The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-16
ROYALTY AS GUESTS.
Queen of Sandwich Island In England
German Kaiser at Windsor.


Among the many foreign monarchs who
have visited our shores within compare
lively recent years, says London Tit-Bits,
one of the most amiable and popular was
the late king of Portugal, Of whom the
following story is told:
His majesty, like his successor, was an
enthusiastic lover of art, and one or MS
chief pleasures during his visit to England
was to make the acquaintance OF our
great painters, with whose names and
fame he was familiar When Sir EDWIN
(then Mr. Landseer was introduced to
him his delight was unbounded. An Mr'
Landseer," he exclaimed, as he advanced
to greet the famous animal painter, am
charmed to make your acquaintance.
am so very fond of beasts"
Equally well meaning and unfortunate
was the late shah of Persia, who, In spite
of his great amiability, rarely openeu ms
mouth without putting his foot In It.
Once. when the Duchess of Westminster
was presented to him, he greeted her ike
an old and dear friend. "Ah!' he SAID,
with a charming bow, IT have often hearo
of YOU Your fame has reached even Ie-
heran." Good gracious! exclaimed the
lady, aside, to a friend, the man lnlnhs l
am Westminster Abbey" And SO ne oiu'
II was this same monarch who, when
sitting at table one day between a nopie-
man and lady of high rank, norrlneo
them both by first wiping his hands on tne
nobleman's coat and then on the lady -
slr;rts % n their mission in life was to
NAV the role of animated table napkins
IF he was unconventional, at least no
fault could be found with his p1ety' LOT
be would suddenly break off an interview
or vanish in the middle of a garden party,
with the announcement, Now l am going
to pray" t. ,as
Another interesting sovereign VINO was
among our many royal guests at tne .i,i,o
of the Diamond Jubilee was the sapie
queen of the Sandwich Islands Never uiu
a queen exact more rigid regard Tor her
dignity While other monarchs were only
too clad to escape ceremonial as Tar as
nossible. her dusky majesty declined 10
leave her apartments without a soVer-
a,qn,s escort of Life Guards, while she de-
cIined 10 tread a measure unless she had
at least our queens son for partner
Once she started to pay a visit to LORD
Tennyson at his home in the lsfr OIL
Wight. accompanied by retlnue OF at
tendants. Hour after hour passed, ana
still Lord Tennyson caught no glimpse VI
his royal guest. for whom he hao pre-
nared q sumptuous throne. At last, when
hone had fled and the hands of the CLOCK
nointed to the witching hour of night the
queen arrived, weary and bedragsieu'
without a single attendant and without
| scran of luggage. She had lost them all
| on the way.
Mr.. Firth, the veteran artist, tens an
amusing story of the kaiser's first VISIT 10
| England. The young Prussian primes
| then a mischievous boy of four, was vast
| In he niptl1rp y,
| the Prince of Wales, wedding, which MI.
Firth was then painting at Windsor, ana
nothing would please him but that he, TOO
| should have a hand in it. To gratlfy tho
| child the artist gave him brush anu
some colors and allowed him to daub away
| at will at the bottom of the canvas.
After the Juvenile artist had been at
work a few minutes Mr.. Firth discoVereu
N his horror that much of the paint
which should have been on the canvas nau
| found its way to the young princes race,
which exhibited most of the colors or the
rainbow. Selling a rag and dipping 1t IN
| turpentine, Mr. Firth began to scrub away
| at the bedaubed face, while its owner, re-
| senting the process, set to work on MS
cleaner with feet and fists, bowling tne
while at the top of his voice. AT TINS crit
ical stage the door was opened ana III
walked the crown prince and princess at
sight of whom the boy udlteu uHuo' =" ~
bile from which refuge neither threats nor
| entrea ties could draw him.
But certainly the most remarkable OF an
our royal visitors was Peter the Great or
Russia. who spent some months In Eng
land about two centuries ago. Never,
surely, was there a monarch quite SO un-
conventional as this Gear of Muscovy'
of whom Evelyn tells us. At Sayes Court
where a residence was found for him near
the backwards. he led the most unroyal OF
| lives. 'He, dimes at 10 o'clock and at at
night" Evelyn records, lis very seldom
at home a whole day, very often In the
Kings yard. or by water. dressed in sew
eral dresses"
A fayorite exercise was TO trundle
wheelbarrow in the grounds OF Sayes
Court; he spent much of his time working
in the dockyard or rowing on the Thames
in a dockyard boat. and when the days
work was done he and his cronies used to
resort to a public house In Great Tower
street to smoke their pipes and drink their
beer and brandy. On one occasion his
majesty forsook the snug bar parlor, and.
dressed as a butcher, attended a masked
ball in the Temple.
Married Teachers.