New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1901-09-15
A ROYAL LADY.
FREDERICK AN UNKNOWN
EMPRESS
QUANTITY.

IL,
this month been written in the public press about
! the dead Empress DoWager Frederick, so vague
and shadowy an idea of her should be the result
/ The portraits of her majesty lately appearing
/ in the illustrated papers whit less decep-
] tive. Her photographs at present displayed IN
! the shop windows of most of the German towns
cannot be takeI. as true guides, especially of
late years. when she had become sadly and
gray, and when her face showed the unInistaS,i-
bic signs of increasing illness. There never was
a royal parsonage VINO took worse; only those
who actually saw her can form the faintest
picture in their minds of the timid looking.
shrinking little woman who formed the modern
I link between the houses of Guelph and HOhen-
zollern, and suffered much in consequence.
The .unvarnished truth is that she remained 10
the end unknown quantity both in the cOun-
try Of her birth ana that Of her adoption She
left England " hen she was eighteen Her puDHc
appearances as Princess Royal, save III the train
of her parents, positively resolve themselves
into the single occasion of her wedding morn
ing. She was at the opera a few nights after
the announcement of her betrothal, and when
the audience rose and cheered for her out of
sympathy, she was too shy To come forward
/ and bow her acknowledgements. The Queen
had to pull her the front of the box, If
may he permitted the word used gleefully by
| her late majesty herself IN describing the incl
| dent The public understood that she had been
| for many years a sickly child. whose rearing
mad long seemed matter OF doubt How deep
were the ties of love that united her with her
| parents. how great void III their family life
| her departure oCcasiOned. could not by any pos
| sibility be appreciated until many years after
| the Princess Royal had left England AT times
| / could be quite cheerful" Queen Victoria wrote
| in her diary the evening of the day when the
young couple sailed from GTavesend for Ger
many, but my tears began to flow afresh fire.
| quently. and L could not go near Nicky's CORR
| DOR Il think it will kill me To take leave of
| dear papa, the Princess Royal had said the
morning of her marriage. The love binding
father and daughter indeed extraordinary.
| An old singing clerk attached To ST. Georges
! Chapel at Windsor. whose recOlectionS go back
| 10 the early hftleS told the present writer how
| the two We're always seen out Of doors together,
| talking merrily in their daily walks The
old fellow has story in particular.
\ Hp 6dV Oh yy1
archway OF the Horseshoe Cloister without keep
| ing his eyes wide enough open. when he came
| full tilt into the Prince COnsOrts arms. He
calls to this day the gay laughter of the
| eldest daughters. the Princess Royal and the
| Princess Alice But all these were the init
macies of home life that had not filtered through
to the outside world No fully realized them
| then. or what formative influence clever man
| could exert over the character of a daughter
| whom he loved so much One of his earliest
letters to the Princess Royal after she had be-
| come Princess Frederick William Of Prussia.
| contain a piteOus passage. Ii lays bare the
| tragedy of both their lives. Both were the vic
I tins of popular prejudice; the father as a Ger
man England. the daughter English
| woman in Germany
| Prejudice" he writes. walking to and fro in
flesh and blood is my horror. and alas, a
phenomenon common; and people plume
| themselves much upon their prejudiceS.
| signs of decision of character and greatness of
mind. nay. of true patriotism; and all the while
| they are simply the product OF narrowness of
| intellect and narrowness of heart"
| In Germany they never understood her. never
knew her; and she remained timid and cautious
| looking the end. Almost her last public ap-
| pearance southwest Of the Elbe at the
I yelling Of her dead husbands statue upon the
| battlefield of Worth in the autumn Of 1892 She
| arrived At StraSburS the day before the
mOny. The precautions taken To guard royal
| perSonageS in Germany appear much less elab-
| crate than over here 1t may be that the crowd
| Of people who Hooked round the very beautiful
| Strasburg station that ; enber afternoon were
| most of them members of the police.
That fact the present writer Will vOuch for.
made ii 10 easy for the Empress DOwasvr
| to reach her carriage The crowd was not
| nanneTly; il merely there. and consequent
| ly obstructive. At last her gentlemen had
carve a lane. and the COaChman had To start
| the horses very slowly. that horses and car
| riage and the shrinking. unhappy Empress
might get through the crowd of OniOOkerS with
out damage. If her appearance then can be-
/ taken any criterion the publicity must have
been painful to her IL the day
at the grand Unveiling ceremony. when she had
the support of her son. and her daughter-in-iaw.
| the reisninS Empress. very serene and smiling
beside her. The departure OF these two royal
women. after the ceremony over, OcCasi0ned
| gracious little incident, which at least
! locker viii always remember According 10
| etiquette, the Empress Victoria Augusta entered
| the carriage first but she remained standing
| until her mOthtT-in-law had also entered and
seated. and even then She did Sit down
| herself until she had arranged a shawl around
! the Empress DOWaSer'S shoulders Then fgT a
/ little time the curious noticeable shrinking dis
| appeared. only return when any attention
was directed toward her, for instance when.
| in the of a speech, the Emperor SPOKE.
! in dangerous accents of Meme Hohe Frau
! Mutter." True. her last fatal Illness was upon
I her he "a nee of mai in