New Britain Herald Newspaper, July 12, 1919, Page 6

Liaay wre the pretry 1ales they tol’ of her scquaintance with the peasants. She has always loved to go among them vful gueen, who Lved in s palace, the'r and to belp them when she can By Margaret C. Getchell (\:\cl; ULen a time there was a beau- Juxuri- ruiing, with her husband, smail kingdom She was i nowledged 1o be the most L In the whole wide Lo she went she e met by her t, aithough ed by u corners by per- rest peo g from e :mpor- he lan- g to be e Vis- B and some she nake in ent she he Phe o one necd not teil an one who ever deived into the delights of fal book land, fs that the queen and her v “live happily ever after” and that the realm is blessed under her sweet, guiding hand But this Is not fretion, it Is fact. Though she may win the love and admiration of her people and the world in general, she can never live down one black fact which forever rises to stare her in the face: Do what she may, she is still a queen, and the blood of royalty runs in her veins, although she may emby the democratic theories in +he world. Queen Marfe of Rumania has fled from her kingdom! Poor queen! The taint of royalty is upon her! Time was when to be queen or princess was synonymous to fajryland itself in the heart of the woman who was fascinated by the idea of regal splendor and of the attending power. Nor was the fecling absent in the hearts of the bolder sex? IHow many a pipe dream unfolded itself in the clouds of smoke which have started with that one delightful little supposition, “If I were king!" Poor queen! j© days are passed when a queen awaken the envy of the world. jhe rouses only its pity. Married at Sixteen Queen of Lun L licrselt B / - - Copyright, 1919, by Public Ledger Co. taking from King Charles that in the event of the death of his wife he would not marry again. There was one obstacle, which, had she Known ity might have held more weight with the young English girl than considerations of state. This was the fact that her fiance was madly in love with another woman, ang only the absolute veio by both King Charles and the leading statesmien prevented his marrying her. The woman was Helene Vacaresco, the poctess, who was the physical opposite of the beau tiful young English princess. She is described as rgeous brunette. with eoyes 'k as night,” whilo the princess was golden blonde, with lovely blue eyes.” The prin whose character scems somewhat colorless as compared to his dashing wife, is about ten yes her senio that time he wa mild-mannered, good-looking young fellow, both bashful and sentimental, of literary tastes and opposed to violent exercise of any kind. As he was a poor soldier, he was unpopular with the Rumanian officers. His broken health and weak will have long since helped to give his wife her place as the dominant power in the & In Love With Her Husband But the girl of sixteen fell in love with her young husband, and did all in her power to win his affection. That she failed at first to do so is tribute 1s the 1gdom to her dark-eyed rival. Haile most beautiful princess in Burope she was a dashing, athletic, head- strong Her youth, her delicacy of feature, her clear complexion, her big blue cyes and golden hair would have charmed any man who was not held by the fascinating spell of the Helene Vacaresco. umpire,” who was brought up Paris, is described as “Roman with French improvement She had abundant black hair and deep, lustrous eyes. Her charms were ripe, d her dark shin, full lips and fine “vampire neck and arms had thrown a strong \%y) G beauty and her artistic although extravagant personality were 1 it was discovered being ninth in the fon to the British °© to formally r ‘s thereto hefore, he bill of rights, In order to i the Rumanian fier husband, pplenn under- spell qround the blond German prince- ing. It was the prince first took Helene to Bucharest, having met her in Paris, where she had been brought into the li ht by Victor Hugo, whose protege she was. The became the mother who French poctess young Queen’s favorite maid of honor, and soon had the prince among her train of admirers. The Queen encouraged the marriage and even wrote poems on the attachment as representing true love. When the council of min- isters protested, forced the abandon ment of the proposed marriage by threats of a change of dynasty and fascinating Helene, the estrangement which exiled the result was an lasted for some vears between the old Queen and her husband, who was not in s ithy with her match- making. Devotied to Her Children Such were preceding the marriage of the present King and Queen of Rumania. At the time, Marie was deeply in love with her husband, but she soon learned of her rival. All her passionate tenderness and remark- able beauly were insuflicient to win his affection, and even her children incide did not change the situation In desperation she left Bucharest, flitted from court to court and fre- spas and casinos, morous conquests. quented the g She took delig Whether she had a purpose in pursu ing this course will never be known Be that as it may, Ferdinand eventu- ally woke up to the fact that his wife was attracting attention from men everywhere, and his indifference changed to a most intense and jealous love. One moment, it is said, he was raging and storming and the next he was on his knees pleading with her. But her ardent love ror him had long been cooling, and he could not coax it back, so that the marriage never blessed with