The age-herald., 1901-01-23

Ez EzoepePepppeepcppppppeoeep@ which time I dwelt in the British isles, it was my privilege to observe something or the extraordinary and unexampled devotion of the British people to the person of their Sovereign Queen, Victoria Hundreds of times have I heard in public the national anthem, God Save The Queen" and never yet saw I a Briton who failed to uncover at its splendid notes. At a certain great gathering of the public in London one man
 was seen to keep his hat on while the an them was being played by band. some youths rushed upon him, tore his nat 10 pieces, and gave him thrashing. They
 held his bad manners to be a wanton in-
 suit to their Queen.
 The title of the anthem is the first toast at every feast, as the air of it is the good night at every place of amusement, and
 when it is given every man rises
 First View of the Great Queen.
 My first view of the Queen was in Janu-
 ary, 1886, on the occasion when Her Majesty
 last opened Parliament in person. The Con-
 servatives had come into power and Lord
 Salisbury was then Prime Minister for the
 first time. He persuaded the Queen to
 open Parliament. The day was cold and
 rainy and dreary, but hundreds Of thou
 sands of wildly cheering people greeted
 the sovereign along the line of the royal
 progress. At the corner of Parliament
 Square, facing the houses of Parliament
 and Westminster Abbey, I found a man
 selling standing room in lower window.
 He assured me there was room Tor Just
 one more person, and for two dollars ana
 fifty cents I secured that small space and
 accounted myself fortunate. The thousands
 of soldiers in scarlet coats, the showy of-
 ficers and messengers on horseback con-
 tinuously dashing by, and what Lowell
 called ''the dull, ceaseless roar of London
 made me dizzy during the half hour
 waited fresh as I was from the qulet
 streets and homely scenes of Montgom-
 ery But my time came. and 1 shouted,
 bareheaded like the half million other
 shouting bareheaded men, when the Queen
 drove near by in the famous glass coach or
 state used on rainy days. through the
 doors and sides of which had perfect
 view of the one person in all the world
 whom wished most to see. My first glance
 was at her rather masculine face, made familiar to me by pictures from my earliest
 childhood She was smiling benignly and lowing from right to left, from le1t to right the inarnation of calm happiness ana dignity blended in majesty. Her crown,
 and she actually wore the great crown or Great Britain then and perhaps for the last tme for monarchS almost never wear crowns except in plays, was to me the cause of great wonder, amazement, ana au- miration, and having read that this crown was valued at four million dollars l quick
  nerturbation golden care" worn by that immortal widow of Windsor was worth about one hundred thousand bales or Ala 1 bama cotton! Such was youths practlcai estimate of the greatest display save two | he was ever to see in life.
 In the afterwhiles I saw the queen many | times, but her appearance on that rainy | day in Palaiment Square just fifteen years ago today remains most wildly with me. | AS I write I hear the shouts, the 1oytui | tumult see the glory of the Queen, the un- | paralleled splendor!
 A Near View.
 One day in Edinburgh I was at the Way | erly Station of the North British Railway, l when the statiopmaster, by name ROSS, | approached and informed me that the side of the station whereon we stood was about l to be cleared of everybody except high officials and the railway servants, as the | Queen would arrive within ten minutes, l but that I could come with him into ms | office, and could walk out on the platform when the royal train arrived Pleased and 1 grateful, I thanked him, and we took | ''something strong to brace us for the coming of the Queen. In a few minutes we l walked along the platform to see that all | was right. Ross kicked wrinkle out or l the crimson carpet spread there for royal l feet took a hitch at his full waistcoat glanced at the servants lifted his hat to
 Lord Rosebery and other noblemen who had just arrived, and at that moment the l Queens train glided in. As luck would | have it, the window by which the Queen sat was stopped precisely against where we stood, and Ross and 1 took off our hats | and held them, whilst Lord Rosebery and l the other great ones hurried forward. In l a few moments the Queen was assisted to | the carpeted platform-every railway sta | ton platform in Great Britain is precisely level with the running-board of every car D.s&o hafra Gfn n cars. The Queen looked about for an 1n- stant to acknowledge the presence of ev- erybody there, and then, assisted by an h. dian attendant and her famous lignum vitae walking-stick she slowly entered the royal waiting room. It was the closest view ever had of Victoria. She was ex-
 ceedingly lame from rheumatism, with which horrible ailment she suffered forty years and more. l was impressed With her remarkably low stature, she was only about four feet four inches tall, and she was very stout and appeared more so be- cause of her manner of dressing in rather
 loose garments Indeed, she wore a large
 black India shawl, which almost enveloped her short, round figure; and she wore shoes that looked like slippers. Her hands, on which she wore black thread gloves with out fingers, were wonderfully small and plump In everything about her the ut most simplicity was observed But she was nearly seventy years old then She dies at nearly S2, having been bern May 24 1S19.
 The Great Jublees.
 The greatest pagents of modern times, believed to have been the greatest ever
 seen on the earth, were the two jubilee celebratio of Queen-the golden Jubilee, or fiftieth anniversary of her accession to the throne, celebrated in June, 1887, and the
 diamond Jubilee, or sixtieth anniversary, celebrated in June, 1897 In each of those
 marvelously splendid events it was my
 privilege to participate one of the mil
 lions who cheered the poor little Queen
 as Carlyle termed her in his rough affec- ton when she was young.
 in 1887 I stood within fifteen feet of the
 royal procession as it passed along Pal
 Mall Three millions of other individuals
 li.a4G QC