Year: 1876

Ihe B0by hing.-On dark Decem-


Der afternoon, when the days were


short and the winter at its hardest, a


little wailing infant, weakly from its


birth. though born Prince of Wales


and heir to the most powerful of Euro


pean kingdoms, was born in Windsor


Castle in the year 1921: Henry, only


child of Henry ". the eonqueror of


the age and grandson of Henry w.,


one of the most wise of English kings.


He himself was not destined to be


either brave or wise or fortunate.


His mother, Katherine of France, had


been won at the swords point; and


the marriage was supposed to give


some claim of right to the sovereign


ity of France, which Henry V. had got


by right of conquest before he married


her. What her own feelings were
about it, or whether she loved her bold


English husband and her feeble Eng


lish baby well enough to be willing


that her brother should be disinherited


for them, and her country brought


under a strangers rule, no one knows
for it is always difficult to make out


what the poor woman felt about 1t,


who have to take passive place In
history and say nothing about what
they are thinking. Anyhow, poor


kathrine, one would imagine, must
have been sad enough in those dull


wintry davs at WiRdsOr-her husband
far off in France, fighting against her
family and her people, and doing all
he could to crush out every germ OF
freedom in the conquered country for
in those days, and even In our own
days, man may be very fond of free
dom for himself and for his own
country, who is quite ready to call the
love of liberty rebellion IN other.
people.


Henry V. was patriotic and popular
dong everything he could
to enrich England and secure her
peace by running her neighbors as the
most of us have lived to see another
great nation do. But Henry did not
succeed, and l hope the other enemy
of France will not succeed either. He
was far away in France. at his favOrite
work of fighting, when he got the
news of his sons blrth-his first and
only child. Ii seems that brave Henry
had in him some touch of superstition.
as is not very unusual with fighting
men and he did not wish his child to
be born at Windsor, no doubt from
some idea that 1t was unlucky or un-
When he heard where
the event had taken place, he turned
to his chamberlain, Lord Fitzhugh,
and gave vent to a dreary prophecy:
81, Henry, born at Monmouth, shall
small time reign and much get" said
the forebOding king, 'and Henry, born
at Windsor, shall long reign and all
lose; but as God will, SO be it," This
II 2, in,
and wintry world. And, after q while,
his mother went away to France, and
the baby was left solitary in the great
silent Castle; SO great and powerful,
heir to two kingdoms, yet so feeble
and helpless and small. You cannot
fancy a greater difference than there
was between this poor little atom of
and his position and If he
had died then in his CRADLE, or been
to grow up among the grOOms
in the stable, humble servant of the
kings household, one cannot but think
Il would have been better for that last
Henry Plantagcnet-better for Eng
land and certainly better for him.


Presentation of the Great Seal to
Henri TI.-The poor little Prince was
but eight months old when his father
died, and he in his swaddling clothes
became King of England; and the first
time that history shows us any glimpse
Of him is in q strange, gorgeous scene
which took place in the September
after his birth, when a procession of
splendid nOblemen in all their robes
of state, bishops and archbishOps, and
all the great officials of the country,
came thrOnging into the Castle to
bring the Great Seal of England, the
highest emblem of imperial authority,
to the new monarch. Poor little soul.
in his nurses arms! There ne sat
while all the fine people came in, carry
ing the Seal in an embroidered bag, it
self sealed by the Lord Chancellor,
that no one might tamper with 1t.
Perhaps the gold and the jewels, the
ribbons of the Garter, and the beauti-
full badge (of which / told yOu) all
in enamel and gold, = the
which all the Knights of the
Garter wore,-d dazzled and delighted
the baby. Or, perhaps, he only sat
and looked on with that sOlemnity
which you see i'm babies sometimes, as
if, lust newly arrived out of heaven,
thew were too much above us to
trouble themselves about such trIfies.
1t was at the hour of vespers, when
the bell was pealing from st. Georges
Chapel, and all the chOrister boys in
their white robes were streaming into
the cool, dim choir out of the sianting
sunshine and all about the Castle the
fair woods lay green, and the sun
dropping into the west made the long
line of the Thames into a shining,
golden pathway. This outside; and
all the great lords within bowling and
doing homage, offering the Seal to the
infant, handing it back again with Ella
borate ceremonies, at which perhaps
in their hearts they did not know
to laugh or TO weep; for
what could be more pitifnl than the
thought that their great Harry whom
they loved, he of AgineOurt, who had
France, was lying dead, and
that this was King Henry of England
this speechless, unconscious childf
do not think there could have been a
more pathetic scene-thOugh, indeed,
Vou may call it laughable, if you like.
The great dukes, the bishops who were
princes, the chancellor of England,
md all those splendid officers of state,
zneeling to kiss the baby's feeble
ingers. "The Kings Majesty" = that


S what they called him, though he was
but nine months old.


The Christening of Settlements by the
California M.ners.-Scattered up and
iown the stream, were small encamp-
nents of diggers. A few had tents;
many slept in the open air, wrapped IN
heir blankets. though the nights were
,old. Some of the more hOme-lOying
miners had built booths of bOughs and


Ogs, and a few hunks from the costly


um Der which found its way up here
rom GreasertOwn, a small camp down
he river, where some industrious
Nexicans had established a saw-pit.
These little settlements were at once
given names of some sort, in order to
them from each other in
The rude gossip of the country. One
group of tents, cabins and booths,
which boasted a population of twenty


i've men. was known as Forty Thiev-
es," though there were only twenty


i've people in the camp, and not one
was a thief. Another was called Fatty
Gulch," because one of the members
Of the party in the camp happened to
be an excessively lean fellow and an
other was dubbed "Swellhead Digg-


ngs,- on account of the personal char
acter of several miners located there.