Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1908-11-22


--and every woman's--work whether
81 was imaginative or technical. Che
regarded no thing lightly. Her con.
science her wonderful mentality, her
faithful kindness. gave time and
thought to all.
What one Is chiefly struck by as
naturainess. the normal processes
with which her power grew. Her in
fiuence was cumulative. AS q child OF
1S--a pretty creature with roses In
the brim of her quaint bonnet-she
and her touching youth We're chival'
rously adored. There IL q charming
letter of Charles Dickens. written la
his early manhood in which he play
fully describes his hopeless passion
for a beautiful young ledy he has seen
walking In garden. In his own in
imitabie way he paints her loneliness
and It's effect upon his susceptible
temperament. his delight in her and
his frantic despair at the hopelessness
of his flame. He ends by the contes-
sion that the incompatible she Is the
young queen OF England. whom he
has beheld as she walked in the gar.
den Of her palace. II can easily be
imagined that many OF her young male
subjects In secret swore fealty to her,
and 1t may be that some of them
proved their faith on Crimean and
Indian battlefields when they were OF
ripper years.
She began by pleasing Engiishmen
from the first. by an unconscious ap-
peal to their chivalry and the best
qualities OF the sturdy insular nature.
She took an honest young consort and
gave her people strong boys and roay
girls to be their princes and princess
es Her subjects knew that her home
was happy and her children loved.
She hedged her throne with no divini.
ty, but lived before her peoples eyes
healthful and normal. kindly and In
frank confidence in her countrys a.
lection. AS the years passed the evi'
dences Of her care Tor those she ruled
over were countless. When she lay
dying at Osborne one wondered that
In one womans life there could have
been time for the innumerahle acts OF
feeling kindness alone which can be
recorded OF her No calamity by land
or sea, by flame or disease. befell her
people when her grief was not as their
own.
1t has been said that a collection OF
the letters OF sympathy written by a
man or q woman would be the best
possible exponent OF character and in
some cases might form monument
to which no other could compare. A
collection Of the messages sent by
Victoria OF England to high and low.
gentle and simple. in time Of sorrow.
would form not alone record OF deep
feeling but of an executive ability
which seemed to find time to think of
all things. A woman OF passionate
tenderness. widowed in her early ma.
turity. her heart turned to all women
bereaved. A mother as full of noble
ambition for her children as OF in
tense love, her sympathy for young
death. her praise for young deeds OF
courage or honor sped fast to many a
woman's broken or proud heart. "rhe
queen has written" one read again
and again In the morning papers after
any catastrophe, victory or Joy, and
her words were always tender and up
lifting things.
Her power and steadfastness in the
matter of work were such as few men
are marked by. Many knew Of the
hours spent at night In the labor OF
correspondence and the examination
Of papers. It is an old story. that OF
the prime minister who said that he
would rather have ten kings to man
age than one queen. so determined
was this one to sign no document she
had not thoroughly understood, re-
fected upon and approved.
But, with the brain and determine.
ton Of a man, she was beyond all
things woman, and her passion for
her people was that passion OF a wN
man which 10 mentally in a degree
maternal. How she loved them--htr
stubborn, stolid seeming. madly fight
ing. unconquerabie English! Their
courage stirred her very soul. During
the last years Of her life, we are told.
their slaughter broke her heart SIZE
lived 20 close to them that she bled
with their wounds. II she had been
a man born in the days when kings
led their armies to battle what 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
unfheatrical Of women-inspired. rs
has no other woman who has lived. a
curtously personal and dramatic devo-
ton.