complete happi- The Queen is devoted to her chil dren, and one of the great tragedies of her life is the death of a son, just before the first retreat from Rumania of the royal family. She has had each one taught a trade, and her oldest and favorite son, Carlo, is an amateur printer of some repute. On his press he prints some of his mother's literary productions, among which are several books written for her children. Besides writing, Queen Marie is an accomplished musician, both as pianist expressed in her Rumanian castles and violinist. To her linguistic talents she adds the charm of being a most entertaining conversationalist, and in the affairs of everyday life she shows a keen brain, a strong will and great organizing ability. It has been said that to the most fascinating attain- ments of a professional beauty she adds the exccutive ability of a corpora- tion lawyer. This undoubtedly has She threw hersclf, heart and soul, into the struggle of her people, nursing the wounded soldiers, organizing the women, rich and poor alike, for war work been of greatest importance to the war work of Rumania, in which she has been a leader. One of her greatest contributions to lier adopted country was her interest in the revival of Byzantine art, which marked the closing d of the last century. ¥From her Russian grandpar- ents she had inherited a fondness for Byzantine luxury, as well as the wherewithal for satisfying her taste. Her love of beauty and her artistic, although extravagant personality, was expressed in her Rumanian castles. The famous golden chamber in one of them has walls of gilt. A golden throne under a golden canopy is her own special seat and is placed under the dome ceiling facing the deep-set painted windows. There is a gold table covered with precious boxes and richly bound books and frames of chased gold. In the corner stands a spinning wheel, inlaid with gold and set with precious stones, and over the grand piano is thrown heavy cover of cloth of gold, embroidered with ascension lilies, her favorite flower. She loves to dress in the gorgeous Byzantine costume of the olden days and has endeared herself to the Ru- manians by often appearing in public in their national dress. When she is at her mountain home she sometimes wears the ordinary peasant dr d has had a whole room furnished with native pine wood, inlaid with strips of silver, the handiwork of the Ru- manian craftsmen. Many are the pretty tales they tell of her acquaintance with the peasants. She has always loved to go among them, to become acquainted and to help them when she can. While one might wonder if her pleasure were in “playing lady bountiful,” the kindly observer will give her the benefit of the doubt. Dancers Best Nurses Be this as it may, it is certain that the Queen has been a sincere and devoted worker for and with her peo- ple during the war. Whatever there may have been of superficiality in their relations has dissolved before the demands of war that all should work together with one heart and with one purpose. Like mar woman in various countries who, before the war, was merely a socicty leader and used up boundless energy in keeping up with the social whirl, she has thrown herself whole-heartedly into the work of the last four years. It has been a that of the Parisian women who were madly dancing tango and one- step when the call to arms came in August, 1914, those who had tangoed best nursed hardest. Prue it is that Queen Marie has been tireless in her efforts to alleviate the suffering of her peoble and to keep up the morale of the little nation, which w fighting against great odds. Just before Rumania was driven to a separate peace with Germany the Queen took a trip of 300 miles along the battlefront for the purpose of en couraging and inspiring her beloved soldiers and the war-worn people of her little kingdom. With her was an Associated Press correspondent, who said of her work: During these three s she passed through scores of little villages, all devastated by artillery fire and aerial bombardment, many of them bearing indelible marks of Ger- man vandalism. Famine stalked every- where; children went barefoot through the snow-covered streets; every one was gaunt and emaciated. The food supply in the army was fairly good and the dugouts were warm and comfort- able, even on the coldest days. “The soldi everywhere greeted the Queen with the utmost enthusiasm and affection. There could be.no doubt that she was idolized by the rank and file of the whole army, and her intense interest in their welfare was shown on every mile of the three days’ journey. Every Rumanian officer carried a pho- tograph of the Queen and many of these bore her personal signaturs. Thousands of the private soldiers also carried her picture in the same pocket with their sacred i{kons and crucifix. Fearless in Face of Danger “The Queen carried with her on her journey a large quantity of sup- plies of various kinds, given her by the American Red Cross for distribu- tion. These included garments for the women and children in the villages, condensed milk and food for the sick and cigarettes or small comforts for the soldiers. She insisted on person- ally presenting every article, and she had a word of cheer and encourage- ment to go with each gift “In the villages the Queen showed entire disregard for the dangers of in- fection. Houses where typhus victims lay ill she entered without hesitation, despite the protests and expostulations of the local prefect