The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 21, 1899, Page 18

18 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 21, 1899, Queen Yictoria’s tghtiets @'rllza/ay Wit Be Celobrated by the Cnglish Yation Y ext Chursday. IMPRESSIVE CEREMONIES FOR THE OCCASION Special to the Sunday Call ONDON, May 14.—When the long, hard day of Queen Victoria's Dia- mond Jubliee was over . she summed it up by sighing, wearily: “It makes me realize that I am a very old woman.” The multitudes saw her then realized it, too, and derlying consclousness of it did t e the occasion impressive 1 the trappings and the pageantry. ing to the dramatic fitness of s this was the grand tableau before 1 of the curtaln. the good Queen never has been in least dramatic,- and she now ap- aches the next most important mile- in her relgn as calmly and comfort- as if she were to be 40 instead of 80 he 24th of May. probable that the rather stuffy room in Kensington Palace in which she born in 1519 will then be opened to the c to signalize the occasion. Altera- and restorations have been going on e homely, squat old building for some in the leisurely British way. Accord- ng to present plans the Queen will give person the drawing room to be held in Buckingham Palace on May 16 and on the wing day she will lay the foundation tone for the new Kensington museum. Cornerstones by the Hundred. Again the story goes around that this c tone laying will mark the last public appearance of her Graclous Maj- Don't belfeve it. It will be an im- sive occasfon for the same underlying that the Jubilee seemed almost pa- etic; but unless all present signs fail the Queen will be able to pursue the chief h diversion of laying cornerstones erruptedly for an indefinite time to oria has undoubtedly laid more cor- es and opened more institutions any other person living; and the > of Wales comes next. The Duke of < s gaining on them a littls, but he began so late that he can never hope to catch up. Prince Edward, eldest son of Duke of York, and fourth in line to , has not yet lald a single cor- t he must begin soon. It ble that the great wall of , now almost who ost to sight, red with the cornerstones have been lald by this family, and o thquake probably didn’t ch property as would tum- of these cornerstones were rude- irawn In Capital Candition. of g cornerstones d visible sign of en’s long life. It d there is noth- tit. It ls a solid, al of the sort that on the nerves. If Charles I 1 f with g corner- d would not have been t week the three hundredth n who ordered that t off. rstone at South Ken- BUCK/NGHAM TRALACE” TWRONE™ RO, sington s lald the Queen will go to Wind- sor, bringing to an end the gala days of the tourists, who are permitted to ex- plore the castle and enrich the attend- ants when the Queen is away. A stage has been bullt in the Waterloo chamber for the chief event of the Queen's birth- day, a performance of ‘“Lohengrin” fol- lowing a big royal dinner party. After her birthday the Queen will go north to her favorite Balmoral, none the worse, doubtless, for so hard a fort- night. Physically, she {s not a day older to-day than she was at the celebation of her jubilee, two years ago. How She Keeps Young. How does she do 1t? The court circular for the outing in the South of France tells part of the story. Every day, fore- noon and afternoon, her Majesty ~spent every avallable moment in the open air, driving about behind the royal horses, or behind little Jocko, the celebrated white donkey who has done practically all of the Queen's walking for her out of doors for lo, these many years. Whenever the - Queen goes for a “stroll” it s Jocko fat little legs do the work, while ueen sits In the chals, 1en she goes for a “drive” the horses honored with her confidence are sogse of the most conservative beasts in- Britain baving been tested with all sorts of HERE TiE. PRESENTATIONS BRE (ADR. noises, from small boys with tin horns to brass bands gathered in the Buckingham Palace yard for the especial purpose of seeing if they can frighten the horses. The fical stage in the training of these ani- mals {8 a course in bagpipes. If they can hear bagpipes without so much as twist- ing an ear, then they are considered be- vond suspicion. Eight of these horses went with Jocko to Cimlez, accompanied by the Queen's own carriage, and have not lacked for ex- ercise ever eince. Rains are rare at this season on the Riviera, but one or two showers fell while the Queen has been there, and on those occasions the natives were astonished to see the Queen driving out the same as ever. Her stay this year has been prolonged unprecedentedly, so she could be out of doors more than oMy would be possible in England’s colder cli- mate. How to Travel Comfortably. The care that the Queen has been taking to prolong her relgn has been shown In many other ways by incidents of this out- ing at Cimiez, which has cost her about $75,000, Including the expenses of her suite of some fifty persons, and the $12,000 monthly rent of her wing of the Hotel Regina. She sleeps better In her own bed and consequently that cumbrous plece of furniture went to Cimiez with her. She finds delight In her dogs and birds, so they went along. She hates the least bit of a climb, so special platforms were con- structed for her by which she could step from her train to the Dover-Calais steam- er, and a speclal “lift” was bullt for her at the hotels. ‘Wherever she went a small army of watchers escorted her. Some were in of- ficlal trappings; more were detectives in citizens' ~clothing. Her path through France was cleared of suspicious persons by the establishment of a sort of *dead