West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1901-02-21
..wmArFooLsTmEsE moRrALs srv
An Example OF Woman Who Could
Rule as Well as Rock the Cradle.


Written by Ida Calvert Obenchain.
The passing of Queen Victoria is
the most notable event in the first
month of the new century. For
nearly eight decades she occupied as
an Austrian paper says, ga wonder
fui place in the hearts of her people
and in the politics of the world. {"
The duties of her position were
most arduous but to almost the
last hour she performed them.
She is said TO have signed about
fifty thousand documents yearly.
No dispatch Of any importance was
ever sent off without her approval.
The proceedings of Pertinent were
closely watched by her, and all the
power vested IN her was used ever
on the side of peace and justice.
The London Times speaks of her
as smoothing the rugged places of
International relations" Labouch-
ere declares that cher influence for
peace has always been felt in cont.
mental politics" Secretary Gage
said Of her: "a sovereign under
the theory of divine right she was
in reality the head of highly dem
ocratic state" and it was given her
ITO guide the unfolding destinies of
mighty nation. She lived her life
in full glare Of that fierce light that
beats upon throne" The circum
stances of her birth, her childhood.
her coronation, her girlhood, her
oonriship, her marriage, tie birth of
her children, her widowhood. her
old age, and her death, have been
told and retold till they are as IA
miliar to us as the words of the cat.
echlsm and the new testament. No
woman ever suffered such publicity
as Britian's beloved queen.
And what was the effect of this
publicity and this participation in
the politics of the world? Did any
one ever intimate to Queen Veto
ria that a woman could not be n
good queen and al the same time a
good wife and mother? When she
signed those fifty thousand political
documents, did her Prime Ministers
tell her that She ought to be darn
ing the Prince Consort's socks and
sewing on his buttons ? When she
opened Parllment, did members of
the House OF Lords and the House
OF Commons get up and intimate
that she ought to be at home rock
Ing the cradles of Tic infant princes
ana Processes Did the Journal
lists of England say that the public
ity incident to her queenly position.
was robbing her of her womanly
delicacy and charms Did the his
torlan of her time write her down
as an unsexed, degraded, unwom-
AMY woman who had left her sphere
to dabble in the mire of .interna-
tlonal politics ?" Perish the thought!
The chorus of eulogy that was sung
around her death bed was but a rep
itltlon of that which resounded all
through her long life. Her laure-
ates praised her in their noblcst
verse; her statesmen delighted to
do honor to her judgment and her
common sense in matters political;
no historian ever wrote of her save
IN praise of her virtues and as for
the masses of her people they loved
her as a mother and revered her as
queen. ''She will live," saws
Secretary Gage, ''in the hearts of
the people, wherever the English
tongue is spoken, as a good woman,
a wise ruler, and worthy example
of ali who may be clothed with po-
litical responsibility, whether under
the Democratic or the aristocratic
forms of government" "Iet us
think of her this morning" saws the
London Chronicle "by her highest
title; not by her crown and scepter.
but by her own magnificent and
splendid ideal womanhood. +" "This
most respected of all women" says
one OF the headlines in the Courier
Journal Loved more as a woman
than as queen" says another.
And yet--if our American woman
expresses a modest wish to partici-
pate in politics to the small extent
of voting two or three times a year,
what happens3 Why the Ameri-
can statesman and preachers and
journalists who have been lauding a