Evening star., 1903-07-27
A ROMAN TIC CAREER
Dinah Shadd's Daughter, Who
Became a Queen,
COMING TO OUR SHORES
LIFTED FROM BARRACK YARD TO
A JEWELED THRONE
Ruled Her Subjects After Her Hus-
bands Death and Reformed
Abuses.
COMING TO OUR SHORES

Among the royalties, exroyaltfeS and
other people Of title who are expected to
visit America next year during the Louis
lana purchase exposition Is the Mahara-
nee Jar Mahomed Rao, a shrewd little
woman of sixty-two, with keen. bright
eye es, who lives in Orenburg. Russia. where
she holds oriental court in the biggest house
In town and Is treated with immense
spect by the officials of the car. The
story of her life is verita BILE fairy tale.
Once she was pretty Alice Clifton. the
daughter of a British soldier who served
John Company in the cantonments at
Delhi. in the old premutiny days. Now she
is dethroned queen, queen in exile, a
monarch without crown. like her brothers
and sisters in the right divine, the French
Bourbons. the Hanoverian Guelphs, the
Bonapartes and Ranavalona of the more
ancient house of Madagascar.
A Life of Strange Romance.
A hundred romances rolled into one would
not make up the life of Alice Clifton
AS child she played. half clad. in the
mud of the barrack yard in many an Indian
station, while all around her men lay dead
of the cholera or the plague or We're
brought in dead from battle with the fierce
hill tribes. Then, one day. bearded mon-
arch, covered with Jewels reached down
and lifted her from the mud to a shining
throne and took her away beyond the Indus
and over 1.-The Roof Of the World to be a
queen in a strange country. That little,
old woman has reigned. an absolute mon
arch. over a turbulent people and carried
life and death in her nod She has led
thousands to battle and inspired them in
the heat of the conflict with her own In
domitable courage.
Now the czar. who holds her lands and
people beneath the lash of the COssack
knout. sends her all the money she needs
from his treasury IN ST. Petersburg. And
she receives the money, spending 1t right
royalty and "playing' that it Is tribute
from conquered prince. So it is, in one
sense. for though she could not stand
against the armies of Russia when. they
broke into her territory. she conquered
from the conqueror by her wit and intelli
gence. most advantageous terms of capltu-
latiOn.
A Queens Lowly Parents.
The tubulent romance of Alice Cliftons
life which is now ending so peacefully,
began away back In 1871, when the East
India Company ruled India and had an
army of it's own. Her father was an en-
listed man in that army and was sta
toned at Delhi where the Grand Mogul
still sat on the peacock throne in his an
cient capital He was still Grand Mogul
in name, but to see that he did not try to
be so in fact John Company kept gar
rison at Delhi.
Private clifton lived in the married
mems quarters and his wife was the
Dinah Shadd of the cantonment. known
all over Delhi for her sprightliness. her
good humor and her good looks. But Cliff
ton was not jealous of her. He had no
cause to be. With all her attractions the
wife was a proper woman and she ceuld
send the presumptuous young recruits 10
the right about with ringing box on the
ear that they remembered. She even knew
how to snub the native princes when they
leered at her from their gilded howdahS
etra thsa hln
of their gorgeously caparisoned elephants
and she likewise knew how to make the
wild young officers keep their proper dis
tance.
snr,ehtly she was also very discreet. When
Private Clifton got drunk she could handle
him better than the whole guard. and she
gave him strong tea the morning after
along with her curtain lecture.
Little Alice. her daughter. played about
with the other soldiers children. an ordi-
nary looking child little regarded, until
one day, when she was barely fourteen. the
whole cantonment discovered all at once
that Private Clifton's girl was beautiful.
And every day her beauty seemed to grow,
until all the good looks of her mother were
as nothing compared with the marvellous
perfection of the beauty of the child She
had not only inherited good looks and in
telligence from her mother, but she had
added to them ambition and certain re-
finement of manner.
Private Clifton and his wife were trou-
bled 1t is not good for private soldier.
stationed in far-away place, to have a
daughter too beautiful and too ambitious.
Trouble is apt to come of 1t. So Private
Clifton kept his daughter much in the
house. and hoped that she would get over
her notions, marry a sergeant or at least
q corporal. and settle down.
Enter the Fairy Prince.
Then one day all Delhi put on Its gala
attire to welcome Jar Mahomed Rao Khan,
H. Pn
away beyond the mountains to the north
west. who was to visit the Grand Mogul.
The entrance Of the Rao Khan into the
capital of the moguls and his passage from
the Cashmere Gate up to the splendid pal
ace of Shah Jehan was scene of splendor
like that witnessed when a predecessor OF
Jar Mahomed, the Khan Abdalla. came
over the mountains to find bride in Delhi.
The houses We're hung with priceless tapes
tries while through the streets groups Of
beautiful children went strewng the most
delicious flowers around. till every part of
the city was as fragrant as If a caravan of
musk had passed through it, From the
gardens in the suburbs to the imperial pal
ace 1t was one unbroken line Of splendOr
the gallant appearance Of the ajahs and
the mogul lords. distinguished by those
insignia of the emperor's favor, the feath-
ers of the egret Of Cashmere in their tur-
BANS and the small silver-rimmed kettle
drums at the bows of their saddles; the
costly armor Of the cavaliers. who WED
with the guards or the KHAN In the bright
ness of their silver battle axes and the
massiveness of their maceS of gold; the
gltttering of gilt pineapples on the tops OF
palanquins; the embroidered trappings OF
the elephants. bearing on their backs gor-
geous howdahs. made the picture which
brought all Delhi out to see.
What the Prince Saw in the Gutter.
In the procession Mahomed Rao Khan
rode alone upon a milk-white Arabian stall
lion, his saddle incrusted with gems. and a
great diamond star shining in the front OF
his tall astrachan cap. He was a middle
aged man. stern of-appearance and sharp
Of eye.
AS he let his glance roam over the throng
which lined the street he caught sight Of
Alice Clifton standing with group OF
other children who had come from the can
tonment to see the show. He looked at
her steadily and boldly he passed. and
Alice let her glance fall modestly beneath
his eagle gaze Her cheap, coarse frock
and her poor little ornaments seemed 80
mean and squaHd in the midst of all that
splendor.
That evening Alice had a birthday party,
for which her mother made tea and cakes
and told the children stories of English