line,” like that once established by Tom Byrnes around Wall street, beyond which no crook might go without being arrested on general principles. The Queen is now as careful about her food as ehe is about lleeg and exercise. d she comes nearer than any other member of her family to being a solace and comfort to the total-abstinence peo- ple, for she takes nothing but a little whisky and water for the stomach’'s sake. Bhe is even more abstemious than the Prince of Wales, who has lately foresworn champagne, and now drinks little but sparkling moselle. Besides the corps of doctors of the household the Queen has more than thirty honorary physicians and surgeons. She {8 a great bellever in med- ical advice, but not much given to taking n‘\,edlctno. Open alr Js her sovereign rem- edy. Eighty Years of Good Luck. The Queen’s luck has been as proverbial as the “Queen’s weather,” which, by spe- clal dispensation of Providence, is almost invariably fine whenever Her Majesty has to make a public appearance. When she was only slx months old an amateur sportsman fired a shot thréugh her nur- gery window that came within a halr's breadth of her devoted head. When she was thirteen a sudden gale arose while she was at sea with her mother, and dis- lodged the topmast, which came crashing down to the spot whence she had been snatched by a pllot scarce a second be- fore. Five attempts to murder her have been made without doing her more harm than a bruise. But the greatest luck of any was in RN e SR N = e N S NS . N 3 e oSS o ROSS e ‘being Queen at all and being born on En- glish soll, for Victoria was only the niece of Willtam IV, and her father, the Duke of Kent, was only the fourth son of poor old George IIL. In the ordinary course of nature she was many, many Tremoves from the throne, but she seems to have had all the stamina that belonged to the children of her father’s clder brothers, as well as her own portion, for they dwindled away as fast as they were born. The Queen is German on her mother’s side and German & few removes away on her father's side, and she would have been born in Germany if her father had not figured it out that his eldest child might some day be the ruler of England, and that it would therefore be well for the infant’s claims on the throne if He or she first saw light In England. 8o, two months before the expected event he hur- ried his Duchess away from her home in Leiningen. There were no rallroads in those days, and it is sald that the Duke himself drove the coach from Amorbach to the Dutch coast, for fear that a less interested coachman might drive care- lessly. The room in Kensington Palace—in what is now the heart of fashionable Lon- don—where the future Queen was born i8 now being restored to look exactly as it did in 1819. The very pictures that hung LATEST PHOTOGRAPH OF THE UEEN,W(TH HEIR PRESUMP. on the walls then have been brought back from Hampton Court and are being put in their old places, and much of the origi- nal furniture will soon be ready for the eye of the public. The Coming Drawing Room. Buckingham Palace, just below the op- posite end of Hyde Park from Kensing- ton Palace, 18 also belng swept and gar- nished for the home-coming of the Queen, and it is probable that she will be pres- ent, for the first time in a year, at the drawing room to be held there on May 15, thus making it & far more brilllant affair than any previous drawing room this year, for Princesses are too plentiful to be of much value as a #ole attraction. This will be the first drawing room of Embassador Choate and his wife, and the ladies of the Choate famlly have just returned from Paris, where they have been shopping for the great occasion. Mr. * Choate would have had a tough time of it choosing among the American applicants who wanted to be presented at court as soon as it became known that the Queen was likely to grace the occasion in person were it not for the fact that the lists were practically com- plete six months ago. Only the greatest of the great could slip in at this late day. It will not be known who are the lucky ones till two days before the drawing room is held. The lists are never pub- lished long in advance, lest some one might get the credit of presentation and then evade the penalty and agony with court dressmakers and tallors by not go- ing. It may be said, however, for the bene- fit of those who are to be disappointed when the lists are published that they probably wouldn’t have been presented to the Queen In person after all; for, al- though she is astonishingly strong for a lady of 80, she is not inclined to stand the whole ceremony of a drawing room, and at best will receive in person only the diplomatic circle, retiring then and leaving some younger member of the family to respond to the prescribed obeisances of unofficial court society. CURTIS BROWN. Victoria’s Perquisites. UEEN VICTORIA 1s not only in re- ceipt of her annual income from the people of Great Britain, but she is entitled besides to a considerable number of perquisites for the supply of the royal household. Among the most curlous of these is her AL i Tadg ! RN 3 » " @"/l’ - AL ot aisl 5 S 2 AN Wy % k i, s e o g £ 4 I 7 o ™ BENSINGTON PALACE. i ity o1 3B wmeme Tv5 QuEEN WAS e T NAND arericH 15 TO 82 OASH right to every whale or sturgeon captured on the coast of the United Kingdom and brought to land. Both of these perqui- sites date back to the days of the Nor- man Kings, and it appears that in the case of the whale the monsters were di- vided between the sovereign and his con- gort, the Queen taking the head, in order that her wardrobe might be replenished with the whalebone needed for