The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-28
Carmen Sylva, Poet Queen,
 Born 69 Years Ago Sunday

Elizabeth of Roumania, the most in- teIIectual queen Europe has known in many centuries, was born at Neuw1ed,- Germany. Dec. g, 1s4S, and the sixty ninth anniversary of her birth will be widely celebrated by Roumanians tomorrow Under the nom de plume of Carmen Sy1va the Queen has writ ten number of books of undoubt- ed merit. and which have been trans lated into many languages. Besides her more ambitious. works, many charming short stories, poems and plavs have come from her pen-rath- CT, from, Ffier, typewriter for early in her Literary career Carmen Sylva bought three machines. for the Rou manian, German and French Ian guages.
 4 year or two ago queen Elizabeth addressing the students of a girls school. explained her choice Of Car men Sylva as a pen name. She said:
 when I was a little girl I loved to stroll in the woods. My great test ambition at that time was to be able to sing to the birds. Later on I re- called with great pleasure these soli- tary wanderings through the wood lands and as Sy1va means forest and Carmen means song, I took the name  youth and because it has always seem ed to me such a pretty name.''
 The Qseen was the daughter of Prince Hermann of Wied and the Prin- cess Maria of Nassau, and was christ eued Pauline Elizabeth Ottilie Louise. Her zirIhood was spent in Germany, with the exception of few years spent in travel She was twenty-five wher she became the bride of the dashing Prince Charles of Roumania, second son of Prince Anthony of Ho- henzoIIern- Sigmaringen. Charles had been elected hospodar of Roumania in 1s66 after the crown had been declin- ed by the Count of Flanders, but his country continued until 1878 as a tri- butary of Turkey. Roumania was de- cIared independent by the treaties of san Stefano and Berlin in 1878, and two years later the new nation was recognized by the powers The prince and princess were crowned as King Charles and Queen Elizabeth on May 8. 1881 A
 Carmen Ssy1va's first ambitious lit erary effort was Thoughts of a Queen published in 1890 This was followed by -'Edloen vaughan sfshad- ox, on Life's DiaF' and many other works
 The palace of the King and Queen in Bucharest. the Roumanian capital. is a rather small and dingy edifice, set close to the street, resembling a squat apartment house of the sec ond class in an American city. Long ago Carmen Sylva adopted as her fa- vorite residence the royal castle at Sinaia, in the Carpathian mountains. and there most of her literary work has been done.
 During the reign of King Charles and his talented Queen Roumania has made tremendous progress, materially and Intellectually Bucharest has been transformed into q magnificent city, by far the finest capital in the Bal kans, and by comparison Belgrade and Sofia appear as mere collections of novels .-The Paris of the Near East'' Bucharest has been dubbed by its ad- mirers Much of this progress has been due to the innovations and re- markable industry of Queen Elizabeth.
 Queen Elizabeth's philanthropic en- deavors, on one occasion at least, led to family row. in the Roumanian royal palace. That was when the Queen borrowed a large sum, pledg- ing the word of the King as security, for the purpose of building a hospital for the blind. The King repudiated the obligation and issued a notifica- tion to the banks of Europe that he would not assume responsibility for his wife's debts.