The Sauk Centre herald., 1908-06-11
QUEEN VICTORIA
A Tribute Paid to EngIand's For
mer Sovereign
PROF REEDS ADDRESS
Outline of What the Normal School
Man Said at the High School
Commencement

The address delivered before the
class of 1908, Sauk Centre high school
b.. Prof E. T. Reed, of Moorhead,
has received much favorable COM
ment. The speaker kindly prepared
for publication in The Herald an out
line of his address, but it did not
arrive here in time for use in last
weeks ISSUE Space is gladly given
here. The subject of the address was
Queen Victoria. Mr.. Reed said in
part:
"Our histories are populous with
heroes and almost desolate of hero
ines. Most of the women who have
been given prominence in history are
celebrated rather for masculine than
for feminine traits-Zenobia, Cleopa-
ira Boadecea, Queen Elizabeth, Cath
crime de Medidi, Catherine II, of
Russia In the background of his
tory you perceive a fairer type-Joan
of Arc, Isabella of Castine, Maria
Theresa, Florence Nightingale, Fran
ces Willard, and Queen Victoria. But
even among these nobler women very
few have been held up to the emula-
ton of the young. Queen Victoria
is a safe model; for she was possess
ed of great spiritual lovelinsss. She
had the statemanship of Elizabeth,
and the constructive resources of
Catherine II; but she made her in
fluence manifest in a different and
more truly womanly fashion, for
she was content to lead and not to
drive-to rule by love and example.
"The bare facts in the life of Queen
Victoria are easily related: her birth,
as the only child of Edward, Duke of
Kent, fourth son of George III, on
May "a, 1919; the death of her father
when she was eight months old;
her education by her mother and by
her Governess, Baroness Lehzen; the
death of her uncle, William Nv, on
June 20, 1887; her coronation the
following year; her marriage to
Prince Albert of Saxe-COburg in 1910,
with the subsequent twenty years of
happy welded life, blessed by four
sons and five daughters; the death Of
the Prince Consort in 1861; the
Qeen's 80 years of widowhood, hal
lowed by unremitted toll for her peO-
pie, and by her great service to
charity and the humanities; her first
great jubilee, celebrating the 50th an
niversary of her reign; her diamond
jubilee ten years later 1S97, and
her death at the end of a wonderful
reign of 63 years, in January, 1901
"But how little this record tells of
all the wealth, significance, and beau
ty of the life of that noble woman
of whom Tennyson could say,
'Her court was pure; her life serene,
God gave her peace; her land repos-
ed,
A thousand claims to reverence closed
In her as mother, wife and Queen"
Mr.. Reed showed how the child
hood of the princess-simple, natur-
al and pure-stamped her character
for life; and how, when she first
was informed, at the age of IL, of
her lofty destiny, she placed her
hand in that of her governess and
said, with gentle sincerity, Il will be
good, Lehzen, 1 will be good"
The speaker related several pictur-
esque scenes in the early life of the
young sovereign; her reception of
the news of her uncle's death where
by she became Queen; her splendid
self-possession at the first meeting of
her royal council; her modest dignity
and firmness on the occasion of her
coronation; her industrious and de-
voted efforts to learn the duties of
her office.