the stif- fening of her royal garments. Another of the Queen’s perquisites is a certain number of magnificent cashmere shawls, which are dispatched to her ev year from- the Kingdom of Cashm They vary in value, as a rule, from to $2000 aplece and the Queen is accus- tomed to present one of them as a wed- ding present to every young girl of the aristocracy in whose futur way interested. Every taf patent of “purveyor to Her Majes he conforms to anclent tradition and usage, should present her with a silver ne e each year. Another class of royal purveyors called upon to present annually t tablecloth, while from other sources again she is entitled to an annual contribution of such varied ‘“tips” as white dove: white hares, firetongs, currycomb scar- let hoslery, nightcaps, lances and cross- bows. Moreover, at the coronation the Lord of the Manor of Addi must present t the soverelgn a ottage brawn of cap ns parboiled the ame nor of Hay by virtue of tenure f the monarch with a tow 1e Manor of Worksop gl ht-handed T ater es a n the past, were nil, a rt from e - ender for five of her wever, are only a few of the es to which the Queen of d by tra A Ciear Case. A board of physicians were in into the state of mind of an a tic. ““You told us just now,"” s man, “that you were the Em leon and now you say you are the Dt Wellington. Pray explain yourself.’ the spokes- »r Napo- “Quite right,” returned the patlent, cheerfully; “that was by a different mother.” They didn’t ask any moré questions.— Life. L R o o e ] WONDERFUL HITS OF EXPERT SHOTS. GREAT deal of attention has been paid of recent years to exhibition revolver and rifle shooting, and the favor with which really exnert| shots meet has greatly increased | the number of extraordinary feats | among the most wonderful wielders of thaf :which can now be performed with revol- vers and rifles. “Buffalo Bill” was one of the fine* shots ever seen in this country, although | exhibition marksmanship has greatly improved since Colonel Cody last visited England. One of his most wonderful feats was' not generally performed in| public, for the reason that its failure or | success could not be discerned at any | great distance. It consisted in driving | into a white board five short, flat-heac tacks with flve successive shots, from a distance just short emough to allow of the tacks to be accurately sighted. So great was Colonel Cody’s skill with the light rifle he used for this feat, that given favorable light he could generally per- foirm it six or seven times without a | miss, Not only was Buffalo Bill's aim marvel. ously accurate, but it was extraordinar quick. Given a repeater, he would stand | or sit on his famous white horse and | break five clay “pi taneously before they had time to more than a couple of feet on the fall course, But M. Bordeverry, a Frenchman, who | recently came to this country to show us | what a rifle could be made to do, would probably give Colonel Cody points and an easy beating. His accuracy and rapid- | ity of aim are simply astonishing. At a | dfstance of thirty feet he can cut a piece of cardboard through the edge, as it is | poised upon the head of an assistant. At | a similar distance, leaning himself flat on his back over the seat of a chair, with a | pistol in his hand, he can send spinning a threepenny piece which rests, half hid- den, upon his assistant’s head. He will knock the ash off vour cigar at a distance of thirty feet, or light your wax-vesta for Jou, if you care to hold it. At ten vards e can cut a swinging thread, and at the same distance with three successive shots he will pick off three small trifles bal- anced one upon the other upon the head of his assistant. And to demonstrate his et | was especially clever at it. eons” sent up simul- | I'E.Yld sight he will hit eleven distinct bullseyes in seven seconds. Revolver shooting 18 generally consid- ered to be infinitely more difficult than rifle firing, and there are certainly fewer expert revolver than rifle shots. But “shooting {ron” i1s an American gentle- man, a Mr, Stephens, with whom, how ever, the fascinating practice is only a pastime. A very effective feat Mr. Stephens pe: forms privately consists of standing lighted candles upon a bench, retrea about forty feet, and putting out one car dle after another with the contents of hi six-chambered revolver. On one occ: sion the same gentleman, standing und a cherry tree with a revolver %n each hand, cut the stones out of eight cherrles in eleven seconds.. Of the two unsuccess- ful shots fired, one only grazed the ch it was almed at and the other was lo in mystery. But the feat was a ve w;vntderlul one, especlally for an amateur shot. <Bullseye writing is common crack shots. Annile Oakley, falo Bill amor whom Buf’ took with ‘him to Engla She wo tand a few paces from a target and pe forate the outer rim with shot so ne that her name would appear quite lml(‘!ly designed by a series of clear oles. On one occasion when Annie Oal was practicing at a target she s shot Nght through the center of the bu eye. ome one standing by offered wager her that she would not send a shot through the hole she had thus Shouldering her rifle she fired four with great deliberation, and it was that three of these passed through the hole, ing it, and the fourth had g of an inch off the mark. shots -hitting_witun an a quare inch of the bullseye wa: a very creditable perfo ——————————— the fe satire, “And of what use’* cried orator in a fine burst of women in this world? Ask any man what will he tell you?" “My father says.” cried a small boy in the audience, “that they are 500d to ralse children, biscuits and h—l."—Life ¢ ¥