Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-01-20

lSDpyTlEnt. 1919, Dy JONn OldIk
The cath day of May, 1918, was a
bright day at Kensington. In the pal
ace there princess was born. The spring
flowers were peepipg up in the gardens
and along the country hedges of Eng
land. AS to human conditions, the in
sane George III, conspicuous promoter
of American liberty, had yet eight
months to live Edward, duke of Kent,
father of the princess, had eight months
less one d-y before his summons should
&. come. The Big Bonaparte at Long
wood had nearly two years remaining
before he must take the rest under
the willows in Slanes Valley. The
obese Louis XVIII was for the second
time getting his rickety throne in order
at Paris. Alexander / and Madame
Krudener were enjoying the fourth
years fruit of the holy Alliance.
Goethe at Weimar was beginning the
second part of Faust" and Shelley at
Rome was finishing THE Prometheus
Unbound" Lord Byron, with Count
Gambia and His daughter, was making
his way from Ravenna to Pisa. In
America, Jefferson and John Adams
in their old age were seeking peace aft
er lifetime of contention and were
awaiting the final event William E.
Gladstone, Alfred Tennyson, Charles
Darwin, Gioacchino Pecci. Abraham
Lincoln, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ed
gar A Poe and Jacob Ludwig Men
delssohn were all lads of 10 that year.
In Europe the revolutionary storm
which had prevailed for 20 years, had
sunk to the dead calm of apathy, and
in the United States James Monroe was
beginning the third year of his first adj
ministration as president.
They gave TO the only daughter of
the Duke of Kent the name of Alex
andrina Victoria. At the first her pros
poets were not clearly foreseen, but they
began to be revealed in her early girl
hood. AS soon as the royal horoscope
was cast she was rescued from the
purlieus of the British court and was
placed under the wholesome authority
of the Duchess of Northumberland. By
her mother first and by the duchess
afterward the education of the prin-
cess was principally directed. 10 them
the future queen was ever indebted Tor
the wholesome discipline of her youth.
In her teens she remained under the
careful surveillance and motherly moIi-
tidh of the duchess, whose influence in
shaping the principles and directing the
conduct of her royal charge cannot be
OyereStimated.
We pass over much, for the subject is
great. There goes an admirable tradi
Zion of the way in which the princess
was initiated into her knowledge of ho:'
place and expectations. When the Un-
Gle William was about to go, the Ouch
0f thrty,, bp. Nd f1o,, Viii hoe,f
70 break The. news, to the young majes-
ty in order that she might be apprised
little in advance Of the imminent
catastrophe of glory that awaited her.
One evening in the spring of 1887 the
Elchess said at tea Alexandria,
here is the blue book of the house of
Hanover, which you have not hitherto
examined. The sickness of your Uncle
William will make it both interesting
and necessary for you to inform your
self as tc the position which you occupy
in your family. Take the book with
you to your chamber and study it to-
hight"
In the morning when the princess
came down to breakfast she brought
the blue book with her and laid it by
her plate, saying nothing. Nor was
there manifest in her demeanor any
change of manner or symptom of ex
settlement. The duchess said, alex
andrina, what did you find of interest
In the book last night?" The modest
young majesty replied, with no change
of voice of features, 81 did not know
that l stood SO near to the crown"
At the middle of the fourth deem
MUM of our century the Hanoverian
dynasty was rapidly sliding of side
ways into oblivion. The large family
of George III seemed to be ON the
verge Of extinction. All the sons. with
the exception OF William, were dead.
and William had no eligible herr. AS
he came to the end of his course the
succession, now attenuated by hypo-
thesis, rested clearly on Victoria,
daughter of Edward of Kent Wnen on
the goth of June, 1897, the final scene
was reached and the king was dead.
1t only remained to acknowledge the
princess as queen and have her crown
eG. The statesmen of the PERIOD head
r ed by the Duke of Wellington, then 6S
years of age, ranged themselves around
the youthful sovereign, and the day
OF her coronation was glorified with the
enthusiasm of her subjects
This was now the prevailing ques-
ton in Great Britain: Can a girl of
is reform and save the house of Han
over Brunswick" Certainly the dy-
nasty was in a state requiring speedy
salvation 1t might we'll seem that the
last sands of the royal line were run
ning out. The five kings who had
TSiGned successfully since the death of
Anne Stuart in TIA had seemingly done
as much as they could to make the
survival of their dynasty impossible.
Each had wrought according to his ma
ture. The first George mad contrib
uted ignorance, the second absence
and boar hunting, the third respectable
stupidity and stubbornness. the fourth
personal vice and William sterility to
The common fund of destroying forces.
History was working out her problem.
The fortunes of the Hanover princess
were rushing down. The scene was
rapidly closing with scandal, ignom-
my and childlessness.
In the midst of all this destiny sent
the young daughter OF the Duke Of
Kent to see what she could do in the
way CT arresting the downslide of the
dynasty. Her principal business as wo-
nan and queen was to trammel I'D the
Consequences. Her late uncle. her other
late uncle, her grandfather, her great
grandfather and his father had done