Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1907-04-24

was this one to sign no document she
had not thoroughly understood. re-
f1ected upon and approved.
But, with the brain and determine
ton of a man, she was beyond all
things a woman, and her passion for
her people was that passion of a wo-
man which is mentally in a degree
maternal. How she loved them-her
stubborn, stolid seeming, madly fight
ing, uncnuquerable English! Their
courage stirred her very soul. During
the last years of her life, we are told,
their slaughter broke her heart. She
lived so close to them that she bled
with their wounds If she had been
man born in the days when kings
LED their armies to battle what a SOL
der she would have made. The blood
of warriors was in her veins This
soldierly quality in her, without doubt,
had something to do with the fact
that she-the most impersonal and
untheatrical of women-inspired, as
has no other woman who has lived. a
curiously personal and dramatic devo-
ton.
One was continually struck by the
personal nature of the feeling shown
where she was concerned. There were
days when at this one small, gray wo-
mans feet the world lay as no world
lay at Cleopatra's. What national an
them was ever sung as men have
sung God Save the Queen?" What
toast was ever drunk with the impetu.
Gus fervor men have been moved by
when they drank The Queen-God
Bless Herr" On the day of her dia-
mond jubilee, it has been said, when
she came before the people-an aged
woman supported by her son-the i'm
mensity of the emotion swaying the
vast multitude in their laundering ac-
carnations was such as made some of
the strongest blench with awe. No
pomp, no power, no magnificence,
could have awakened such emotion il
this one creature had been a shallow
er soul. 1t was the tribute of the
world-not a mere nation-to one
woman who had lived with a noble.
upright courage and great, unswery-
ing heart.
1t seems impossible to picture the
nineteenth century without this wo-
man. The far-reachingness of English
influence is a great factor in the
moving of the world. This it is i'm
possible to deny-the ruling quality of
the English nature-a certain uncon.
trollable desire to interfere, to claim,
to persist, makes it so. In a century
surging with great wars, with the
birth and death throes of nations.
wondrous through the working of
those marvels in which the strongest
forces of nature seemed to submit
themselves to man rocked by the i'm
petus Of the forward rushing move.
ment of thought, it was well that
there sat upon the throne of empire
a gravely human creature, full of the
nobility of the desire to aid, of rever-
ence for all things great, for the god
like in the human mind, for the aspir.
ing. for the heroic and beautiful.
There was no great movement that
she did not aid. no effort of art or sci
ence to which she did not hold out her
hand.
When she passed away and men
and women wept in the streets for
her, many required to the last jour.
ney, which was a thing 50 character
istic of her in it's resolution and spir.
1.-THE visit to her people in Ireland.
Who is not glad that it was mssde
But who but that one woman would
have made it? Was there premonition
in her desire to let her sometime tur-
bulent children see her face grown
old which they had only seen when
young? She had passed the limit of
allotted years, her splendid strength
had begun to fail at last. She was
worn and tired. but she had the cour-
age which had taken her fearless to
france. after Fashoda, when even
statesmen hesitated before the posi-
bic results of the rage Of an excited
| populace
When England heard tat the queen
| herself had decided upon this visit
| to Ireland it seemed at first incredi-
| Bile. The disastrous deeds which are
a blot upon a nations record are not
inspired by the people-are never the
| expression of the peoples self But
the frenzied act of fanatic may
cause a world to weep. She was So
old. The very fatigue and excitement
were too much for her to be asked to
bear. 1t seemed more than possible
that she would be dissuaded But she
was not. The rumor grew The
queens journey was being prepared
for-Ireland awoke and cried to hel
in ardent welcome across the sea.
The record of her visit is one of the
marvels of her tine. The hot-blooded
hot-hearted people went mad with
kindly happiness at sight of her aged
majestic face. They will remember
always that her last visit was made
to Ireland. that she came before she
died to show them that she loved
them and believed that her love waa
returned.