Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-06-03
BY QUEEN MARIE OF RUMANIA.
I PROVE MY WORTH.

Before the old King of Rumania
| died I had the satisfaction of knowing
he had recognized there was some.
thing real in me, something worth
while. something impossible to break.
but tremendous ally when won over
| to his side
Yes. he recognized this, not in
words. oh, no. 1 was still Ito keep
| my place" But before the end of our
! time together that iron old man of
| duty and that little English princess
| he had tried to beat. faced each other
| as equals. Yes, | can say the word:
Equals.
And that was because. through thick
and thin, unswervingly | had been
myself-real, with no sham at all.
Learned Mutual Respect.
We were of different generations,
different schools. different races. diff
ferent opinions. but we learned to re.
spect each other and finally we shook
hands, friends, co-workers with a com
| mon ideal-Rumania
The iron-hard, self-concentrated. re-
lentless old worker who had lived with
the single ideal of building up a coun-
try as another builds up a business
had recognized the quality of the
! worker in the girl he had tried to
lick into shape. He had not been able
| to do 1t in the way he had been &C
customed. But instead of having
formed an obedient and passive slave
he had formed a woman who, when
| the moment came, could carry on his
work.
This was, / repeat, because | had
always been myself.
My favorite proverb always was,
The man who never makes a mis-.
| take, never does anything else
either" l am a great one on prov
cribs: Help yourself and God helps
| you" Every cloud has a silver lin
| ing" 1T is never too late to mend
l have lived these four proverbs into
my life-and the silver lining was
more than ever l believed in the
silver lining, even when l could not
| see the tiniest inch of it.
Wins Hearts of People.
! But to return to the first of the
| four: l made no end of mistakes,
| grievous ones, ones for which l paid
| heavily. But l did other things be-
sides, good things which, little by lit
| tie, made my people believe in me.
! grudgingly at first, critically, skep-
| tically, as people do who do not want
to be taken in. But their belief grew
with the years and finally when l be-
came Queen this amusing word was
written of me:
''She will be all right even if she
| does those things She had better not
do. but for which we would always be
able to forgive her" A rather nice
word, don't you think? Here is an.
! other one that l have cherished for
many years. One of my old ministers
one who had a sense of humor there
are even ministers with a sense of
| humorl, said to me once in my early
days, my stormy days: II am not
| afraid of your future. / have watched
| the way you get out of your Difficult
ties. and you have always done SO by
| yourself"
Not Afraid of Self.
| So there we are again-by myself
Because I was myself and not afraid
of being myself.
| OF course / am a little bit of a
| fighter and a tremendous one for
arguing. I have even been accused of
| laying down the law. That must be
a throw-back to certain tyrannical
ancestors. But l never lay down the
law where it is no business of mine.
/ am a bit emphatic of speech, that
I will admit, but it gains time and al
| least 1t leaves no doubt whatsoever
as to what ] mean.
Many people come to see me. all