her feet in life, all the honor
that can be heaped upon bier is hers
IN death. The world rings with her
praises and mourns that with the clos
ing of her eyes in dreamless sleep there
went out from 1t a gentle but mighty
force for right and truth. She lived in
that fierce light that beats upon
throne and there are none to find flaw
in her goodness or her great ness. Wher-
ever her authority and influence counted
most, 1t was for the country's good and
glory, and there are not a few who be-
Eeve that had her power been less cir
cumscribed, there were times when Its
honor would have been more sacredly
preserved. If the dictates of her peace
loving heart, and just judgment had pre-
vailed, England would not now be
mourning battle slain sons, and the last
Gays Of her reign would not have been
Swallowed by the cloud Of war.
Hers IS the most stainless, honored
record Of all the rulers of her line. Her
mold upon the reverential affection. not
only on her subjects, but the people of al
CHIMES, is the most remarkable which his
tory aHords. Her name will be recorded
on the pages of all time, as that of model
mother, model wife, model woman, model
queen. She was no less the mother be-
cause she was the queen She did not
love home, husband and children less
because Of an answering loyalty to the
trust of soyercignship, which vigorously
demanded an intense interest in and
vast knowledge of national and interna-
tional affairs
In truth the heart that is great enough
as was Victoria's, to encompass human
1ty, is all the more strong and warm To
md Trynat
loWly walks of life, the finer the caHber of
the woman, the better fitted is she for
the sacred duties of conscientious moth
erhood, and the scientific keeping OF
home.
The queen, as wife and mother, turned
TO ner own f1reside, with q blessed reaIi-
cation OF domestic happiness, and in that
pure and fervent light there faded all
the pomp and pageantry of royalty. all
the carkiEg cares Of state
IL she could pass through sixty-four
years OF the most strenuous public LIFE
unsullied by the ''spoils of Office per,
forming faithfully both her official and
don1esCc duties, may not the members
OF her sex ke trusted, not with the pub
l1city and responsibilities Of thrones, but
with the freedom which human rights
demand? Ere dom To to low the pursuit
OF happiness in the way best suited TO
the1r circumstances and their talents.
freedom to help make those laws bv
Wntch they must abide; freedom to con-
tribute their Fart to Che in ellieence th4
patriotism, the virtue and the conscience
OF the political economy Of the world
through the only direct medium known 70
civilization, the ballot.
Ihere are some truths stranger than
the widest fiction. Many who eulogize
the great queen in thrilling terms. pre-
cialmlng faultless her public and private
into in
terlorates wonlanhood. Strange that in
full view Of Vict0ria's spotIess example
in this day of boosted liberty and pro-
gress, in the golden glow of the new
century's morning light, Their, are pagan
minds fixed in the firm fanatica! belief
that the best interests of woman. and
society at large will be conserved by
their political subsection They believe
that one vocation. and only one that of
the home, should be open to women: that
their wives and mothers, daughters and
sisters Will forSake the home unless all
other doors to them be shut They be-
heve that women are only lovable and
loving SO long as they are kept in a
state of political helplessness and de-
rendence. IT is the same idea which ami
mates the sultan to build the high wall
of his harem, and prefer the bond woman
To the free. Strange that American ga
iantry Which loves to designate as queen
the American woman, denies to her the
badge of sovereignty which even the
most degraded of bis sex may wear
Strange that if Victoria, the patriot. the
wise, the good, the great. the queen of
queens, had abdicated the throne, and
assumed private citizenship in her coun-
try or in one of our own United States
save those four brightest of the galaxy
which have led in the acknowledgements of
woman she would not have been the
factor in government that the meanest
menial or NEST vicious criminal outside
of prison walls may be- provided that
menial criminal is a man. But hap
are numbered Happily there is one
truth, which those who watch for the |
day, when the last link which binds |
woman to a barbariC past is broken, may
lay as a 1attering junction to their souls
1t is that the world eEcircling influence |
of the great queens example, must tell |
for the advancement of justice to her |
sex, rebuking the sophistical subsection |
of women. more e1oquentiy than could !
the most gifted tongue OF pen.
Through the object lesson of her life. |
the world may learn that the sum total |
Of those attributes known as woman |
Iiness, are not the result of the chance Of |
circumstances but the divine inheritance |
alike of queen and peasant, which pow |
ers nor principalities can change; which |
can not be made or unmade by the en- |
vironment. of public life; by legislation |
pro or con.
LILY Wilkinson Thompson