The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-06-29
EUGENE IN EGYPT.
Contrast Afforded by the Recent Trip
 of Former French Empress.

Contrast Afforded by the Recent Trip
 of Former French Empress.
 In January the Macedonia sailed from Marseilles on her usual journey to Port Said and the East, Among her passengers was an aged lady whose hair is white with years and trouble. She travelled incognito. and her iden- tity did not become known to her fellow passengers, but she was none other than Eugenie, ex- Empress Of the French, who, after an interval ot thirty-five years, again left French port on a trip to Egypt. But how the circumstances have altered! What a changed world it is, for this fallen queen, and what memories must rise up before her eyes as she thinks of then and now! The contrast is so dramatic and so poignant that we may venture to recall events which may have slipped from the memory even of those who are old enough to irecan their impressions of the year 1869.
 On November r. 1869, the Suez Canal was opened with all the ponlp and circumstance which Ismall Paeha, the most recklessly lavish of all modern rulers, could devise. And the Empress of the French, the Empress Eugenie, was the most august parsonage in ali that brilliant throng which assembled on the banks of the Nile. Yet the Elm peror of Austria was there in person: land the Crown Prince of Prussia
 afterward the i'll fated Frederick the Noble, 1nd the Prince of Holland. But these passed almost unconsidered com ipared with the presence of the Elm press of the French, the Consort of Napoleon III, then, the arbiter-or be- lieyed to be the arbiter--of the des- tinies of Europe, Sedan lay in the fu- lture less than a year ahead--but who lcould forsee that? Only a few sharp leagle eyes at Berlin, who knew how destiny was shaping itself, for they were helping her in the task. | The Emperor of the French was the lgreat figure in, Europe in the autumn lof 1869, when the Empress embarked flor the Orient. travelling slowly in the i Imperial yacht IAigle, and calling at l Venice and Constantinople on the way, It was highly appropriate for yet an fcther reason that the Empress Eugenie 1should be the guest of honor in the land of the Pharaohs. For the canal was French undertaking, the en- Egineer was a Frenchman and the idol lof France, and Napoleon III had pro- Eclaimed his faith in M. de Lesseps from lstart to finish, and had helped his pro- Iject by every means in his power. The Eambitious visionary was right where ithe practical English. engineer, Steph- Ienson, and the level headed PaImers- ton were wildly wrong. What Palmers- ton had denounced as a bubble Ischeme" became reality, and, in- stead of English speculators, as he lconfidently foretold, bemoaning lost money, the British Exchequer has continued reason to bless Disraeli's $ tshrewdness in purchasing Isfnail's s shares It was but right, therefore, that the Empress of the French should be the central parsonage during that amazing week when Ismal's borrowed money was poured out like water in mad profusion. $%
 The Empress was then in early mid- idle age, with beauty scarcely touched by time, a queenly figure, possessed of tevery grace and charm. She was the mistress of the ,fetes of Compiegne, of which all Europe was talking; she was the friend of Queen Victoria and . of | the Empress Elizabeth of Austria; of both she had been the. hostess during their stay in France, while at the Par . jey ,ft>{431.a ;,, .l,o ,oI ithe Einperors of Austria and Russia, the King of Prussia, and the Prince of Wales. In 1869 the Empress Eugenie was the most brilliant lady in Europe, whose slightest will was law. At Constantinopic the Sultan himself em- parked on shipboard to greet her in the Bospcrus and conduct her to his palace of Beyler Bey; at Port Said it was the French imperial yacht that all ieyes strained to see. There were rum ors at the last moment that she was not cor1lning, that the Empress had taken offence at something, that some hitch had occurred. From first to last peoples thoughts were of the Napoleon and Eugenie Poor 1srnall, who hoped to show the world that a new power had been born in Egypt, had built a palace for her coming on the shores of Lake Timsah---a real Aladdin's palace, where for three days open tables were kept for 10000 people feasted with the best and rarest that luxury could SUD- ply, and surrounded by a great city of ; tents, where the Khedive's guests were housed. Some one told him that the Empress was sure to desire to visit the Pyramids-at once he ordered g broad road to be made, seven miles long, to be finished in six weeks And ! finished 1t was by the labor of 10000 fellaheen working under the heavy lash. The Empress of the French must be able to travel smoothly!
 The Empress came and saw and conquered anew, though her conquest
 was already secure. Her yacht arrived : last, just in time-a studied effect, nc
 doubt-and sailed slowly down the canal from Port Said, greeted witt