The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-01-23

AN Ex-ATTAcHE WRITES or HER
CHARACTERISTICS.

she ouslivcd All the Friends Of Her Youth,
and Happiness Went With Thern-Her
sense OF the Ludiorous-she Almost
Missed tho ne-Reminiseesces.
Although it is impossible to say that
Queen Victoria outlived her usefulness, yet
she may be said to have outlived her hap
piness. During her long and eventful
reign-almost the longest on record and ex-
tending considerably over half century
she had seen all her oldest friends ana ac-
quaintances as well as numerous members
of her immediate family disappear into the
grave, until at last she felt herself quite
alone in the world. Not a single one of her
former associates TO whom she could IN
burden her mind, discuss the earlier events
of her reign, or with whom she could enjoy
congenial intercourse, was left.
Mamma Is 50 entirely alone" exclaimed
her daughter, the Princess Christian, in my
hearing one day. You can't imagine how
sad it is for her. We all belong TO young
er generation and have different thoughts
and sentiments, many of which she can
neither understand nor appreciate Every
one of her contemporaries and friends has
-
all her old time associations There is no
one remaining to whom she can really talk
about matters"
The Queens Sense of the Ludicrous.
This remark of Princess Christian goes
far toward explaining the unhappy and
even morose expression that pervaded the
queens features during the last 30 years Of
her reign, save when something extraor
If
the ludicrous On such occasions as these
she would laugh with adegree of heartiness
and even violence that would have com
pletely staggered those who had never seen
her without that half sad, half sour droop
of the corners of her mouth
remen Der especially one case where she
laughed so much that she almost had fiji
Of apoplexy in consequence. The incident
which excited her visibility was the misad
venture of a photographer who had been
summoned from London to Windsor TO
take pictures of her majesty and OF her
children II Was the first time IN his life
that the man had ever found himself in the
presence of royalty, and he was very nerv-
Gus. So great indeed was his trepidatioR
that on putting his hand beneath the cloth
for the purpose of getting the right focus
he suddenly upset the camera. The sight
of the latter, with its three legs sticking up
into the air, while the frightened photog-
rapner stood stock still, well nigh pertified
with fear and with the black cloth still
hanging over his mead and face, struck both
the queen and Prince Leopold, duke of Al
bany, as SO intensely funny that they both
burst into peals of the most inmoderate
laughter.
The little great lady fairly shook with
merriment as she lay back on the sofa
where she was sitting, while Prince Leo
pOld threw himself on the floor and fairly
shrieked with delight. The scene, however,
was brought TO a sudden and somewhat
tragical conclusion, for the prince laughed
so hard that he broke blood vessel and
brought on i fit, from the effects of which
he almost died at the time.
This sense of the ridiculous constituted
remarkable feature of the queens charae-
ter throughout her life and is noticeable,
moreover, in the books which she published
concerning her life in the highlands.
Even in her childhood and girlhood pre-
vious to her accession to the throne in 1887
Queen Victoria seems to have given evil
dence of this underlying current of merri-
ment and fun in the constitution of her
character. True, everything was done that
could be done to check it by her mother,
the Duchess of Kent, whose severity and
even harshness toward the young princess
called forth on one memorable occasion, at
a state banquet ct Windsor, a violent and
public rebuke from King William ~
Personal Traits.
Queen Victoria was small in stature and
during the latter part of her life very stout
This, however, did not prevent her from re-
tanning most remarkable grace and maj
esty of departments 1t was impossible to
conceive anything more captivating and
winning than her smile. Always plainly
and even shabbily dressed in black gowns
that were often rusty, it was impossible not
to feel when in her presence that that little
old woman had ruled for more than half
century over the greatest and most exten
sive empire of the civilized globe, and with
all that true, warm hearted woman, fun
of tenderness, broad minded, unaffected
piety and sincere sympathy for all that are
IN trouble or distressed, a thoroughly hu
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