Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1891 — QUEEN OF THE DUTCH. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

QUEEN OF THE DUTCH.

Little Queen Wilhelmina of Holland is obliged to give some attention to affairs of state while other girls of her age are busy about their dolls. She is only in her eleventh year, and the time which at that age is spent in play she has to put in learning how to demean herself as a queen. She has already mastered many of the details and has been stuffed by her tutors with a number of accomplishments which must be a burden to her. She began to lisp French in early infancy and the first lessons of her French nurse have been supplemented by the careful training of a clever Paris governess. The latter has been replaced by an Englishwoman, who has made the little queen a proficient in the language of Shakspeare. She also talks Italian and, of course, is well acquainted with the language of her own country. The one language she does not know is that of her mother. Her aged and cranky

father hated the Germans, although he married one, and forbade his daughter learning a word of their language. Her mother, now that the old king no longer stands in the way, will doubtless have her daughter put through a thorough course of German. The high court of Holland has made the strange decision that the little ruler is to be addressed as the “King of Holland,” and all official acts will be done in the name of the king. The queen’s household is composed of two chamberlaiws, of four professors, of an equerry and of two ladies’ maids; this is her immediate entourage, but, of course, she also has a military household whose place, for the present at least, may be considered in the light of a sinecure. She spends her days happily at the old castle of Loo, where she has remained with her mother ever since her father’s death. Het-Lob, as it is called in Dutch, is a very beautiful place, surrounded by green meadows and shaded by century-old trees, which gives the place a very English aspect.

HER MAJESTY OUT FOR AN AIRING.