Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1901-01-22
QUEEN VICTORIA.

Aues6 1aCUS nave placed the illness OF
the queen IN a startling and pathetic
light They show that her mind has
been failing for months, even before her
visit to Ireland She had been a men
tai wreck for months. Whenever it
was officially announced that she made
feLcltous responses to speeches at public
functions it is matter of cold fact that
the poor old queen was in such daze
that all she could say to her companions
was: 'Where am I 2"
Several times when she has appeared
in public during the past six or eight
months she has fallen asleep. Had it
been anyone else but the queen of Eng
land it would have been plain long ago
that the malady was senile decay. And
that truthfully is what affiicts Victoria.
But for her physical breaking up of
the past week, an attack of paralysis in
the left side, it would have been posi-
BILE for the court and the royal house.
hold to have kept from the British peo.
pie knowledge of her mental decay for
an indefinite period. For the queen had
lapses of intellectual vigor, but these
were more interesting to her than her
periods of mental density.
Horrors of War.
When her brain was clear she imme-
d1ately reverted to the horrors of the
war in South Africa
Again and again she harped upon the
war. This war, which she strove with
all her power to avert, made the last
hours OF England's queen, who reigned
happily longer than most men live, most
wretched and miserable. In her lukid
intervals it haunted her incessantly.
The queens strong constitution man.
ifested the first symptoms of serious
decay during the stay of the court at
Windsor in November and December,
1899, when evil tidings of the South At
rican war, which began the previous
October, began to arrive in rapid sue
sion.
The queen did not look for any serious
disaster to her army. She expected
nothing but series of quick, easy vic
tories. Instead, disaster followed disas-
ter every few days.
General Butler, before leaving Eng
land for the South African campaign,
assured the queen that the war would
be difficult, but not dangerous. In
consequence of news of the many re-
verses which came to her with added
severity, she felt that she had been de-
his name was submitted to her for a
visit to Windsor after his return from
South Africa, she stroked it through
with her pen.
1t was at this time that the queen had
fits of crying N an aggravated form,
which Immediately preceded her present
critical illness.
The assassination of the king of Italy
last July shocked her deeply. The news
of the illness of her eldest child, Empress
Frederick, added greatly to her distress,
and the fact that she was physically un-
able to visit the empress and see her be.
fore either died made her nervous and
excitable.
Later came the death of her second
son, the Duke of SAKE Coburg- Gotha
(Edinburg), which in few weeks was
followed by the death of her grandson,
Prince Christian Victor, son of her
daughter Helena, wife of Prince Chris.
tian of Schleswig- Holstein.
The prospect of an indefinite prolonga.
ton of the war was trial under which
her health again began to sink in No.
vember last. Her spirit remained un-
daunted, and when it was reported that
President Kruger had said the war
would claim her as one of it's victims,
the queen declared: 81 may die, but
Mr.. Kruger won't kill me. :"
Sleepless Nights.
While the queen has been sleepless at
night, she has long had strange fits of
drOwsiness in the daytime When her
mind has been clear the queen has tried
, valiantly to combat this failing. The
court officials have also worked hard to
keep her from sleeping at the wrong
time.
The last time she drove outside the
grounds of Osborne the villagers of East
Cowes were astounded to hear the clear
treble of the son of the Prince of Batten.
berg trilllng out popular songs from the
royal carriage.
The boy was singing to keep his
grandmother awake, in obedience to her
wishes. Now and again she dozed.
waking to tell the boy to continue his
chant, which to the uninitiated onlook-
er contained world of pathos.
The queen drove about in her donkey
chaise within the grounds of Osborne
House for the last time on Tuesday,
The Duchess of Edinburg, or SAKE Co.