The Washington herald., 1911-07-22
LORD STRATHCONA.

Lord Strathcona, at the Canadian din
ner and reception at the Imperial Insti
| tute. In London. made the announcement
that this was the last occasion on which
he would occupy the chair at the annual
gathering. Among the distinguished per.
sonages present were the Duke of Con.
naught, the next governor general OF
Canada. and his duchess and daughter
Princess Pat" Princess Louise Ouch.
ess OF ArgylD. the American Ambassa.
dor and Mrs whitelaw Reid, Sir wilfrid
Laurier. the Duke and Duchess Of Aber.
deem, and the Duke and Duchess of Bed.
ford.
Lord Strathcona Is a self-made man In
the true sense of the meaning. There was
time when he was nothing but "a poor
boy named Smith" He was born In
Scotland in 1920. He was without money.
friends. or family influence. As a mere
lad he entered the service Of the Hudson
Bay Fur Company. Yet at the above de-
scribed dinner he announced, as Lord
Strathcona, that II was his intention now
to retire from his activities as financier.
statesman, empire builder, and more par
ticular as high commissioner Of Canada
to England.
He subdued the rebels during Riers
time. He was the handspring for the
construction of the Canadian Pacific Rail-
road. He was for many years representa-
tive OF powerful Montreal constituency
in the Canadian Parliament. For almast
a generation he has been the great finan-
nfn - a-I -
been his influence and power that even
J. ]. Hill. himself a powerful and self
confident executive. was glad to lean upon
Lord Strathcona when the Great North
ern Railroad system was being built.
Lord Strathcona has a genius for en-
pire building second perhaps only to that
OF Give and Hastings and other men of
that bold and pertinacious type. That is
what all Canada thinks and says of him.
and in England he is classed among the
loyal progressive props to the throne. He
was SO poor and so busy when he was
young that he never had much oppor-
tunity for going to school. and yet Ok
ford and Dublin universities have con-
ferred upon him the degree of doctor of
common law. The LII. D. has been
showered upon him by Cambridge Yale,
Aberdeen Ottawa, Toronto, and a num-
Der Of other colleges, too numerous to
mention. More than that, he has been
chancellor and later lord rector Of Aber-
deem and chancellor Of McGnl University.
The venerable nobleman-a true noble
man-reminds one forcibly of Plutarch's
men. and the most convincing thing about
Canada is that she has produced men
like Strathcona.
Donald Alexander Smith was born at
in Argyllshire. He married.
in Canada, Isabella Sophia Hardisty, a
daughter Of Richard Hardisty. He was
created peer, with the title of Baron
Strathcona Of Glencoe, County Argyll, In
August 1897. for his eminent services in
the development Of Canada In June, 1900,
he was further created Baron of Mount
Royal of Mount Royal, Quebec. Canada
He has but one child, daughter, Mar
garet Charlotte, who will inherit the
barony under special patent, barring male
issue. She is the wife of a London phys
Ician, DR.. Robert Jared Bliss Howard.
1t is an altogether erroneous impression
that all Of the British kings have been
crowned at w eStnlnSter -ADDey. In one
Of my coronation narrations I told that
the building was but five centuries old.
Seven Saxon kings were crowned at
Kingston-on-Thames, and that riverside
town Possesses a coronation stone second
in interest only to that in Westminster
Abbey. In fact, the town has derived It's
very name from that coronation stone
Kings Stone" This stone. which ever
since 1850 has been surrounded by hand
some iron railing, with seven stone pill
lars to represent the seven kings last
was used in the crowning of Edward II,
IN 1915. In all probability the veneration
In which the stone was held by the
did not originate with them,
but descended TO them as conquerors
from the ancient Britons. by whom II
was used, according to legends and ira
iition, in connection with their sacred
from a very remote period.
Some weight is given to that theory by |
the fact that the stone is Of the kind !
ermed Druids' stone, similar in charac- |
ter to those at Stonehenge or on that |