The National tribune., 1910-06-23
III

signed "a Veteran Diplomat" and
which is exceedingly well written and
interesting, Queen Mary's path leading
TO the throne has not been one of roses,
and as royal consort she could hardly
be blamed for a feeling of triumph
aside from that occaSioned by the pow
er and prestige of her lofty position
Not before in 400 years has the Queen
Consort been a true Englishwoman,
born and brought up in the country,
and the fact that their Queen is this
has made Mary particularly acceptable
to her people, who, indeed, have always
greatly admired and loved her. Never
.theless while known from one end OF
England to the other as Our Princess
May" and conscious that she possessed
the warm affection of the masses, May
of Teck had her trials, and trials calcu-
lated to deeply humiliate her proud
young nature, to cut and wound her in
a way few women have ever been called
upon to endure.
Mary's mother, Princess Polly of
Cambridge, as she was called, was of
royal birth and a cousin of Queen Vic
toria. She was g years younger than
Victoria, remarkably beautiful. sunny
In disposition, gay, cheerful and alto
gether fascinating. She was the idol
of the people and extremely popular
in society, of which she was very fond.
Victoria in those early years rather
selfshly wrapped up in her Albert and
her babies, was not particularly well
liked by the aristocracy, and rather re-
sented the court paid her charming
cousin. 1t is said that il was largely
a feeling of jealousy which made her
frown upon the suits of Napoleon III,
Victor Emmanuel, then King of Sar-
dinia, as we'll as that of the late Prince
of Orange for the hand of the popular
Princess Polly, altho she had other
reasons handy. When. therefore, the
handsome non-royal Duke of Teck fell
In love with and asked for the hand of
Mary of Cambridge there was great
to-do, and ii was only when the spirited
young woman, very much in love with
her good-looking, well-mannered Duke,
royal or no, threatened to run off and
marry him that Victoria gave her con-
sent to the union. 1t was considered
morganatic alliance on her part, for
The Duke of Teck was only German
noble, himself the offspring of NOR
Eanatic marriage between a Prince of
the reigning house of Wurtemberg and
& Hungarian Countess. Any children
born to them would consequently, in
the eyes of Continental Europe, and
England as we'll, be considered doubly
morganatic, serious handicap to those
30 near a throne.
The present heir to the throne of
England, Prince Eddie, or the Duke of
Cornwall, is just a plain, nice boy whom
everybody likes. He isn't plain as to
looks, having fresh complexion, pref
ty, clear, laughing blue eyes, fair hair
and a sturdy, well-developed figure he
is the picture of good health and good
humor, and is as manly a chap as one
could desire. Prince Eddie is 16 years
of age and has been very carefully
brought up by his sensible mother and
father, tho his mother has had the
most to do with it. He has been taught
to be thoughtful of others less FORUM
ate than himself, and ever since he was
little fellow in dresses has been made
to give away to sick children and poor
children at Christmas something of his
own that he specially priced This has
inculcated the lesson of charity and
unselfshness in such way that these
traits have now become part of the
fiber of his character. She also taught
him to love and treat kindly all dumb
creatures and this resulted in Eddie
having about him a perfect menagerie,
which engrossed most of his attention
as a little boy. Eddie is going to be
sailor like his royal father, of course,
and has been preparing for this for
several years. He is not brilliant
scholar, but is deeply interested in the
mechanical part of his profession. When
boy of 10 he was given a fleet of
model battleships. This was at the
lime of the Russian-Japanese war, and
Prince Eddie. with model guns, forts
and maps. followed each move of the
waring fleets. Later his father present
etf him with real, sure-enough brig,
kept at Virginia Water in charge of an
old sailor, and Eddie learned how to
take the entire management of it, He
is now completing his naval education
on the training ship Britannia, at Dart
mouth, where he arises at half past
every morning and gets in his three
quarters of an hours work before
breakfast, just like all the rest. That
Prince Eddie is not caught mapping
when it comes to a business deal Is
shown by the way he managed to get
money when denied this by his econom-
zeal mother. 1t was when he was at
school at Osborne and, like all boys,
his allowance was found to be shock
tngly insufficient. His mother refused
10 send him more, so he wrote to his
grandmother, Queen Alexandra. She
tlso refused, and in her long letter
shided him for extravaganza. He an
Ewered this with surprising alactrity,
Tor, like all boys, he despised to write
letters and when several such answers
followed her letters she began to be
Iuspicious. 1t seems Eddie, with Yam
kee ingenuity and enterprise, was SELL
echoolmates to supply him with the
funds necessary for the indulgence of
his appetite for tarts, etc, temptingly
displayed at the tuckshop. Prince Ed
die was the delight of his grandfather's
heart on account of his love of all
.ports, in which he excels. When he
was only five years of age he could ride
his pony and swim, and later, when
cricket, football, boxing and cross
country running came on he was the
envy of his comrades and the subject
of a great many stories told by King
Edward to admiring audiences.
The young couple were far from
rich, the Duke of Teck receiving from
his father, Prince Alexander of Wur-
temburg. an allowance quite sufficient
for his bachelor needs, but totally in
sufficient to maintain a royal Princess,
while Princess Polly had only the year
ly income of $25, 900 which came to her
from the civil list. Before many years
they became terribly, hopeleSsly in debt,
for Victoria insisted upon their keeping
up two establishments in royal style
with ladies and gentlemen in waiting
and all that sort of thing and the up
shot of it was that they finally had to
endure the modification of a public
sale, as the Queen-cousin refused abso-
lutely to permit any appeal to be made
to Parliament in their behalf For the
first time in English history and the
last the voice of the auctioneer was
heard in the royal palace of Kensing-
ton, one-half of which the Tecks occu-
pied, and all sorts of old mementoes
which had come down TO Princess Polly