The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-01-25
LAST RITES ADMINISTERED
All England Wrapped In
Pail of Deepest Gloom
and Fearful Anxiety.

A dispatch to the Exchange Tele-
graph company at London from Cowes,
Isle is Wight, sent out at midnight,
Saturday night, wag as follows:
'"The queen of England lies at
deaths door. She was stricken with
paralysis Saturday night. Reuters Tel
egraph company understands that the
prince of Wales has received author
ity to act in her maiesty's stead, and
thus has been created a practical
though not constitutional regency"
A second telegram sent at o'clock
Sunday morning stated that the queen
was still alive, but her condition was
extremely grave and hopes were grow
ing fainter.
Humbly, for this woman rules her
court with no uncertain hand, her
court officials implored her to seek
medical advice. These messages she
steadfastly ignored, and though her
condition was admitted to be most Sc
rious, there were only in attendance
Drs. Powell and Reid.
In the opinion of those best quail
fed to judge, the queens serious con-
dition was precipitated by intense wor-
ry over the losses and hardships suf-
fered by the British troops in South
Africa. frequently she has remarked
to court attaches that another war
would kill her.
In this connection, Reuters Tele-
graph Company learns that she was
most seriously i'll while last at Balmo-
raj in the autumn. No word of this
became public, but it appears that she
was then almost dying, though that
rigorous etiquette, which she imposes
alike upon her family and attendants,
prevented her condition being even
spoken of as dangerous
kilograms sent out Monday morn
ing were as follows:
"The queen is still alive, but all
hopes are gone. The members of the
royal family are gathered in a room ad-
joining the queens bed chamber. Her
majesty is unconscious, and the end is
expected at any moment.
"The rector of Whippingham has
been summoned and he has just ar
rived in one of the queens carriages.
Everybody is up in Osborne house
and terrible anxiety pervades all quar-
tiers.
can enormous crowd of newspaper
reporters aud others with carriages,
bicycles and lanterns has collected at
the lodge gates, waiting in intense ex-
element to convey the news moment
arily expected that the queen has
breathed her last Mr.. Theed, the
sculptor, arrived at Osborne last eve
ming in order to be ready to take the
death mask. E"
For several days the queen has been
kept strictly to herself. The last time
she drove out to Cowes the rain beat
down heavily upon her. Even the ma
tives who have grown to look upon
her majesty as an ordinary body have
noticed that she looked more delicate
and shruken than ever, mere shadow
of her former self, yet with feminine
persistence the queen forbade those
around her to say that she was ill,
and so with logged determination she
fought off the ravages that worry
over the Boer war, the deaths
in her own family and her increas-
ing years, have brought upon
her. But against the ruthless hand
of nature even the i0perial resolve of
the ruler of the great empire proved
futile, and with a pitiful realization of
the inevitable she shut herself off from
her encourage. For two nights she
dined alone and never stirred from the
apartments she occupied at Osborne
house, secluded, comfortable, ram.
bling place, from which the public is
barred. The queen has often been at
Windsor, and Balmoral, too, but when
she reached Osborne she always