New Britain herald., 1916-03-04
''CARMEN SYLVIA"
bea"t'fu' Life of Queen Mother of
 fumania Who Died Thursday.

le'9l ot pneumonia Ht the age or 13, was born a princess of Wleo' one of the many tiny prin clpallt1es With which Germany aoouhded. Her youth however, was that of a country girl, who romped Tn the open with her companions at the village school. She was born De- cembef ", 1S43. In her childhood she absorbed innumera ble fairy stories and. with some of her own imagination added. she delighted her playmates with her fancies. At home she received Spartan trainings and with a father who was an in valid for life, and a brother who was incurably ill, she experienced many sorrows and hardships.
 Among her friends about her home on the Rhine, the girl had evinced an almost savage dislike to matrlmony, and according to tradi- ton, had often exclaimed: 'I do not want to marry unless | can be queen or kumanla. The principality of Eumanla had a that time just been founded, and there was no sense in the young princess remark, except that she believed it 8 sufficiently safe way to say that she didn't want to marry at all.
 Some years later her suitor became Prince Charles of Hohenzollern who was refused on the same fanciful pre- text that the princess would not marry unless she could be queen of Rumania. In 1868, Prince Charles was chosen ruler of Rumania. and in the autumn of the next year he re- turned to Wied to remind the Princess Elizabeth of her desire to rule over that kingdom.
 While her marriage was not re safded as a love match, in a romantic sense, that it was a conceniai union there can be no doubt and her sor- TOW over the loss of her only child, from which she never fully recov- cred, was shared by the humblest women of Rumania.
 Some years ago her confidant, Helene Vaceresco, gave to the world the inner life of Rumania's queen, in which she e1oquently depicted her sorrows, her gentleness, her love for her adopted country and her demo- cratic companionship with her peo- pie. In describing to Miss Naceresco her troth to Prince Charles, she said: Not one syllable of love; not one stray compliment was uttered during those hours. Ours was no love mar riage then. but a union based on self devotion, duty and a fervent desire to do the best toward each other and the nation which I already loved. I passed sleepless nights and restless days pOndering over the steps I had taken, and wondered what my future would be by the side of one little known to me. What would the de- scendant of the stern Hohenzollerns be like in feeling and opinions. Re membering the heavy chains of tra~ dition entWining his zee and his prin- ciples. these reflections appalled, me-"
 King Charles turned out to be a liberal and, on the whole, popular ruler He was not only "proud HohenzolIern.' but he had French peasant blood in his veins. his parental great t-grandmother being the cele- brated Fanny Monchard of the French revolution, the sister of the famous Marshal Murat; nay, more. the very crown worn by the queen of Ruma nia was the dia adem worn by the unfor- tunate Josephine while empress of the French.
 That the queen was a broken heart ed woman there can be no doubt. In
 
 about a doden years ago. Miss vaceresco. after beautifully describing the death of the little princess, says: Apart from the sadness ever reign ing in her soul Carmen Sylva is cheerful"
 Although she had written verse for many years it was not until the death of her first and only child, at the age of four. that much of her work was published. A poem on a favOritc theme has been translated as follows:
 The fairest word on earth that's
 heard,
 On human lips the fairest word,
 Is mother.
 To whom such name shall once
 belong,
 High honor hers her whole fife
 A mother.
 But all her earthly joys are O'er
 Who is and then who is no more
 A mother.
 She translated into German the favorite Rumanian folk songs and wrote some short novels and dramas. Some of her publica tions are: ''Thoughts of a Queen.' "I1dleen Vaughan "Sha adows on Life's Dial' and "A Real Queens Fairy Book"
 She was indefatigablc worker. Interviewers found her answering her letters herself on typewriter-four of which machines she had in con- stant use, equipped for writing in English, Ruma nan, French and Ger man. Once a pupil of Rubinstein. she was skilled in the playing of the piano and also as an artist.
 Her husband King Charles I of Rumania died in October, 1914, past 75 years of age. Since then the queen mother herself had been in ill-health, suffering from cataract in both eyes.