The Washington herald., 1912-03-27
ToPSY TURKEYPALACE

successful designs to dance himself into
the Vienna Enthusiastically was true
enough and is being fulfilled. The man
for q French savant and statesman Is
too ambitious by far and. besides. he at
tempted 10 achieve a dignity for which
he himself has spoiled all chances and
which nee before had been refused him
by the Emperor Franz Josef.
| When Paul Deschanel was elected
member OF the French Academy. and
before that. in signed newspaper essays,
he had predicted the division Of Aus
tria-Hungary upon the death Of the aged
monarch. saying that this would give
France her long looked for opportunity
for q territorial compensation" The
man even went so far as to foetell
return of Alsace Lorraine TO France.
cause with Austria once out of the way,
France alone would have TO become the
arbIter between Russia's and Germany's
aggressive policy.
At the time when Deschanel made
these breaks he was speaker Of the
Chamber Of Deputies. though those utter
ances were not made in his official ca
pacity. And after all this the mans
hardihood c'gaIl'' would be the word
here. TO have Franz Josef agree to re-
celve him as French Ambassador at his
court really Is surprising. II Is worse
than the usual case of "swelled head"
II is tactless, and ! marvel at the stu
pidity OF the French foreign ONCE TO
consent to voice the request even at
the Ballplatz. Deschanel is a fool
Before Baron Stockmar. the German
friend Of the prince consort-also a Ger
man who would have been Duke of Sake
Coburg. had not Queen Victoria captured
him for a husbsnd-had reorganized the
management Of the royal household in
London, things were topsy-turvy indeed
In Buckingham Palace. They were In
fact chaotic and must have rendered
Buckingham Palace singulsrly uncom-
Portable place OF residence.
The fact that an ordinary street boy
was able three times 10 get into Buck
ingham Palace unobserved and ramble
about there for hours first attracted at
tention to the opera bouffe arrangements
Of the place. The chief officers Of the
household, the lord high steward. the
lord chamberlain. and the master Of the
horse. changing with each ministry and
not in residence at the palace, were nat
urally not particularly good housekeep-
ers. They looked after the palace In sec
tions. When George III was on the
throne the lord steward had charge Of
the whole palace except the royal apart
ments, but in the next two relEns he
was only accountable for the ground
floor.
On one occasion when Queen Victoria
complained TO the master of the house
hold OF the coldness Of the dining room,
that functionsry could only reply to her
messenger: You sec. properly speaking.
Il is not our fault, for the lord steward
lays the FIRE and the lord chamberlain
lights 1T
After the German reorSaniZa tion of
the household, at Buckingham Palace,
amid much Grumbling. some OF which
perhaps was we'll founded. particularly
when German servants were introduced
because the prince consort considered
them more attentive. better schooIed.
and cleaner" and they accepted smaller
wages than the Englishmen whom they
suPplanted. things. il must be confessed.
were in much better shape. Results all
around were good and visitors to the |
royal family no longer experienced seri- |
Gus difficulties in fnHnE the bedrooms |
assigned TO them. no. did they have to |
wander disconsolate through long pas
SdBtS lOOhluE III VAIN a servant To !
direct them to a particular drawing or |
reception room.
queen Victoria is constantly quoted by |
anti-suffragists as the Sovereign who be !
lieved that women were not fit to gov
ern: 1t is rather amusing to find that |
IL she promised to obey in the mar !
riage service. as doubtless she did. her |
Interpretation Of the vow was somewhat |
limited. She had a very high opinion Of !
her own position.
The appalling dullness of the early |
Victorian court is well remembered. |
Prince Albert had no use for society in |
the ordinary sense; he had no small |
talk, he could not expand or be con-
fdentiaL But he had very definite tastes |
Of his own: he would have liked to sur |
round himself with literary and scientific |
alton he loved a game Of double chess,
in which he was proficient, but even |
double chess every night began to pail !
As for the rest, 1t had to be given up. /
not because the critics of society dissp- !
proved. but because his little wife had |
no fancy for the invasion of their home |
by intellectual people.
She felt that she could not sustain |
on abstruse subjects and |
she always liked to be in the center OF 4
the picture: any other place she would !
have looked upon as an insult. II is
curious that We have had imposed upon |
us such fulsome laudations Of Victoria's |
for she showed little evidence
Of superiority in that respect. She could
speak French, play the plano. sing pref /
tily, and paint little, but none of these /
things really touch the mind, and her
mind had been as neglected as were the
minds Of most OF the women Of her
time. Thus the society around her knew
Of nothing better than small talk and
twiddlinG the keynotcs OF piano; and /
to this the prince had 70 succumb.
Princess Albert RadziwIll, the former
Miss Dorothy Deacon, a Erandchild of
John Jacob Astor. continues In high IA
vo- at Rome, where, under the "degide"
Of her pompous and exacting mother
n-law. she really has become a society
star of the first magnitude. The Don
ma AlbertSa' is ,manifesting a grace and
for dancing that among the
Italian principessas and
is considering nothing short I
Of marvellous
Princess Dorothy has no desires for
the dolce far niente" of Italian high +
life. Her American blood and training
10 not require and rather abhor laziness.
The other evening. at the ball given
Dy her mother-in-law, the Princess
George RadziwilI danced twenty-four
times and the next afternoon she ap-
peared at fashionable tea none the
worse for her strenuous experience.