and of her own physician, who accompanied her. Often she insisted on sitting down by the bedside of a stricken peasant woman or child and ministering personally to the patient. “It was wonderful to see how she eluded and overcame the careful ar- rangements of the local prefects for shepherding her through their dis tricts. It was natural that each pre- fect should be anxious to persuade the Queen that conditions in his jurisdie- tion were better than the average, and with this end in view he had usually arranged for calls at six or seven of the best houses in the village. But the Queen would wave this program aside and, pointing to some miserable hovel, would say, ‘It looks to me as it the people in that house needed help. Let us go there.’” Another act in the life of this bril- liant and fascinating woman, who “is every inch a queen,” is closed. As the curtain rings down we see her fleeing with her daughter from the kingdom where she loved and was loved. Sounds of riot and disorder come from beyond the footlights. Are they pursuing her beyond the confines of the border? Will they welcome her back to them? Or have they forever washed their hands of the royal family who ruled over them in those faraway days be- fore the world war? SOME SPECIMENS OF CHINESE HUMOR = = fond of a t Tekin, “Kuang, or from this of which to bear a to anec- ¥ some of hted jokes und in the fo, verhap ier jeste ese joke: k. Kung, are ore an_ open Cmarkable for acity, ys to ceedingly hot- re is something ery much to say P a circumstance -I A lttle time past, 0 mention to you hind the somewhat ome disposition that butcd to you, I have s myself. However, t, it T do not mention the matter to you, T shall do wrong, and, therefore, 1 have deter- mined to ask your permission to speak to you about it.” “Well, what is it?” “Your coat, my dear K Chung, quietly, “is on fir: or pity’s sake!” exclaimed Kun angrily, jumping up and finding h coat nearly burned off. “Why in the world didn’t you tell me before?” “There it goes! What a frightful temper!” Chung murmured, as he moved away. ‘Tolk told me quite right about you.” The following suggests Chinese sub- tlety and su, ts that some of our vaudevillians must have drawn upon this book: A man who had stolen a cow was subjected to torture. A passer-by, ob- serving his sad state, asked him: “What did you do?” “Oh, nothing. I just found an old picee of rope on the road and picked it up” And s it possible that they have punished you in this way for simply picking up an old piece of rope?’ “Yes; only they found a cow at the end of the rope.” important dis- horse and told A couricr, bearing patches, was given o male all possible speed toward his destination. Some time afterward he was found in the road, walking, and pushing his horse before him. “Why in the world are you doing that?” he was asked “Oh,” he said, “l reflected, and I came to the conclusion that we should make more speed on six feet than we possibly could on four.” A Chinaman had a magic jar. And when you think of a jar in China do not think of one of the tiny affairs use. A jar there means 3¢ about half the size of a hogshead. It was in such jars that Ali Baba's Forty Thieves con- cealed themselves Well, this magic jar had the power of multiplying whatever was put into it. If you put in a suit of clothes, you could pull out perhaps two or threo dozen suits. If you put in a siiver dol- lar, you might get out a hundred sil- ver dollars. There does not seem to have been any regularity about the jar’s multiplying qualities. Sometimes it might multiply by two, again it might multiply by a hundred. At any rate the owner of the magic jar was getting rich fast, when a greedy judge somehow got wind of the strange affair. Accordingly he brought some kind of a false charge against the man and made him bring the jar into court. Then the judge pretended that he could not decide the case and would keep the ] So he took it to his own house and began to profit by its labors. Now when this happened the friends of the mistreated man began to mur- mur. Failing to get any isfaction from the judge, they appealed to the judge's father. You may be fifty or venty vears old in China, but it your father is living, you are as much subject to his orders as if you were only ten; this is the case just as long as both live. When the father spoke about the complaints of the pcople the judge lied about the jar, but not in a way to deceive the old fellow He decided to investigate and went blundering around a dark room in search of the jar. Before he saw what he was doing he came upon it and fell into it. Whereupon he called to his son to pull him out. The son did come, but when he pulled out one father, behold! there was still another in the jar, and then another and another. He pulled out one father after another till the whole room was full of fathers, and then he filled up the yard with fathers, and had six or eight standing like chick- ens on the stonewall before the pro- lific old jar would quit. And to leave his old father in there would naturally have been equivalent to murder. So this was the punishment of the unjust judge. He had to support all the dozens of aged fathers he pulled out of the jar, for a Chinaman must support his father, although he starve himself, and it is to be supposed that he used up all the wealth he haq un. justly piled up and had to work night and day the rest of his life. The far, of course, had to be promptly ret-rped to its rightful owner,