The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-07-21

Grand Staircase"
Il am very sorry" said the Princess.
all covered with confusion, and
brought her machine round to the SER
wants entrance whence she made her
way TO the private apartments.
IL was stern lesson. She never again
went out on her machine without her
husband. Another of the Kings little
manias is that he will not allow his
WIFE to receive any personal compli-
mentS. lady of the court once ex-
pressed approval of Queen Helena s
long and beautiful hair, of which the
owner is certainly a little vain. The
noble dame received her congo imme-
diately, and returned to her home. The
queen receivd in public a dry recon-
mendation to recognize that in her ex-
alted position, personal lattery was
an insult
Despite these little conflicts. the
young Queen is dearly loved by her
husband and on her part thinks him
the noblest of human beings. In the
days before the troubles of sovereignty
came into their lives, they were as
close comrades as any young married
couple in the world. They biked to-
gether, went rowing together, shot to-
gether. Together they made long
walking expeditions armed with a cam
era and snapshotting for collection
purposes, views of scenery and groups
OF picturesque peasants. Sometimes
both would put on the local costumes
of the district they happened to be ex-
ploring, and would mingle freely with
the people in their cabins and in the
fields or vineyards being taken, to their
huge delight, for a couple of newly
married "Contadini'' from some remot-
er village. When, as was inevitable, it
was discovered that the supposed peas
ant-bride. for all her local garb, could
speak but very little Italian, the royal
couple used to take pleasure in spin
ming the widest yarns to mystify the
honest villagers. The simple peasants
were quite willing to believe that the
Princess was a waif thrown on land
by the sea, after having voyaged in a
cradle from some unknown Eastern
country, if they had been told the SIM
pie truth, that the "Contadini' were
the future King and Queen of Italy,
they probably would have bounded
them out of the village in derision at
the clumsiness Of the supposed false
hood.
This language question, by the way,
is a source of trouble between the new
King and Queen. She has not sue
ceeded in mastering Italian perfectly,
and she does not like displaying her
imperfect skill before a court audience.
On state occasions and at court dim
ners the Queen sticks to French. The
King objects; The Queen of Italy
should talk Italian" and the Queen
retorts: 1.-THE Queen of Italy should
not publicly make mistakes in gram
mar" So the matter rests for the mo-
ment; though her Majesty grinds hard
at the national tongue with an old pro-
fessor of Padua. Apart from the Ian
guage the young Queen studies a great
deal. AS a girl she was just as good
at her books" as skillful with her rife
or her oars. Probably she is one of
the best read women of her day, she
is a classical scholar, like Queen Car
men Sylvia" of Roumania and they
say, a really profound historian, though
she has never written a line. Her
choice of the curious name of 'Yo-
lande" for the little Princess, just
born to her. is the result of long delv-
ing in the annals of the House of Sa-
voy, where she was fascinated by the
heroic figure of the royal duchess of
that name who left deep dent on the
history of Northern Italy in the 18th
century. Philosophy also is one of her
passions. She loves to engage in me-
taphysical discussions with her profess
sor, and is reported frequently to floor
the poor old gentleman by her display
of minute knowledge and by her SUBJ
tie original speculations in these tenu-
Gus matters.
Probably the safe arrival of the
Princess Yolande will drive these lofty
problems out of the Queen Helena's
head. She had ever a passionate love
for children. In Naples she was noted
for her incurable habit of making sud-
den descents upon the black-eyed lit
L.. 1T IL to h. Ct NJ
tossing the bewildered urchins in the
air to make them crow. 1t is charac-
teristic of Queen Helena that she
should have decided to celebrate her
own babys birth by presenting every
baby born in Rome or Naples on the
same day with a handsome cradle, or
100 lire ($20). Characteristic also, by
the way, of the highly intelligent citi-
zens of Naples, that some 400 local
families put in demand for the cradle
or the cash; the figures would mean
birth rate that If long continued would
rapidly make the old town the most
populous center in the world. Despite
the manifest trickery the royal pres
ent is to be handed over to the happy
babies There could not be too many
of them to please the kindly-hearted
Queen of Italy. And this though she
pays the bill out of her own pocket
she insists on that.
She is not very rich, by the way,
scarcely even we'll off, for a Queen.
Her private fortune received from the
Prince Nikita is naturally very little
for he is probably the very poorest of
royal personages. Old Humbert left
her a property in Piedmont, but it is
more picturesque than productive. The
money she receives from the nation all
goes back whence it came, in the
maintaing of her Queenly state. She
is really poor, and she has the misfor-
tune to be very charitable, very soft
hearted, utterly unable to shut her
purse when poverty holds out its hand
in a land stricken with dire lack of
pence and prosperity, that is an awk-
ward combination for q person so much
in the public eye.
Stephen Austin.